Its first appearance would have taken place in 1993 but a qualification round was installed for seven former Eastern Bloc countries hoping to make their debut in the contest, with Estonia failing to qualify.

Estonia went on to finish in the top eight in six out of seven contests (1996–2002), with "Kaelakee hääl" by Maarja-Liis Ilus and Ivo Linna fifth (1996), Maarja-Liis Ilus returning to finish eighth with "Keelatud maa" (1997), "Diamond of Night" by Evelin Samuel and Camille sixth (1999), and "Once in a Lifetime" by Ines fourth (2000), before "Everybody" by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton, and 2XL gave Estonia its first victory in 2001.

Since the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004, Estonia has failed to reach the final on ten occasions and has reached the top ten five times, with "Rändajad" by Urban Symphony sixth (2009), "Kuula" by Ott Lepland sixth (2012), "Goodbye to Yesterday" by Elina Born and Stig Rästa seventh (2015), "La forza" by Elina Nechayeva eighth (2018), and "Bridges" by Alika eighth (2023).

Eesti Televisioon (ETV) was a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1 January 1993, thus eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest since then.

Maarja-Liis Ilus and Ivo Linna's fifth-place in 1996 was the first top five ranking for any country, formerly annexed by Soviet Union and therefore unable to participate.

From 2004 to 2008 Estonia failed to qualify to the finals, mostly receiving poor results – during that period its best entry was 11th place in the 2004 semi-final by Neiokõsõ with "Tii", sung in the Võro language.

[1][2] After a new national final, Eesti Laul, was introduced to select the Estonian entry, the winner was Urban Symphony with "Rändajad", which had beaten the televoting favourite, Laura, by the votes of a jury.