Like previous years, ESC COVERS will again share a blog post from Morten Thomassen of OGAE NORWAY with his views on the positions reached by all 35 2026 entries. ESC Covers google translated it from Norwegian to English.

Something that always excites the fans is when a former contestant returns to our beloved competition and now for their real homeland. The last time Vanilla Ninja participated, they were basically guest workers for Switzerland and took home an honorable 8th place with the song “Cool Vibes” and we were ready for more cool vibes from this girl group.

“To Epic To Be True” was the song’s name, but unfortunately the song wasn’t exactly that, so even though it came in 11th place in its semi-final, it was 13 points short of taking the final spot from the surprise Belgium and, as is almost usual, I was about to say, it was the jury that defeated the trio from Estonia, so I’m not sure they were as happy about juries being reintroduced in the semi-finals, because if only the people had decided, the final spot would have been secured.

As a group, Vanilla Ninja had great success in Central Europe in the mid-2000s, however, there have been a lot of changes in group members, although it seems as if 2 of those who were in 2005 were also in 2026.

They chose to perform the actual performance on stage in Vienna as a band, and thus there was simply too little happening on stage for enough people to vote for them. They don’t feel like they’re missing out on the stage, they just haven’t been paying attention since they last participated 21 years ago.

In other words, they make few mistakes on stage, but the song itself is pretty boring and repetitive, and it doesn’t help that the ladies are charming enough to hold their own and look like they can handle the instruments they play. Far too many people fail when it comes to tuning and you have to remember which song made the most impression.

Our Estonian friends have tried countless genres in ESC and it wouldn’t surprise me if they come up with something completely different next year, such unpredictability is wonderful.

Featured image – ESC Covers