Thinla is a Lao singer-songwriter from Khong District in southern Laos, known for mixing traditional Morlum with pop, R&B and dance, who represents Laos at Eurovision Song Contest Asia 2026 with “BAE” in slot 3 of the Grand Final in Bangkok on 14 November. Her real name is Thinlamphone Mahavong, and streaming services still list her as Thinlamphone. She is the first artist ever to represent Laos at the contest. The broadcaster VTE9 chose her internally; a public and jury vote picked “BAE” from three of her songs on 24 September. On Polymarket, at 03:14 UTC on 9 November, she was 5.9% to win and 27.5% to finish in the top three.
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Photo: Thinla with the Sieng Lao: The One trophy. Official image, Eurovision Song Contest Asia (eurovisionasia.com).
Key takeaways
- Thinla is Thinlamphone Mahavong, from Khong District in southern Laos. She grew up in Vientiane and debuted in 2015 as Dork Ya Thinlamphone.
- She sings “BAE”, written by DonutDropIt, Johan Gustafsson, Rebbi James, Sam Intharaphithak and Thinla herself. It beat “Star” and “Water” on Sieng Lao: The One on 24 September.
- Slot 3 of 11 in the Grand Final on Saturday 14 November at 20:30 ICT (14:30 CET, 13:30 UTC): VTE9 in Laos, free on YouTube elsewhere.
- First on stage in Bangkok. Her 8 November rehearsal had at least four dancers and a bench-like prop.
- Polymarket: 5.9% to win, 27.5% for the top three, fifth in both books, and level with the juries (6.8%) and the public (7.3%). Kalshi shows a 6c bid and a 7c offer.
- Search interest is new. “thinla” drew 320 US Google searches in the latest month, against an average of 30.
What’s on this page
Who is Thinla? · Biography and career · The song · How she won the ticket · Rehearsal in Bangkok · Her odds · Can she win? · Watch and vote · By the numbers · FAQ
Who is Thinla?
Thinla is the stage name of Thinlamphone Mahavong (Lao: ທິນລຳພອນ ມະຫາວົງ). The organisers call her a “local legend of the music scene” in Laos and say she was formerly known as Thinlamphone. Her sound sets Morlum, the traditional Lao folk form, against pop, R&B and dance production. The organisers also say a recent US tour drove “a huge rise in streams and views from North American audiences”.
| Thinla at a glance | Details |
|---|---|
| Stage name | Thinla |
| Real name | Thinlamphone Mahavong (ທິນລຳພອນ ມະຫາວົງ) |
| Earlier stage names | Dork Ya Thinlamphone (from 2015), then Thinlamphone |
| Born | Khong District, Champasak province, southern Laos, near the border with Thailand |
| Grew up | Vientiane, from 2006; trained at the National School of Arts |
| Age | Not officially published; a Lao magazine gave 23 in October 2020 |
| Genre | Morlum mixed with pop, R&B and dance |
| Label | SG Music (her 2026 EuroVibes single is credited to SG Music Co. Ltd.) |
| Broadcaster | VTE9, Vientiane Capital Television |
| Song | “BAE” |
| Grand Final slot | 3 of 11, Saturday 14 November 2026 |
Two dates confuse short biographies of Thinla. The organisers say she “has been releasing music since 2021”, with more than 20 digital releases; Eurovoix and her AXEAN Festival profile date her career to 2015. Our reading: 2015 is her debut under her first stage name, and the official count covers her digital releases.
Her date of birth is not in the official biography, the Eurovoix profile or Wikipedia. A profile by the Lao entertainment site Kuanjai Magazine, published on 8 October 2020, gave her age then as 23 and said she was studying in China. That would make her 29 or 30 now. Treat that as an estimate, not a published birth date.
Thinla’s biography and career
Thinla was born in Khong District, in Champasak province in southern Laos, near the border with Thailand. In 2006 her family moved to the capital, Vientiane. Her AXEAN Festival profile says they went in search of new opportunities and education, and that at 13 she was “not the strongest vocalist” but kept practising. She studied singing, traditional Lao khap-lam performance and dance at the National School of Arts in Vientiane.
She began her career in 2015 under the stage name Dork Ya Thinlamphone. Her debut song, “Nong Tai Si Hai Num Bor”, received almost 15 million views on YouTube, according to Eurovoix, and she toured Laos and Thailand in 2016 and 2017. Wikipedia names her first label as Nakhar Media.
Contest wins followed. In November 2018 she took the top prize for Laos at the Chinese Singing Contest, held at the National Culture Hall in Vientiane; the Lao News Agency (KPL) reported a 13-million-kip cash prize and a trophy. In January 2020 she placed second at the Hạ Long International Music Festival (HALOMUS) in Vietnam. Her AXEAN profile also lists a first place at a singing competition in China in 2019.
Her partnership with the Lao musician Zamio P began with “Na Na Na” in 2019 and continued with “All Day All Night” in 2022. That year the pair played the AXEAN Music Showcase Festival in Singapore. She has since performed at Sabaidee Fest in California, at the 2023 and 2024 ASEAN Summits and at the Round Festival in Busan, South Korea.
The organisers single out her appearances at the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summits and the 45th ASEAN AIPA ceremonies. ASEAN Digest reported that on 10 October 2024 she sang at the welcome dinner for the ASEAN Summit hosted by the President of the National Assembly of Laos. The organisers add that she aims to “redefine the global perception of Lao music” and to open the way for other Lao artists.
“BAE”: the song Thinla sings for Laos
“BAE” (also written “Bae”) was written and composed by DonutDropIt, Johan Gustafsson, Rebbi James, Sam Intharaphithak and Thinla herself, according to Eurovoix. Wikipedia gives the same five names, with Thinla under her real name. It came out on 17 September 2026 as the first track of EuroVibes, a three-track single carrying all three of her candidate songs: “Bae” (3:00), “Star” (2:46) and “Water” (2:26), credited to SG Music Co. Ltd.
What is it about? The title is English slang for a sweetheart, and the organisers lean on that: their posts ask “Can she call you bae?”. Fan transcriptions show the song opening in English, on a line about feeling more alive in someone’s presence, and Wikipedia lists its languages as English and Lao. We have not found an interview in which Thinla explains the lyrics, so we will not give it a meaning she has not.
The September recording may not be what Bangkok hears. On 15 October Thinla said during a TikTok livestream that the released version of “BAE” was only a demo and that a revamp was in the works, Eurovoix reported. No release date was given. The official Eurovision Song Contest Asia album reached streaming services on 8 November; we have not confirmed which version of “BAE” it carries. Our report on the October revamps covers Laos alongside Vietnam and Bhutan.
The song has already had one star cover. On 29 October the official Eurovision Asia Instagram account posted a swap: Australia’s Delta Goodrem singing “BAE”, and Thinla singing Delta’s Vienna 2026 entry, “Eclipse”, which finished fourth in May and joint second with the juries. With about 6,800 likes when we checked on 9 November, it is the most-liked Thinla post on the organisers’ account that we reviewed.
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How Thinla won the ticket to Bangkok
Laos never held an artist contest. VTE9 selected Thinla internally, and on 13 September the organisers announced that she would become “the first artist to represent Laos at the Contest”. What the public decided was the song.
Sieng Lao: The One ran over two nights. On Wednesday 23 September at 20:30 ICT Thinla performed all three candidate songs. Tot Lina hosted in English and Lanny in Lao, and Ola Blackeyes, Sack Cells and Baby Max were the judges commenting on each song. Unlike earlier national selections, voting stayed open for 24 hours, and the results show on Thursday 24 September named “BAE” the winner.
| Order on the night | Song | Length (EuroVibes) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | “Star” | 2:46 | Not placed publicly |
| 2 | “BAE” | 3:00 | Winner |
| 3 | “Water” | 2:26 | Not placed publicly |
Order from Wikipedia, lengths from Apple Music. The official voting terms weighted the result 40% Lao public vote, 40% jury and 20% rest of the world. Voters had to spread their votes across at least three songs, so every counted ballot backed all three, as our report on her selection explained. No totals, percentages or placings for “Star” and “Water” were published.
Fan reaction was warm but doubtful: when this site read the comments on 29 September, several fans said “Water” would have served her better. Our report on the result sets out the full voting rules.
Thinla at the One Bangkok Forum
Thinla was the first of the eleven acts to rehearse on the Eurovision Song Contest Asia stage, on Sunday 8 November, ahead of Bhutan, Bangladesh and Cambodia. The day before, Eurovoix had noted that she shared images of her team as she travelled from Laos, a sign that she would not be alone on stage.
From the preview images the organisers released, Eurovoix reported that she brings “a whole new look” to the stage compared with the national selection, with at least four dancers and a bench-like prop. That fits her October remark that the released audio was a demo, though nobody outside the delegation has said which version she will sing. The organisers’ preview clip had about 6,400 likes on the morning of 9 November, the most of the four day-one clips. Our day-one rehearsal report compares her staging with Bhutan’s, Bangladesh’s and Cambodia’s.
The organisers interviewed her straight after the run-through; the full interview is on the ZOOP app and has not been reported in writing, so we do not summarise it. No second-rehearsal report existed when we wrote this on 9 November.
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Thinla Eurovision Asia odds
No fixed-odds bookmaker prices Eurovision Asia, and prediction-market prices are not bookmaker odds. These were Thinla’s Polymarket prices at 03:14 UTC on 9 November; the mid is halfway between best bid and best offer.
| Book | Mid | Bid / offer | Last trade | Traded on Laos | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winner | 5.9% | 5.0c / 6.7c | 6.6c | $1,615 | 5th of 11 |
| Jury winner | 6.8% | 0.6c / 12.9c | none | $5 | 5th |
| Public-vote winner | 7.3% | 2.8c / 11.7c | 6c | $397 | 4th |
| Top 3 | 27.5% | 13c / 42c | 12c | $586 | 5th |
| Second place | 6.0% | 0.4c / 11.6c | 1.2c | $121 | 8th |
| Third place | 8.5% | 2c / 15c | none | $126 | 6th |
In the winner market, Laos is fifth on the mid at 5.9%, behind Malaysia (54.5%), the Philippines (25%), Vietnam (8.4%) and Nepal (8.1%). On the best bid, though, Laos is third: 5c, against Malaysia’s 53c and the Philippines’ 23c. Vietnam’s quote runs from 1.7c to 15.1c and Nepal’s from 3.5c to 12.7c, so their higher mids rest on wide quotes, while Laos’s is 1.7 cents wide. Our reading: on the money traders are actually prepared to pay, Thinla is the likeliest winner outside the top two.
The Top 3 market is where Laos moved. Polymarket recorded an 11.5-point rise in its Top 3 price on 8 November, the day she rehearsed, to 27.5%. The quote is wide, 13c bid and 42c offer, with a last trade of 12c, so a little money can move it. In the thinner second-place and third-place books she is 6.0% and 8.5%; those books have taken $2,365 and $6,914 in total.
Kalshi, the US exchange regulated by the CFTC, agrees to within a point. At 01:48 UTC on 9 November Laos was bid at 6c and offered at 7c, with a last trade of 6c. It is the busiest contract on Kalshi’s Eurovision Asia board: 2,921 of the 5,887 contracts ever traded there, about half, with 1,298 still open.
Can Thinla win Eurovision Asia?
On these prices, winning is a long shot and the podium is a real possibility. Polymarket’s 5.9% is roughly a 1-in-17 chance. Her 27.5% Top 3 price puts her fifth, behind Malaysia (79%), the Philippines (69.5%), Thailand (43.5%) and Vietnam (41%), and ahead of South Korea (20.5%).
Our reading: the market expects Malaysia and the Philippines to take two of the three podium places, which leaves Thinla in a four-way fight with Thailand, Vietnam and South Korea for the third. Like every act, she gets nothing from home: viewers in Laos cannot vote for Laos. Our predictions for all eleven acts put her sixth, just behind South Korea’s JUNHEE, and call her the best of the rest.
The split markets show no weak half. In the Jury Winner market she is 6.8%, and in the Public Vote Winner market 7.3%, fourth behind Malaysia (38%), the Philippines (34%) and South Korea (11.5%). Compare Malaysia, at 60.5% with the juries and 38% with the public, and the Philippines, at 14.5% and 34%.
The jury price is barely tested, though: a 0.6c bid against a 12.9c offer, about $5 traded and no trade on record. The public-vote line has taken $397 and last traded at 6c. The final is 50% jury, 50% public, plus a public-only Rest of World vote. Our reading: that bloc is where her overseas audience counts. The organisers credit her US tour with a jump in North American streams and views, and those viewers vote with no jury half attached.
Where to watch and how to vote for Thinla
The Grand Final is on Saturday 14 November 2026 at 20:30 ICT (14:30 CET, 13:30 UTC) at the One Bangkok Forum, hosted by Woody Milintachinda and Cindy Bishop. Thinla is third on stage, after Vietnam’s Tóc Tiên and Cambodia’s Monetrey and before Mongolia’s Beck. A Preview Show takes place at the venue on Friday 13 November at 20:30 ICT.
| Where | How | Start |
|---|---|---|
| Laos | VTE9 | 20:30 Saturday |
| Thailand | Channel 3 | 20:30 Saturday |
| Worldwide | Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel, free | 13:30 UTC Saturday |
| London | YouTube | 13:30 GMT Saturday |
| Paris, Berlin, Vienna | YouTube | 14:30 CET Saturday |
| New York | YouTube | 08:30 EST Saturday |
Voting follows the official voting terms:
- Vote on the web at eurovisionasia.com/vote, aged 18 or over, signing in with Google, Apple or Privy.
- Everyone gets eight free votes, and booster packs add up to ten paid votes: a maximum of 18 per person and 16 for any one entry.
- Votes must be spread across at least three countries’ entries, or none of them count.
- Nobody may vote for their own country, so viewers in Laos cannot vote for Thinla.
Every broadcaster and local start time is in our guide to watching the Grand Final, and the background to the Lao entry is on our Laos at Eurovision Asia page.
What people search for: Thinla by the numbers
Thinla is new to most English-speaking searchers. Google search data from DataForSEO, checked on 9 November, shows about 30 US searches a month for “thinla” on average, but 320 in the latest month. In the UK it was 20 a month on average and 260 in the latest month. For comparison, “carmelle” averages 480 US searches a month, “toc tien” 720 and “junhee” 8,100.
What searchers find is thin. Google’s US top 10 for “thinla” is mostly YouTube videos, an X search page, her YouTube channel, a Facebook page and a podcast episode, with one short fan-site profile around ninth. Searches for “thinla bae” return a fan wiki, lyrics sites and YouTube. There is a short English Wikipedia article on Thinla, but it was not in that top 10.
Her existing audience is easier to measure. This site recorded 185,568 monthly Spotify listeners and 70,900 YouTube subscribers for her on 29 September. On 9 November the official performance video of “BAE” had 339,498 views on the Eurovision Song Contest channel, and the official audio 26,433.
FAQ
Who is Thinla?
Thinla is the stage name of Thinlamphone Mahavong, a Lao singer-songwriter from Khong District in southern Laos who mixes traditional Morlum with pop, R&B and dance. She is the first artist to represent Laos at Eurovision Song Contest Asia, singing “BAE” in the Grand Final in Bangkok on 14 November 2026.
Who is Bae the singer?
“BAE” is a song, not a singer. It is the Lao entry at Eurovision Song Contest Asia 2026, and the singer is Thinla (Thinlamphone Mahavong), who has also recorded as Thinlamphone and, from 2015, as Dork Ya Thinlamphone.
How old is Thinla?
Her date of birth has not been published by the organisers, Eurovoix or Wikipedia. A Lao magazine profile from October 2020 gave her age as 23, which would make her 29 or 30 in November 2026.
Where is Thinla from?
Khong District in Champasak province, southern Laos, near the border with Thailand. Her family moved to Vientiane in 2006, and she trained at the National School of Arts there.
Who wrote “Bae” by Thinla?
DonutDropIt, Johan Gustafsson, Rebbi James, Sam Intharaphithak and Thinla herself, according to Eurovoix and Wikipedia. It was released on 17 September 2026 on her EuroVibes single, credited to SG Music Co. Ltd.
What is “Bae” by Thinla about?
The title is English slang for a sweetheart, and the organisers’ posts play on it by asking “Can she call you bae?”. We have not found an explanation of the lyrics from Thinla herself. In October she said the released version was a demo and that a revamp was coming.
When does Thinla perform at Eurovision Asia?
Third of eleven in the Grand Final on Saturday 14 November 2026, which starts at 20:30 ICT (14:30 CET, 13:30 UTC). In Laos it is on VTE9; elsewhere it streams free on the Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel.
Can Thinla win Eurovision Asia?
She is an outsider with a real podium chance. On Polymarket at 03:14 UTC on 9 November, Laos was 5.9% to win and 27.5% to finish in the top three, fifth in both books, with Malaysia the 54.5% favourite. Kalshi had her at a 6c bid and 7c offer. These are prediction-market prices, not bookmaker odds.
Sources
- Eurovision Song Contest Asia: Thinla artist page; news posts of 13, 22 and 24 September, 29 October and 8 November 2026; how to watch; voting terms (updated 28 August).
- Official @eurovisionasia Instagram posts of 29 October, 4 November and 8 November; likes read 9 November.
- Eurovoix: Laos: Who Is Thinla? (3 November); first rehearsal (8 November); preview (7 November); revamp (15 October); hosts and jury (22 September).
- Wikipedia: Thinla, and Laos in the Eurovision Song Contest Asia, read 9 November.
- AXEAN Festival profile; Lao News Agency (KPL), 2018; ASEAN Digest, 15 October 2024; Kuanjai Magazine, 8 October 2020; Apple Music; YouTube view counts, 9 November.
- Polymarket, 03:14 UTC on 9 November 2026 (Top 3 one-day change from our 8 November rehearsal report); Kalshi, 01:48 UTC on 9 November. Google search data from DataForSEO, 9 November. Spotify and YouTube follower counts: our Laos page, 29 September.
18+. Prediction markets carry risk, and prices on thin books can move without trades. Check the live board before acting.