Alika wins Eesti Laul 2023 with "Bridges"
The 15th edition of Eesti Laul took place last February 11th in Tallinn, winning Alika with “Bridges”, being the next Estonian representative in Eurovision 2023.
12 of 20 competing songs, selected by the public and the Jury, were the main protagonists of the Grand Final celebrated in the Tondiraba Ice Hall in Tallinn. The twelve finalists were from different regions of the country, demonstrating the range of styles of current rhythms in Estonia.
The Grand Final, hosted by Grete Kuld (singer) and Tõnis Niinemets (actor), was a special night where the finalists could show their best performances in front of the jury panel and the public.
This was the line-up of the Grand Final show:
Meelik (Andres Kõpper, Meelik Samel, Martin Petermann and Rain Parve) – “Tuju”
Inger Fridolin “Inger" – “Awaiting You”
Janek Valgepea “Janek” – “House of Glass”
. Elisa Kolk “Elysa” – “Bad Philosophy"
Merili Käsper “M els” – “So Good (At What You Do)”
Bedwetters (Joosep Järvesaar, Mihkel Mõttus, Karl-Kristjan Kingi, Kaspar Koppel “Bassu" and Rauno Kutti) – “Monsters”
Andreas Poom “Andreas” – “Why Do You Love Me”
Alika Milova "Alika” – “Bridges”
Anett Kulbin “Anett” & Frederik Küüts “Fredi” – “You Need To Move On”
Oliver Mazurtšak (Ollie) – “Venom”
Kersti Kukk “Mia” – “Üks samm korraga”
Sissi Nylia Benita “Sissi” – “Lighthouse”
The voting system consisted of two rounds: at first, a jury (50%) and public televote (50%) determined the top three entries and then, the Superfinal with the Top 3 entries selected by the public. In this opportunity were “Bridges”, “Venom”, and “Monsters”, according to the betting houses who predicted it too.
Finally, the winning song was “Bridges” by the Narvian singer Alika Milova who received 85 points from Jury (18 more than the runner-up “Monsters”) and 8,514 votes from the public ( surpassing “Venom” in more than 1600 votes). “Bridges” was written by Alika and the Dutch musician Wouter Hardy (one of the writers of “Arcade” - The Netherlands, 2019).
The Grand Final of Eesti Laul 2023 lasted more than four hours and was watched by more than 180,000 viewers - 16.2% audience share. Stefan, the 2022 winner, performed his new single “Kiri külmkapi peal” (Time Stops) in one of the intervals.