In 1940, the Soviet Union annexed the Republic of Estonia. World War II was followed by periods of German and Soviet occupation.

The XII Nationwide Song Festival was the first post-war song festival. Regardless of the prevailing Soviet ideology, the organisers succeeded in keeping traditional Estonian choir music in the programme. Folk art evenings were organised in addition to the song festivals, which later grew into dance festivals.

CHIEF CONDUCTORS:

Tuudur Vettik (mixed choirs), Gustav Ernesaks (male choirs), Alfred Karindi (female choirs), Riho Päts (children�s choirs), Leopold Vigla (brass orchestras).

703 collectives with 25,760 singers-musicians took part in the festival. The number of listeners was estimated at 10,000 with some newspapers even suggesting 275,000, which seems to be obviously exaggerated. The propagandist demand was that the number of participants could under no circumstances be smaller than at earlier song festivals. Over 6000 female singers and the same number of child choir singers were brought to the festival to achieve this.