Estonia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song "Kuula" written by Ott Lepland and Aapo Ilves. The song was performed by Ott Lepland. The Estonian broadcaster Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR) organised the national final Eesti Laul 2012 in order to select the Estonian entry for the 2012 contest in Baku, Azerbaijan. The national final consisted of three shows: two semi-finals and a final. Ten songs competed in each semi-final and the top five from each semi-final as determined by a jury panel and public vote qualified to the final. In the final, the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, a jury panel and a public vote selected the top two to qualify to the superfinal. In the superfinal, "Kuula" performed by Ott Lepland was selected as the winner entirely by a public vote.
Estonia was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 24 May 2012. Performing during the show in position 14, "Kuula" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 26 May. It was later revealed that Estonia placed fourth out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 100 points. In the final, Estonia performed in position 11 and placed sixth out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 120 points.
Background
Prior to the 2012 contest, Estonia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest seventeen times since its first entry in , winning the contest on one occasion in 2001 with the song "Everybody" performed by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Estonia has, to this point, managed to qualify to the final on two occasions. In 2011, "Rockefeller Street" performed by Getter Jaani managed to qualify Estonia to the final where the song placed twenty-fourth.
The Estonian national broadcaster, Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR), broadcasts the event within Estonia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. ERR confirmed Estonia's participation at the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest on 2 July 2011. Since their debut, the Estonian broadcaster has organised national finals that feature a competition among multiple artists and songs in order to select Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. The Eesti Laul competition has been organised since 2009 in order to select Estonia's entry and on 26 September 2011, ERR announced the organisation of Eesti Laul 2012 in order to select the nation's 2012 entry.
Before Eurovision
Eesti Laul 2012
Eesti Laul 2012 was the fourth edition of the Estonian national selection Eesti Laul, which selected Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The competition consisted of twenty entries competing in two semi-finals on 18 and 25 February 2012 leading to a ten-song final on 3 March 2012. All three shows were broadcast on Eesti Televisioon (ETV) as well as streamed online at the broadcaster's official website err.ee. The final was also broadcast via radio on Raadio 2 with commentary by Sten Teppan, Erik Morna and Maris Üksti as well as streamed online at the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.
Format
The format of the competition included two semi-finals on 18 and 25 February 2012 and a final on 3 March 2012. Ten songs competed in each semi-final and the top five from each semi-final qualified to complete the ten song lineup in the final. The results of the semi-finals was determined by the 50/50 combination of votes from a professional jury and public televoting. The winning song in the final was selected over two rounds of voting: the first round results selected the top three songs via the 50/50 combination of jury and public voting, while the second round (superfinal) determined the winner solely by public televoting.