Estonia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with the song "Rockefeller Street" written by Sven Lõhmus. The song was performed by Getter Jaani. The Estonian broadcaster Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR) organised the national final Eesti Laul 2011 in order to select the Estonian entry for the 2011 contest in Düsseldorf, Germany. 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, "Rockefeller Street" performed by Getter Jaani 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 12 May 2011. Performing during the show in position 15, "Rockefeller Street" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 14 May. It was later revealed that Estonia placed ninth out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 60 points. In the final, Estonia performed in position 8 and placed twenty-fourth out of the 25 participating countries, scoring 44 points.
Background
Prior to the 2011 contest, Estonia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest sixteen 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 2010, "Siren" performed by Malcolm Lincoln failed to qualify Estonia to the final where the song placed fourteenth in the semi-final.
The Estonian national broadcaster, Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR), broadcasts the event within Estonia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. 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 19 October 2010, ERR announced the organisation of Eesti Laul 2011 in order to select the nation's 2011 entry.
Before Eurovision
Eesti Laul 2011
Eesti Laul 2011 was the third edition of the Estonian national selection Eesti Laul, which selected Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. The competition consisted of twenty entries competing in two semi-finals on 12 and 19 February 2011 leading to a ten-song final on 26 February 2011. 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 Madis Aesma and Indrek Vaheoja 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 12 and 19 February 2011 and a final on 26 February 2011. 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.