At the age of 10, Applunius was Sabah champion in the RTM singing contest Bintang Kecil.
In 2009, she reached the final of the Malaysian TV reality show One in a Million and many expected her to win.
[3] In 2016, she won the first prize of RM39,999 in the Star Search 999 Singing Competition, an event organised by the Sabah-Labuan Motion Picture Traders and Entertainment Association (Slamptea).
[4] Apart from her television appearances in One in a Million, Esther has entered and won many singing competitions since she started performing in 1998, including the 2005 Sugandoi Kaamatan singing contest,[5] and the 2008 PERTISA Award for the most popular singer in Sabah in the women's category.
She has also been a member of several bands, including D'Illusions, and has performed in a number of venues in Kota Kinabalu, the state capital of Sabah.