15 February 2026

In an epic voting sequence, Vanilla Ninja won Eesti Laul 2026 and will win return to the Eurovision Song Contest 21 years after their first appearance in 2005. Back then, they represented Switzerland and finished eighth with Cool Vibes. In 2026, the band will represent their home country of Estonia and perform Too Epic To Be True. After the international jury seemingly extinguished Vanilla Ninja’s hopes of reaching the super final with a lowly sixth place, the Estonian public had other ideas and launched them into the next voting phase. The all female trio of Lenna Kuurmaa, Piret Järvis-Milder and Kerli Kivilaan suffered a tremendously nervous wait as they were the last entry announced for the super final. From there, Ollie (who performed Slave) was announced as finishing third before Vanilla Ninja beat Noëp (Days Like This) in the final showdown to a huge roar from Lenna and an emotional hug of surprise, relief and joy between Piret and Kerli. Vanilla Ninja beat Noëp by just 3% points with Ollie a fraction behind in third.

This is not the first time the Estonian public needed to perform a rescue mission of their favourite following the antics of the international jury, who clearly have an inclination to pick the more contemporary, slick and, often, derivative entries. It makes you wonder if Eesti Laul organisers only use international juries to make the voting more intense and, by extension, to encourage more public voting and therefore earn more revenue. The preference for using such juries over a local one these days is supposedly because the Estonian music industry is so small that it’s difficult to find enough members without any connections to the participants. Interestingly, we still had the Swedish juror, Linnea Deb, give her 12 points to Stockholm Cowboys. If the name alone didn’t suggest bias, one half of the duo (Victor Crone) is Swedish.

The eight jury members were from Canada, Italy, Estonia, Sweden, USA, Armenia (ESC 2022 alumni, Rosa Linn) and two from the United Kingdom. The section was won by Ollie with 65 points. Two points behind were Stockholm Cowboys ( on 63), then Ant x Minimal Wind (58), Noëp (59), Getter Jaani (42) and Vanilla Ninja (37). Vanilla Ninja won the public vote ahead of Ollie and Noëp, with Getter Jaani fourth. Ollie won the combined total ahead of Vanilla Ninja and Noëp, with Stockholm Cowboys fourth. Currently, it’s not known exactly which of the respective artists were second and third in the public vote and combined vote as the full results typically take a few days to emerge. The voting is reset for the super final, which is solely decided by the public, and then gives us the final, official places.

Top Three

01 Vanilla Ninja – Too Epic To Be True
02 Noëp – Days Like This
03 Ollie – Slave

Places 4 to 12

04 Stockholm Cowboys – Last Man Standing
05 Getter Jaani – The Game
06 Ant x Minimal Wind – Wounds
07 Clicherik & Mäx – Jolly Roger
08 Uliana – Rhythm of Nature
09 Laura Prits – Warrior
10 Grete Paia – The Sky Stood Up
11 Robert Linna – Wild Rose
12 Marta Pikani – Kell kuus

Review & Score

01 Clicherik & Mäx – Jolly Roger (4)

While not my style, this was entertaining enough to prevent me falling asleep at 5am when I tuned into the Eesti Laul stream.

02 Robert Linna – Metsik roos (3)

Mostly forgettable.

03 Grete Paia – Taevas jäi üles (7)

I’m a little disappointed in Grete. She’s one of my favourite Estonian artists, and this simply lacked impact. I appreciated the haunting vocals and some of the presentation. It seemed a little disjointed, which could be a result of not understanding the lyrics or knowing the song’s message. The international jury ranking her last was a farce.

04 Laura Prits – Warrior (6)

This was fun, if a little cliche. Laura got 12 points from the first jury member, Jonathon Roy from Canada, whoever that is.

05 Uliana Olhyna – Rhythm of Nature (7)

Unfortunately, the stream only showed one minute of this entry. From all that I saw, it was impressive, and that was confirmed upon watching the full performance later. Folk style with lovely vocals and an evocative presentation, complete with Uliana wearing a gorgeous dress in Estonia’s colours. The international jury ranking Uliana third last of 12 further highlights the problem with such juries. Three of the four Estonian language songs were in the bottom three with the other one only ranked eighth. What message does that send to your local artists?

06 Ollie – Slave (8)

The inevitable problem of returning artists is they often get compared to their previous entries. While this was a top performance by Ollie, sorry to say that the song wasn’t as good as his previous two efforts, and that’s why the Estonian public only ranked him third. Perhaps he should consider something that appeals to them more. Appealing to the jury might get you their top vote and a likely super final place. The winner of Eesti Laul is decided solely by the public.

07 Marta Pikani – Kell kuus (7)

Solid without excelling in a particular area. One of the jurors really loved it.

08 Noëp – Days Like This (6)

The mystery song for me. While I can sort of see the allure in this, a banal and repetitive chorus really holds it back. The performance was mostly Noëp wandering solo around the stage. Noëp is a renowned Estonian artist (real name Andres Kõpper), and was previously in a band called Tenfold Rabbit. Perhaps there was sentiment for him due to that.

09 Getter Jaani – The Game (8)

The surprise packet for me and my second favourite of the night. Very slick performance of a catchy song, and with excellent vocals. One of the jurors loved her, so it was good to see Getter, who represented Estonia at Eurovision in 2011 with Rocketfeller Street, get some well deserved attention.

10 Ant & Minimal Wind – Wounds (8)

While on the formulaic side and Ant seemed to dominate the vocals, this was contemporary, high quality, and expertly performed. I can understand the jury liking this collaboration so much (third rank). The Estonian public thought otherwise, ranking them ninth.

11 Vanilla Ninja – Too Epic To Be True (9)

This isn’t the classic Vanilla Ninja of softer verses and soaring choruses that ESC fans will remember from 2005 or their enduring fans like myself have loved over the years from their four international albums. Too Epic To Be True was written by the famed Estonian songwriter, Sven Lõhmus, who primarily wrote the band’s domestic and very first album, and provided Vanilla Ninja with something with more pop style, as he is accustomed to writing. After the soft introduction, comes that infectious and energetic melody, which helps the song pulsate so much. The choruses follow in much the same tempo, which makes the song feel a little one paced until the bridge, and the performance a little flat, and that’s despite Lenna really excelling vocally, and Piret and Kerli providing expert support. The presentation was classic Vanilla Ninja before really lifting off at the end. There’s room for improvement come the Eurovision stage in Vienna, Austria!

12 Stockholm Cowboys – Last Man Standing (7)

Excellent presentation made up for a somewhat average song.

Visit the ERR Youtube channel or eestilaul.ee for videos of all performances.

An average score of 6.7 made this an excellent Eesti Laul. That improves on last year’s 5.9 when Tommy Cash won, and compares well with the previous three years of 6.8, 6.7 and 6.6, respectively. Fom my preview, surprise, suprise,Vanilla Ninja were my favourite before and after Eesti Laul. I suspected the super final would involve Vanilla Ninja and Ollie, and that was almost the final showdown.

Vanilla Ninja winning Eesti Laul 2026 is like a complete circle in my life with them, at least when it comes to Eurovision. It was upon hearing Cool Vibes before the contest in Kyiv in 2005 that I became aware of them. I quickly fell in love, and now I see them back at the Eurovision Song Contest, this time for Estonia. Of course, so much has happened in between over all those years, include eight visits to Estonia on six separate trips, which included twice seeing Vanilla Ninja perform (2008 and 2022) and Lenna once (2017), and meeting Lenna in 2008 and 2017, and the band in 2022. For the band and their members individually, they’ve tried to reach Eurovision for Estonia and on numerous occasions, with Lenna four times herself (the last time in 2017), and Piret (as part of Disko 4000) and Kerli once each, and the band itself in 2003 (with Club Kung Fu) and 2007 (Birds Of Peace). This win is a triumph of persistence and dedication, and a reward for their history and legacy.

More than anything, I’m so happy for the girls themselves, and shed tears for Kerli, who was quite emotional, as she now follows the footsteps of her sister, Triinu, who was part of the band in 2005. Their husbands were ecstatic, even if Kerli’s couldn’t show it too much because he was one of the hosts. All have children, who will all see their legendary mothers on the Eurovision stage. Two of Lenna’s four, her daughters, are a little older at about 13 and 11, and apparently quiz their mother about her dark hair in 2005 and whether she will one day return to it. No! So, it will be Vanilla Ninja at Eurovision not just for Estonia, they will be 100% vanilla this time. Of course, the ninja component remains faithful to this day as it did from the start, so don’t underestimate this band to sneak up on you and win your heart in Vienna.

20 February 2026: Results Update

The final public results were revealed and Vanilla Ninja were the public’s favourite throughout the night. They won the first round with 10070 votes compared to Noëp in second on 7792, then Ollie on 6410, Getter Jaani on 6215 and Stockholm Cowboys on 4628.

The combined score was Ollie on 22 points, Noëp 21, Vanilla Ninja 19 and Stockholm Cowboys 19. Vanilla Ninja squeaked into the super final due to more public votes.

The super final was very close with Vanilla Ninja earning 16584 votes (35.37%), Noëp 15161 (32.33%) and Ollie 15148 (32.30%). Why were Vanilla Ninja far more favoured with the public in the first round compared to the super final? The public needed to rescue them after the insane international jury ranked them just sixth.

Read more about my life with Vanilla Ninja:

The Vanilla Ninja Concert at Telliskivi Kvartal – Tallinn – Estonia

Estonia: Eesti Laul 2026 Preview & My Top 12