Countries

Germany is the place which
can be considered a second homeland for their career. The girls spent a
lot of time there, recording, performing and doing other various things.
For some time (2005) they lived in Weil am Rhein, the most southwesterly
town in Germany. It is located just next to the Swiss and French borders.
The following year, when they changed the record label, they moved to Germany’s
fourth-largest city (2006). The reason for moving to Cologne, was that EMI
Music Germany has its office there. Germany and German-speaking countries
was the target of their career and they are the second place where Vanilla
Ninja gets the most successful after Estonia.

In 2004, Ninjas surprisingly visited Poland.
They gave a few interviews and performed in one popular reality show called
“Jestem jaki jestem” (I am just as I am). But the real expansion
into Poland started in 2006! Vanilla Ninja got into a famous song contest
“Sopot Festival 2006” with their single “Dangerzone”. This performance was
supported by a pier concert in Sopot 2 months before the festival. Finally,
in September, the girls came back to rock the Polish audience. This visit
was followed by a big interview for the magazine Bravo, they also took part
in an interactive chat with fans. On the Sopot’s stage the performance was
much rockier than usually. They didn’t win but, however, they bet their
biggest rivals – band Brainstorm from Latvia! They were placed on 4th out
of 6 participants which can be considered a success.

2008 was a year of Vanilla Ninja in Chile.
Their show in Vina del Mar Festival charmed the audience and they won the
festival with their song “Birds of Peace”. Though, the trip wasn’t long,
Katrin, Lenna and Piret gave many interviews to the media, performed in
lots of TV shows and immediately became famous stars. Latin America loves
Vanilla Ninja since the festival 🙂

In 2007, the Ninjas received an offer to
visit Estonian soldiers in Iraq. They stated that the trip to Iraq was the
most exciting adventure they have ever had. They visited Kuwait and Baghdad
and performed 2 concerts: in Taji base and Virginia base. Their new experiences
included shooting, riding a tank and they talked a lot with the soldiers.

Their first visit to Spain was to shoot
the video for “When the Indians Cry” in August of 2004. They went to the
Spanish island of Majorca and they thought it would be an appropriate place
to show the beauty of this song. What is more, they even got a chance to
see places that ordinary tourists can’t go to.
Their second visit was
to perform “Rockstarz” at Ballermann Hits 2006. They performed in Majorca
on Santa Ponça Beach. The girls stayed there for a couple of days. They
were sailing on an inflatable banana boat raft, sunbathing on the beach
near the hotel’s swimming pool, trying some water sports, playing the tennis,
going to the nightclubs and fooling around on the beach in the middle of
the night!

Vanilla Ninja’s visit to Ukraine is associated
with the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. The opportunity to take part in this
competition was given to them by Switzerland. The girls were happy to perform
in Kiev due to a fact that Eurovsion is watched in many European countries
which, of course resulted in attracting many new fans.

Vanilla Ninja’s first official visit to
Russia was planned for the end of 2008. Lenna, Kati and Piret were invited
to the capital of Russia – Moscow, where they were supposed to play an orchestra
concert at the event called “Tallinn’s Days” but due to the mourning of
Patriarch Alexy II, it was cancelled. However, the girls didn’t waste this
chance to meet with some of their fans and so they made a surprise up. They
had already been welcomed at the airport by fans but it wasn’t enough 🙂
So they came up with an idea to organize a fanmeeting. Taking pics, signing
autographs and chatting was planned for that evening! Katrin, who is of
Russian descent, even talked with fans in Russian. It seemed everyone truly
enjoyed that time.

In the first half of 2005, the girls decided
to go to Japan! The flight took more than 10 hours and it was really strenuous.
While being on board, girls watched the movie “The Notebook”, which deeply
touched them. The trip involved appearing in 2 TV shows, about 20 radio
shows and giving a lot of interviews to different magazines. All of that
was to promote their album “Traces of Sadness”. The trip took 7 days and
the fact that they remembered the most was that Japanese people are very
polite and it was very important for them not to be late. With most of their
time they spent it in Tokyo. Piret remembers that the coolest experience
was their visit to an old Ninja-town. There is a museum of the Ninjas –
with nothing but hidden doors in the walls. Moreover, they were in a Ninja
restaurant, that had also hidden doors in the walls from which waiters came
out. Another funny experience for them was that their Japanese promoter
had forbidden them to drink cider because he was afraid that the girls would
get drunk. Then on the last day he drank a beer with them – and was drunk
himself immediately. In Japan not many shop assistants speak English, so
the girls had to be creative and use the sign language. Furthermore, the
choice was frantic and everything in the shops was in such small sizes that
girls had a big problem to find anything suitable.

The north island was visited by the girls
in the second half of 2005. The clip for “Blue Tattoo” was recorded near
Reykjavik, at the time of the year when it’s incredibly cold there. In the
middle of nowhere, additional stress was caused by the fact that the daylight
was present just for a few hours and most of the time there was completely
dark. The results of this trip everyone can see in the video.

In 2006, Vanilla Ninja went to Cape
Town for a couple of days to record the music video for “Dangerzone”. The
shooting of the video took 2 days. Thinking about this journey, the girls
associate memories of hot weather, a penguin beach and a contrast between
richness and poverty.

Vanilla Ninja’s first official visit to
Latvia was in 2006. In Arena Riga on the November 1st 2006. The girls arrived
to support American singer P!nk on her “I’m Not Dead” Tour. According to
P!nk’s fans, the girls did a great job as a warm up band. Look at the description
from this event:
“Support comes in the form of the excellently-named
band Vanilla Ninja, a sexy Estonian girl band with an eighties pop rock
sound. They kick off proceedings at 19:30.” (www.riga-life.com)

Yes, Vanilla Ninja have been to Finland!
In 2003, just a half year since their career started, the girls, then aged
17 and 19, gave a performance at ProSkate as well as an interview. That
visit happened even before their first album was released.