Lenna Kuurmaa is an Estonian singer-songwriter and actress. She is a member of the girl groupVanilla Ninja, but after the band's hiatus since 2009, continued to work as a solo-artist. She also formed a band with the name "Lenna" who released the debut album Lenna in June 2010.
Musical career
From 1990 to 2002, Lenna Kuurmaa was a member of the ETV Lasteekraani Muusikastuudio and performed together with the choir in many festivals internationally. She studied violin in Tallinn Music School from 2000 to 2006 under teacher Urvo Uibokand. She received vocal training from Ester Lepa and Ludmilla Issakova 1997–2002. In 2002 she took part of televised singing contest Fizz Superstar, where she made it to the quarter-finals. In the same year Kuurmaa, together with 3 other girls, formed the rock band Vanilla Ninja. After Vanilla Ninja's hiatus in 2009, Lenna Kuurmaa started working as a solo-musician with the artist-name Lenna. In June 2010, she released her debut album Lenna under Mortimer Snerd. All of the songs were written together with and produced by Vaiko Eplik, who is also the owner of the record label. Her band also performed at the 2010 Shanghai EXPO.
Lenna Kuurmaa has taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest and its national preselection contests with varying success.
In 2003, with Vanilla Ninja, the song "Club Kung-Fu" was placed at the last position by an international jury at the national preselection contest Eurolaul, even while having a strong popular support.
In 2007, Vanilla Ninja participated in Eurolaul 2007 with the song "Birds of Peace", and placed fourth.
In 2010, Lenna Kuurmaa participated as a solo artist at the national contest Eesti Laul 2010 with the song "Rapunzel", which was co-arranged by Vaiko Eplik. The song finished second.
In 2012, Lenna participated again in the national contest Eesti Laul 2012 with the song "Mina jään", which finished second.
In 2014, Lenna participated again in Eesti Laul with the song "Supernoova". She finished fourth.
In 2017, Lenna participated again in Eesti Laul, this time with the song "Slingshot", finishing eighth.
Acting
Kuurmaa played the second lead role of Maya in the year 2007 Estonian film Kuhu põgenevad hinged and Angela in the Estonian soap operaKodu keset linna, also in 2007. Since 2008, Kuurmaa has taken part in Theatre NO99's play Pericles as a guest-actress. In 2010, she was given a role of an Estonian Security Police investigator in the crime-drama series Kelgukoerad. She has stated that she has no interest in pursuing professional acting education. She has a role in the 2012 Finnish movie Vuosaari, named after a particular district in Helsinki and the same year appeared as Pille in the Peeter Simm-directed drama Üksik saar. From 2012 until 2014, she appeared as Anne in the Kanal 2 comedy series Tupiktänava mehed. In 2017, Kuurmaa began appearing in the role of Ramilda Martin on the Estonian TV3 crime-comedy series Kättemaksukontor.
Other activities
Kuurmaa has also worked in television, for example being the host for the song contest Laulukarussell in 2006. She has also hosted programs in the Sky Plus radio since 2007. Kuurmaa is a member of Estonian Performers' Association and Estonian Authors' Society. She has been involved in the musical theatre projects Kuningas ja mina and Helisev muusika. In 2007, Lenna Kuurmaa was chosen by the audience of Raadio 2 to be a singer in the Unistuste Bänd, a supergroup composed of popular Estonian musicians for a one-time performance at Raadio 2 Hit of the Year award gala. In 2010, she participated in the TV3 series "Laulud tähtedega" with Artur Talvik. In 2015, she took part of the Estonian version of the TV showStars In Their Eyes
