Estonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010

In October 2009, reports stated that Estonia may be forced to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 due to a 7% cut in the ERR spending budget. CEO of ERR Margus Allikmaa stated that "Personally I think cancelling Eurovision participation is the easiest option" in combat to the 28 million kroon (€1.5 million) cut in spending. However no discussions on how to combat the spending cut were held at that time, and no decision had been made.[1] This statement was later backed by Anneli Tõevere-Kaur, ERR's media relations manager, however a decision was still not made.[2]

On 6 November, it was announced that Estonia's participation in Oslo had been secured with 1.5 million kroon (€95,900) donation by Enterprise Estonia foundation, with the broadcaster providing 300,000 kroons (€19,170) for the national final, Eesti Laul. Enterprise Estonia's decision for funding EER's participation was the idea of showcasing Estonia to an audience of nearly 150 million people, as well as the sense of national pride in the Estonian entry.[3][4]

Songs could be submitted to ERR until 7 January, and an internal jury would select 10 songs to progress to the televised final. The 10 songs were selected in the same format as in the previous year's contest, with the details of each song open to the judging panel. Due to financial problems encountered by ERR, Eesti Laul was simplified from its 2009 form. The winner on the night was selected by a combination of jury and televoting. A record-number of 155 songs were submitted to ERR.[5][6][7][8]

The names of the 10 competing artists were announced on 11 January 2010.[9] However shortly after the announcement it was revealed that one of the songs, "Made Me Cry" by Nikita Bogdanov, had been uploaded onto YouTube before 1 October 2009, breaking the contest rules and disqualifying the song from the contest. He was replaced by Malcolm Lincoln (fronted by Robin Juhkental) and Manpower 4, with the song "Siren".[10][11]

ERR officially released the ten competing songs on their website on 1 February 2010. According to Estonian media, the favourites to win the contest were Iiris Vesik, Marten Kuningas & Mahavok and Lenna Kuurmaa, who had previously represented Switzerland at the 2005 Contest as a member of Estonian girlband Vanilla Ninja. However online portals have pointed out that Violina & Rolf Junior's song as the most Eurovision-ish song in the contest.[12][13]

ERR released the running order for Eesti Laul 2010 on 3 March, with 3 Pead starting the show and Malcolm Lincoln closing. ERR also announced a number of guest performers during the final: folk metal band Metsatöll, and last year's Eesti Laul winner Urban Symphony, who premiered their new single, "Skorpion".[14]

The final was held on 12 March 2010 at the Nokia Concert Hall in Tallinn, hosted by Estonian actors Ott Sepp and Märt Avandi.[15] After the performances of the 10 songs, a professional jury and the televoting public selected two songs to progress to the superfinal, which were Lenna Kuurmaa and Malcolm Lincoln.[16][17][18] Lenna and Malcolm Lincoln performed once again, and televoting selected the winner from the two songs. Malcolm Lincolm edged ahead of Lenna with 54% of the televote, winning Eesti Laul 2010.[17][19] A total of 18,804 televotes were cast in the final and 22,224 televotes were cast in the superfinal.[20][21]