Estonia’s entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was Sandra Oxenryd with the song “Through My Window”, which contained up-tempo country-soul music. The song is written by Pearu Paulus, Ilmar Laisaar, Alar Kotkas and Jana Hallas, the same authors who wrote the Estonian entries for 2000 and 2002, which came 4th and 3rd, respectively. Sandra Oxenryd is from Kristinehamn, Sweden and was the winner of the Swedish Fame Factory. She had great success with her album, "All There Is." Sandra is not the first Swede to represent Estonia, as Anna Sahlene represented Estonia in 2002 with ”Runaway.”
Eurolaul 2006 was the thirteenth edition of the Estonian national selection Eurolaul, which selected Estonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. The competition consisted of ten entries competing in a final on 4 February 2006.
Competing entries
On 16 October 2005, ETV opened the submission period for artists and composers to submit their entries up until 5 December 2005. 76 submissions were received by the deadline. A 10-member jury panel selected 6 finalists from the submissions. The selection jury consisted of Jaak Joala, Priit Hõbemägi, Jaan Elgula, Olavi Pihlamägi, Maarja-Liis Ilus, Maido Maadik, Jaan Karp, Heidy Purga, Olav Osolin and Jaagup Kreem. In addition to the public submissions, ETV directly invited 4 composers to submit entries. The composers both created the song and selected the performer for their entry. The 10 songs were announced on 13 January 2006.
Final
The final took place on 4 February 2006 at the ETV studios in Tallinn, hosted by Marko Reikop and Gerli Padar. "Through My Window" performed by Sandra Oxenryd was selected as the winner by a ten-member international jury panel.
At Eurovision
For the delight of the Estonian audience, however, Sandra Oxenryd had two well-known Estonian backing singers on stage with her in Athens, Dagmar Oja and Jelena Juzvik. The rest were from Sweden, like Sandra herself. Because Estonia failed to qualify in 2005 Sandra was forced to compete in the semi-final, performed 21st, following Sweden and preceding Bosnia and Herzegovina. Despite receiving good receptions in dress rehearsal, she came 18th with 28 points, failing to qualify to the Grand Final. Therefore, Estonia will have to compete in the semi-final again in ESC 2007.
