We’re here! The first ten songs of the 2022 Eurovision national final season are now out in the world, and five have already been sent away to the archive of Eurovision history, so to speak. The songs were presented as video clips, so we haven’t seen any of the entries perform live yet. Three of the five qualifiers were sent through via televote, while the other two were chosen by a jury. Below are my brief impressions of the songs (I listened to each one a few times first), followed afterwards by my ranking.

Traffic — “Kaua veel”
Slow burn mid-tempo ballad which ended up being a solid song. The video finishes with a bang when 2020 and 2021 Eesti Laul winner Uku Suviste unexpectedly turns up for a seven-second wordless cameo.

Jaagup Tuisk — “Kui vaid”
Start-stop power ballad. A bit too slow to get off the mark for my liking, and there wasn’t really anything that grabbed my attention once it did.

Kéa — “Everytime”
Piano ballad leaps to become mid-tempo after the first chorus, but too generic to be memorable.

Fiona and me — “Feel Like This”
Really enjoyed the lo-fi indie vibes on this track; could have done without the clumsy use autotune. Lyrically awkward at times.

Peter Põder — “Koos lõpuni”
Earnest ballad that has some interesting sounds and a decent hook, but I struggled to remember much about it once I’d moved on to another song.

Stig — “Interstellar”
I had fairly high expectations of this song given Stig’s previous Eurovision adventures, and he didn’t disappoint. Not a particularly original sound, but it works well.

Maian — “Meeletu”
The biggest surprise for me: minimalist drum and synth with background vocals that reminded me of Grimes. Adding a few lines of Spanish in there was a nice touch.

Little Mess — “Hea päev”
This feels like a throwback to 1990s girl-groups with their R&B-inflected pop; they execute this well, but it’s not a genre that ever appealed to me.

Boamadu — “Mitte kauaks”
Fairly standard hard rock track which is competent and fun, but nothing to get excited about.

Evelin Samuel — “Waterfall”
Heavily influenced by new age artists like Enya, which I found a bit much at first, but it is quite the ear worm after a few listens. The lyrics left a fair amount to be desired at times.

My ranking (actual qualifiers in bold):

1) Stig — “Interstellar”
2) Maian — “Meeletu”
3) Fiona and me — “Feel Like This”
4) Traffic — “Kaua veel”
5) Boamadu — “Mitte kauaks”
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6) Evelin Samuel — “Waterfall”
7) Kéa — “Everytime”
8) Peter Põder — “Koos lõpuni”
9) Little Mess — “Hea päev”
10) Jaagup Tuisk — “Kui vaid”