made their fourth '''
Eurovision Song Contest ''' appearance in
1997 , making the final for the third time due to
Maarja-Liis Ilus and
Ivo Linna 's 5th place the year before. The preselection for the
Eurovision Song Contest 1997 final would follow the same format of previous years, with a judging panel selecting the song and artist that would represent Estonia in the final. The judges would eventually choose Maarja-Liis Ilus again, making her the first (and thus far only) Estonian entrant to of made back-to-back appearances in the Eurovision Song Contest. In the final, Ilus finished 8th.
The 1996 preselection event took place at the
Linnahall in
Tallinn , Estonia, and was hosted by
Marko Reikop and
Anu Välba . Eight different songs were entered, with
Pearu Paulus ,
Hanna-Liina Vosa and Maarja-Liis Ilus performing on more than one entry. A panel of international judges voted on each song, with Ilus' "Keelatud maa" winning by a large margin of 32 points. Despite this large margin, a public telephone poll had voted the night before that "Aeg" by Ilus, Vosa and
Anne Varvimann was the nation's favourite. Despite this, "Keelatud maa" became the Estonian entrant for the 1997 contest.
Maarja-Liis Ilus was able to enter the final automatically in 1997, due to the performance of herself and Ivo Linna in the
1996 Final . Ilus performed strongly again, and finished 8th, with a final total of 82 points. This allowed Estonia and
Koit Toome to enter automatically the following year (Tomme had, incidentally, participated in the 1997 prequalifying as one half of
Code One ).
