Rhythm of Bhutan 2026: Nyendra Wins With "Lhayi Semo" — Full Results

Nyendra won Rhythm of Bhutan 2026 with “Lhayi Semo” (The Angel), finishing on 52 points — making Bhutan the first country ever to select an entry for the Eurovision Song Contest Asia.

The final aired on 11 August 2026 at 19:00 BTT from BBS Studios in Thimphu, presented bilingually by Phub Tshering in Dzongkha and Kelzang Dolkar in English, with five acts competing.

The full scoreboard

The result was decided by a three-way split: 40% professional jury, 40% Bhutanese public, 20% Rest of the World.

How the win actually happened

Nyendra topped the scoreboard without topping a single public vote. He won the jury outright with 24 points, came second with the Bhutanese public behind Baeyul 301, and finished third internationally.

The most interesting line in the table belongs to Baeyul 301. “Drenpa” won the Bhutanese public vote outright on 24 points — more than Nyendra — and took 10 internationally, but collected just 2 from the jury. That gap is what kept a public favourite in third.

Karma Drupchu has the other notable split: “Pha Yuel” won the international vote on 12 points, the highest international score of the night, but finished fourth overall.

Pelden Wangchuk shows the inverse of Baeyul 301 — 16 from the jury, but only 2 domestically and 1 internationally.

In other words, all three voting blocs picked a different winner, and Nyendra won by being the only act ranked highly by all of them. For a first-edition contest with no form guide, that’s a useful early data point about what a 40/40/20 split actually rewards.

The winner

Nyendra — Thukten Nyendra — is a 24-year-old singer-songwriter and producer based in Thimphu, who writes and produces independently in both English and Dzongkha across pop, folk-pop, acoustic and R&B. “Lhayi Semo” was co-written with Lungten Wangchuk, and he took a 200,000 Ngultrum prize.

Full background in our profile of Nyendra.

The show that came before it

All five finalists had already competed once. Druk Dra, a 2025 Bhutanese selection, ran four episodes before the EBU had it pulled — the contest it was selecting for hadn’t been formally announced yet. Rhythm of Bhutan was effectively the same talent pool finally running to a conclusion, which is why Bhutan was months ahead of every other broadcaster when the contest became real. The full story is in our piece on the Druk Dra shutdown.

What’s next for Bhutan

Nyendra performs at the Grand Final on 14 November at One Bangkok Forum. With a song public since August, Bhutan has had the longest promotional run-in of any country in the contest.

Bhutan’s full profile sits on the Bhutan country page, every selection is tracked on the national selections calendar, and current rankings are on the Eurovision Asia predictions page.

Scoreboard cross-checked against Wikipedia and Eurovoix. Last updated 24 September 2026.