ETV opened the Estonian preselection process by setting the date when the songs for the preselection must reach the organisers of Eurolaul 2003.

The songs must be handed in at the latest at 17:00 on December 9th, 2002 to the organisers. After that the organisers will choose the top 10 songs that will compete in the final, which will probably held in January 2003.

There have been no changes in the rules for Eurolaul 2003. The length of the song can be maximally 3 minutes and it can be performed by up to 6 people. And of course it must be unpublished to the public. The author must be at least 16 years old at the day of the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, that's on May 24th, 2003.