Nyendra is Thukten Nyendra, a 24-year-old Bhutanese singer-songwriter and producer from Chhukha, best known at home for his 2024 hit “Oh No!”, and he represents Bhutan at Eurovision Song Contest Asia 2026 with “Lhayi Semo” (“The Angel”), fifth in the running order on Saturday 14 November. He was the first artist confirmed for the whole contest, winning the Bhutan Broadcasting Service’s Rhythm of Bhutan on 11 August. On 8 November he was one of the first four acts to rehearse on the One Bangkok Forum stage, alone and in the gho, on what the organisers say is his first trip outside Bhutan. On Polymarket he is 0.1% to win, but third in the jury market at 7.8%.
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Photo: Nyendra performing at Rhythm of Bhutan. Official image, Eurovision Song Contest Asia (eurovisionasia.com).
Key takeaways
- Who he is: Thukten Nyendra, 24, a self-producing singer-songwriter from Chhukha who moved to Thimphu at 19 and graduated from Royal Thimphu College in mass communication and journalism.
- The song: “Lhayi Semo” means “The Angel”. It is sung in Dzongkha, written by Nyendra with Lungten Wangchuk, and is being reworked for Bangkok with new traditional flute parts.
- First of all eleven: he won Rhythm of Bhutan on 11 August with 52 points, including the top jury score of 24, and became the first act confirmed for Eurovision Song Contest Asia.
- Bangkok so far: second to rehearse on 8 November, solo, in the gho, in front of a Himalayan mountainscape. He sings fifth of eleven, after Mongolia and before the Philippines.
- The odds: 0.1% to win and 7.5% for the top three on Polymarket at 03:14 UTC on 9 November. The outlier is the jury market, where Bhutan is third at 7.8% on a wide quote with about $80 traded.
- Our reading: a jury-friendly outsider. Viewers in Bhutan cannot vote for him in the final, and his public-vote price is 0.1%.
What’s on this page
Who is Nyendra? · Biography and career · “Lhayi Semo” · How he won Rhythm of Bhutan · Rehearsals in Bangkok · Nyendra’s odds · Can he win? · Watch and vote · Search numbers · FAQ
Who is Nyendra?
Nyendra is the stage name of Thukten Nyendra, a Bhutanese singer-songwriter and producer. The official Eurovision Song Contest Asia artist page describes him as 24, working across pop, folk-pop, acoustic and R&B, writing and producing his own songs independently and performing in both English and Dzongkha, Bhutan’s national language. BBS, the national broadcaster, says he is from Chhukha. Wikipedia gives his birthplace as Mebisa in Chukha District. No date of birth has been published.
| Fact | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Real name | Thukten Nyendra | Organisers, BBS |
| Stage name | Nyendra | Organisers |
| Age | 24 (no date of birth published) | Organisers, BBS |
| From | Chhukha, Bhutan; moved to Thimphu at 19 | BBS |
| Education | Royal Thimphu College, mass communication and journalism | Organisers |
| Genres | Pop, folk-pop, acoustic, R&B | Organisers |
| Languages | Dzongkha and English | Organisers |
| Breakthrough | “Oh No!” (2024), a local viral hit | Eurovoix |
| Broadcaster | Bhutan Broadcasting Service (BBS) | Organisers |
| Eurovision Asia song | “Lhayi Semo” (“The Angel”) | Organisers |
| Grand Final slot | 5 of 11, Saturday 14 November | Organisers |
Our Bhutan country page covers the broadcaster, the selection history and the wider Bhutanese music scene.
Nyendra’s biography and career
The fullest account of his life so far is a BBS feature from 18 August, “From self-doubt to spotlight: Thukten Nyendra’s journey to Eurovision Asia”. His mother, Nidup Tshomo, told BBS that “when he was around four years old, he used to play the guitar and sing.” Nyendra dates the serious start later: “I started singing at 17, but then I never thought I would take music seriously.” At 19 he moved alone to Thimphu, the capital, where “studying was just like an escape so that I could do music.”
His family wanted a safer path. While he was at Royal Thimphu College, his mother told BBS, she warned him about the limited opportunities in music in Bhutan: “I advised him that it would be better to find a job, and he seemed upset about it.” Nyendra told the same reporters that his hardest opponent has been himself: “I self-doubt myself a lot. I’m very, very insecure about myself.” Writing songs became his way to say what he could not say out loud. “That’s when I started writing things down,” he said.
The releases. Apple Music lists his debut single, “A No Love Like This”, on 2 November 2022, followed by “December” and “You and Me” in 2023. “Oh No!” came out on 18 March 2024. Eurovoix calls it his first big break, “a local viral hit with social media users in Bhutan” with more than 100,000 streams. “TELL ME!” followed in August 2024; the organisers cite both songs for their streaming numbers.
The album. After graduating in 2025 he wrote and produced a nine-track album, Let Me Tell You a Story, released on 10 September 2025. He told BBS that almost every song on it is personal, the title track and “Take Me Back” most of all. A single, “Zamling”, followed on 27 December 2025.
The first attempt. Nyendra had already been one show away from a Eurovision Asia ticket a year earlier. In August 2025 BBS ran Druk Dra, a selection for an Asian contest that the EBU had not yet announced. According to Eurovoix, in the semi-final on 26 August 2025 “Thukten Nyendra” scored 258 jury points, one behind Sangay Lhaden’s 259, with 17.38% of the online vote, and went through to the final. That final was then cancelled, with the EBU saying at the time that no plans had been confirmed for a contest in Asia.
He has said he has more music ready. “I have new song compositions which I will be releasing after the Eurovision contest, and for now I am focusing on Lhayi Semo,” he told BBS on 25 October.
“Lhayi Semo”: the song
“Lhayi Semo”, written in Dzongkha script as ལྷ་ཡི་སྲས་མོ།, means “The Angel”, the English title the organisers and BBS both use. It is sung in Dzongkha. The organisers credit it to Nyendra himself and Lungten Wangchuk. It was released on 7 August 2026 with the other four Rhythm of Bhutan songs. Apple Music lists the single under DAO Entertainment.
The organisers’ artist page carries the full Dzongkha lyric, but no English summary of it has been published, so we do not paraphrase it. BBS said on 25 October that the song “has already received strong interest and support from Bhutanese audiences”.
The Bangkok version. Eurovoix reported on 15 October that Nyendra and his songwriter-producer, Lungten Wangchuk Karma, had told BBS the song would be reworked to include more traditional Bhutanese elements. Traditional instrumentation is the focus, and a traditional flautist was invited into the studio to record new flute parts. It was the opposite of Vietnam’s plan the same day, as we reported in our round-up of the October revamps: Bhutan is leaning into the sound that sets it apart.
The official upload of his winning Rhythm of Bhutan performance on the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel had about 354,000 views when we checked on 9 November. The organisers also paired him with a Eurovision name. On 28 October they posted Delta Goodrem, who finished fourth for Australia in Vienna in May with “Eclipse”, singing “Lhayi Semo”. In return Nyendra sang “Eclipse” at Tiger’s Nest Monastery, high in the upper Paro Valley. By the morning of 9 November the post had about 166,000 plays and 5,500 likes:
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How Nyendra won the ticket to Bangkok
BBS announced five acts for Rhythm of Bhutan on 28 July: The Sangay Lhaden Band, Baeyul 301, Karma Drupchu, Thukten Nyendra and Pelden Wangchuk. Eurovoix noted that all five had competed in Druk Dra the year before. The final ran on Tuesday 11 August from the BBS studios in Thimphu, presented by Phub Tshering in Dzongkha and Kelzang Dolkar in English, and was streamed worldwide on the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel. The jury was Choeying Jatsho, Pema Samdrup, Sonam Dorji and Ugyen.
The night before, Nyendra told BBS: “If I ever get the chance to represent Bhutan on the world stage, then it would mean the world to me.” As the organisers announced, the result combined three pools: the jury (40%), viewers in Bhutan (40%) and a Rest of World vote from everywhere else (20%). The official results feed, published on the night, gave this result:
| Place | Act | Song | Jury | Bhutan public | Rest of World | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nyendra | “Lhayi Semo” (The Angel) | 24 | 20 | 8 | 52 |
| 2 | The Sangay Lhaden Band | “Pemi Tshewang Tashi” (The Legend) | 20 | 16 | 5 | 41 |
| 3 | Baeyul 301 | “Drenpa” (The Memories) | 2 | 24 | 10 | 36 |
| 4 | Karma Drupchu | “Pha Yuel” (The Homeland) | 10 | 10 | 12 | 32 |
| 5 | Pelden Wangchuk | “Jo’druel” (The Journey) | 16 | 2 | 1 | 19 |
The breakdown matters more than the headline. Nyendra topped the jury vote outright, was second with Bhutanese viewers behind Baeyul 301 (24 points to his 20), and third in the Rest of World vote behind Karma Drupchu and Baeyul 301. Baeyul 301 had the most public points, 34 to his 28, but only 2 from the jury. In our reading this was a jury-led win, and juries have rated him before: in the Druk Dra semi-final he was one jury point off the top.
“I feel great. I feel really happy. I’m at a loss for words,” he told BBS after the result. The win came with a prize of 200,000 ngultrum and, BBS said, two months of training and mentorship before Bangkok. His mother told BBS: “It is a proud moment for me that he will be representing Bhutan.” Our report from the night has more on the show.
Nyendra at the One Bangkok Forum
He kept his plans quiet in the run-up. “These days, I sing every day. I am learning from other senior artists,” he told BBS on 25 October, and Eurovoix noted on 7 November that he had kept the details of his performance under wraps.
The first look came on Sunday 8 November. Bhutan was the second of four countries to rehearse on day one, after Laos and before Bangladesh and Cambodia. According to Eurovoix’s rehearsal report, Nyendra wears the gho, the traditional national dress for men in Bhutan, in front of a mountainscape that reflects Bhutan’s place in the Himalayas. As at Rhythm of Bhutan, he performs alone. The organisers’ short clip, captioned “From Bhutan to Bangkok”, had about 136,000 plays and 2,600 likes by the morning of 9 November.
The organisers also said that his first day in Bangkok was his first day outside Bhutan, ever. Their full interview with him about that first day in Bangkok is on the ZOOP app. What the reports describe so far is the look, not how the vocal landed, and we will not guess at that. Our day-one rehearsal report compares his staging with the other three acts from 8 November. In a follow-up clip he drops some hints about Saturday’s performance. It had about 44,000 plays by the morning of 9 November:
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Nyendra Eurovision Asia odds
No fixed-odds bookmaker prices Eurovision Asia, and prediction-market prices are not bookmaker odds. Polymarket runs six markets on the contest, from the outright winner to third place. The prices below are mids, halfway between the best bid and the best offer, read from Polymarket at 03:14 UTC on 9 November.
| Book | Bhutan mid | Bid / offer | Last trade | Traded on Bhutan | Rank of 11 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 0.1% | 0.1c / 0.2c | 0.1c | $1,140 | 9th (joint last) |
| Jury winner | 7.8% | 2.9c / 12.7c | none | $80 | 3rd |
| Public-vote winner | 0.1% | 0.1c / 0.2c | 0.2c | $445 | 7th (joint last) |
| Top 3 | 7.5% | 5c / 10c | 10c | $265 | 9th |
| Second place | 8.8% | 2c / 15.7c | 5c | $165 | 7th |
| Third place | 7.4% | 0.9c / 13.8c | none | $68 | 8th |
Two of these prices are firm. The winner quote is a tenth of a cent wide and holds about $1,140 of the roughly $2,160 traded on Bhutan: the market all but rules out a win. The Top 3 market, at 5c to 10c, puts a podium at about one in 13.
The other four are wide quotes with little behind them. The second-place and third-place mids sit on spreads of about 13 to 14 cents, and with the winner price they add up to 16.3%, more than twice the Top 3 price. The tighter book is the better guide; we read the placing quotes as untested, not as a hidden podium case.
In the Top 3 book Bhutan is ninth of eleven, behind Cambodia (13%) and Mongolia (11%) and just ahead of Bangladesh (6.1%) and Nepal (6%). Kalshi, the US exchange, tells a stale story. Its Bhutan contract shows a last trade of 15c, but there is no bid at all and the best offer is 43c, with 76 contracts traded in total, read at 01:48 UTC on 9 November. The same 15c mark showed, with no bid, on 16 October. It is an old print, not a live price.
Can Nyendra win? The jury case and the public problem
The Grand Final result is 50% professional juries and 50% public vote, combined country by country under section 8.2 of the voting terms. Viewers outside the eleven countries add a Rest of World public vote with no jury half. On the split markets Bhutan’s two halves could hardly be further apart: 7.8% in the jury market, third behind Malaysia (60.5%) and the Philippines (14.5%), and 0.1% in the public-vote market, where Malaysia is 38% and the Philippines 34%.
The jury case. Everything on Nyendra’s record points the same way. He won the Rhythm of Bhutan jury outright, he was one point off the top jury score in the 2025 semi-final, and his Bangkok staging is one singer, in national dress, on a song being reworked with traditional instrumentation as its focus. In our reading that is the kind of entry that can collect points from a jury.
The caution. The 7.8% is a quote more than a market: a 2.9c bid, a 12.7c offer, about $80 traded and no last trade on record. A single order could move it.
The public problem. Section 3.3 of the voting terms bars residents from voting for their own territory’s entry in the Grand Final, so no viewer in Bhutan can vote for Nyendra on Saturday. At Rhythm of Bhutan, 20 of his 28 public points came from Bhutanese viewers. In Bangkok every public point has to come from the other ten countries and the Rest of World.
Our reading. We would not argue with 0.1% to win: a strong jury score cannot carry an act that the public half barely touches. Our predictions for all eleven acts have Bhutan tenth, with a better jury score than public one. The thing to watch on Saturday is whether the juries place him near the top.
Where to watch and how to vote for Nyendra
The Grand Final is on Saturday 14 November at 20:30 in Bangkok (14:30 CET, 13:30 UTC), at the One Bangkok Forum, hosted by Woody Milintachinda and Cindy Bishop, with DARA and Jeff Satur as guest performers. In Bhutan it is on BBS from 19:30 local time. Everywhere else it streams free on the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel. A Preview Show runs on Friday 13 November at 20:30 in Bangkok. Nyendra sings fifth, after Mongolia’s Beck with “Chamguigeer (Without You)” and before the Philippines’ CARMELLE with “Sobra-Sobra”.
Voting is on the web only, at eurovisionasia.com/vote, for over-18s signed in with Google, Apple or Privy. Each voter has eight free votes and can buy up to ten more, to a maximum of 18 and no more than 16 on one entry. Votes must go to at least three countries’ entries, and viewers in Bhutan cannot vote for Bhutan. Every broadcaster and local start time is in our guide to watching the Grand Final.
What people search for: Nyendra by the numbers
Google search data from DataForSEO, checked on 9 November, puts searches for “nyendra” at about 30 a month in both the United States and the United Kingdom, peaking at 260 in a single month in each. Searches combining Bhutan and Eurovision Asia are smaller still: about 20 a month for “bhutan eurovision asia” in the US and 10 for “eurovision asia bhutan” in the UK. For scale, “eurovision asia” draws about 5,400 searches a month in the UK and 2,400 in the Philippines.
The related searches have short answers. “Thukten Nyendra” is his real name, used in both Bhutanese selections. “Lhayi Semo” means “The Angel”. “Oh No!” is his 2024 breakthrough single. For every act in the contest, see the Eurovision Asia hub.
FAQ
Who is Nyendra?
Nyendra is Thukten Nyendra, a 24-year-old Bhutanese singer-songwriter and producer. He won Rhythm of Bhutan on 11 August 2026 and represents Bhutan at Eurovision Song Contest Asia 2026 with “Lhayi Semo”.
How old is Nyendra, and where is he from?
He is 24, according to the organisers and BBS; no date of birth has been published. BBS says he is from Chhukha, and he moved to Thimphu, the capital, at 19.
What does “Lhayi Semo” mean?
“Lhayi Semo” means “The Angel”. It is sung in Dzongkha, Bhutan’s national language. For Bangkok it is being reworked with new traditional flute parts.
Who wrote “Lhayi Semo”?
Nyendra wrote it with Lungten Wangchuk, according to the organisers. It was released on 7 August 2026, four days before Rhythm of Bhutan.
When does Nyendra perform at Eurovision Asia?
He sings fifth of eleven in the Grand Final on Saturday 14 November 2026, which starts at 20:30 in Bangkok (14:30 CET, 13:30 UTC) and at 19:30 in Bhutan on BBS. It streams free on the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel.
Can Nyendra win Eurovision Asia 2026?
The market says almost certainly not: Polymarket had Bhutan at 0.1% to win and 7.5% for the top three at 03:14 UTC on 9 November. His best price is 7.8% in the jury market, on a barely traded quote.
Can people in Bhutan vote for Nyendra?
No. Section 3.3 of the voting terms bars residents from voting for their own country’s entry in the Grand Final. Viewers everywhere else can.
What is Nyendra’s song “Oh No!”?
“Oh No!” is a single he released on 18 March 2024. Eurovoix describes it as his first big break, a local viral hit with social media users in Bhutan, with more than 100,000 streams.
Sources
- Polymarket, six Eurovision Asia books, 03:14 UTC on 9 November 2026 (mids). Kalshi KXEUROVISIONASIA-26-BTN, 01:48 UTC on 9 November 2026; the 16 October mark is from this site’s report that day.
- Eurovision Song Contest Asia: artist page (linked above), first-entry announcement (11 August 2026), Rhythm of Bhutan guide (7 August) and official results feed (11 August), how-to-watch page, and voting terms sections 3.1, 3.3, 4, 6, 6.1 and 8.2 (28 August 2026).
- Bhutan Broadcasting Service reports of 10 August, 12 August, 18 August (“From self-doubt to spotlight”, linked above) and 25 October 2026.
- Eurovoix: Druk Dra semi-final (26 August 2025); Rhythm of Bhutan line-up, songs and result (28 July, 6 and 11 August 2026); revamp (15 October); “Who is Nyendra?” (31 October); preview (7 November); first rehearsal (8 November, linked above).
- Release dates: Apple Music. Birthplace: Wikipedia. Instagram and YouTube figures: official Eurovision Song Contest accounts, checked on the morning of 9 November 2026. Delta Goodrem’s Vienna result: this site’s Eurovision 2026 results data.
- Search demand: Google search data from DataForSEO, monthly averages, checked 9 November 2026.
18+. Prediction-market prices are not bookmaker odds, and thin books can move without trades. Check the live board before acting on anything here.