Vanilla Ninja is a female Estonian rock band from Tallinn. Formed in 2002, he conquers the Estonian public during his participation in the Eurolaul 2003. The success is at the rendezvous at the release of the eponymous album Vanilla Ninja in 2003. The popularity of the group has never failed since then, to the point that a brand of ice cream and kohuke are published under his name. In 2004-2005, the group became known in Central Europe with Traces of Sadness and Blue Tattoo, which earned them to be selected to represent Switzerland for the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest.
Vanilla Ninja is best known in Estonia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Poland, but its audience is growing in the rest of Europe, as well as in America (United States, Brazil) or Asia (Japan) . The group ceases its activities in 2008.
The band was formed as a quartet at the end of the summer of 2002 by Sven Lõhmus, composer and producer for the TopTen> label. It brings together two groups of friends, Maarja Kivi and Lenna Kuurmaa, who were noticed during singing competitions the previous year, and Piret Järvis and Katrin Siska, who were looking to set up their group. Kivi is chosen to be the lead singer, assisted by Lenna Kuurmaa. The group could be considered as an artificial assembly for commercial purposes, but its members forbid it by explaining that they are not this gallery of typical characters that one meets in this type of formation, and that they take part in the process of artistic creation. Above all, the four singers quickly pick up their instruments, which reinforces the pop rock physiognomy of the band and sets it apart from the girls band formations: Piret Järvis and Lenna Kuurmaa on guitar, Maarja Kivi on bass, Katrin Siska on keyboards >> >.
First obstacle: baptize the group. The girls want to call it Ninja, but the name is already used by a DJ. Finally, Sven Lõhmus and Piret Järvis choose Vanilla Ninja, built as an oxymoron: vanilla refers to the feminine sweetness and blondness of the members of the group, and the reference to the ninjas to their strength of their character (they know what they want and fight to get it) and their rhythmic music. The group assumes the reference to the girl power.
