In August 2025, Bhutan’s public broadcaster aired four episodes of a national selection for a contest that officially did not exist. Within days the episodes were gone from the internet, the Eurovision Song Contest’s director had publicly distanced the EBU from the whole thing, and the final was cancelled hours before broadcast.

A year later, the same five singers competed again — and one of them is now going to Bangkok.

This is the strangest story in Eurovision Asia’s history, and it has never been told end to end in one place.

May 2025: Bhutan announces a contest nobody else has

BBS posted on Facebook that it was searching for a singer to represent Bhutan at Eurovision Asia. The post stated the contest would be held in Bangkok, Thailand, with 18 nations taking part.

At this point the EBU had announced nothing. Its June 2025 Brand Impact Report listed an Asia-Pacific adaptation only as being under ongoing development.

By August, BBS was giving a different host city: Mumbai, India.

August 2025: the show actually airs

BBS launched Druk Dra — Dzongkha for “Voice of Bhutan”, subtitled Road to Eurovision Asia. It ran as a five-episode format: three qualification rounds, a semi-final, and a final.

Four episodes went out:

Ten entries were whittled to five finalists. The result was to be 70% jury and 30% online vote. The winner would go to Eurovision Asia; the runner-up to the ABU TV Song Festival 2025.

Adding to the confusion, Vietnamese broadcaster HTV had allocated a one-hour slot to a programme listed as “Eurovision Asia” on 31 August — a detail first spotted by a Reddit user posting a TV guide screenshot.

28 August 2025: the EBU shuts it down

The day before the final, Eurovision Song Contest Director Martin Green stated that no plans had been confirmed or announced for an Asian contest. He confirmed that the format rights holders in Asia had spoken to BBS and that the episodes had been taken off air and removed from online platforms.

Every Druk Dra video on the BBS YouTube channel was made private. Posts about the contest disappeared. The final never aired.

Coverage at the time — including from The Euro Trip Podcast, which carried Green’s statement — treated this as the end of Eurovision Asia speculation.

What it actually was

On 31 March 2026, when the contest was formally announced, the EBU characterised the 2025 shutdown as the result of a miscommunication with BBS.

In other words: Bhutan was not inventing a contest. It was preparing for a real one, too early, with details that had not been finalised — a Bangkok venue that turned out to be right, a Mumbai venue that turned out to be wrong, and an 18-country field that turned out to be roughly double the reality.

August 2026: the do-over

Rhythm of Bhutan aired on 11 August 2026 with five acts — largely the same talent pool BBS had already assembled and paid to produce a year earlier.

Nyendra won with Lhayi Semo (The Angel), becoming the first artist ever selected for Eurovision Asia. Read our full profile of Nyendra.

The 2025 competition was never resolved on merit. It was paused, wiped, and eventually restarted under a new name.

Why it matters

Two reasons.

First, it explains why Bhutan went first. BBS had a finished production sitting on a shelf. When the contest became real, Bhutan was months ahead of every other broadcaster — which handed a country of under a million people the first slot on the calendar and a long head start on promotion.

Second, it is a useful reminder about sourcing. Much of what BBS said in 2025 was later contradicted, then partially vindicated. Anyone researching this contest will still find 2025 pages confidently stating Mumbai and 18 countries.

We track those stale claims in our Eurovision Asia fact-check, and the confirmed schedule sits on our national selection calendar.

Last updated 25 August 2026.