2011

• Hosted in: Yerevan, Armenia

• Won by: Georgia – Candy Music by CANDY

After eight editions, this year’s Junior Eurovision is finally heading to the previous year’s winning country, in this case, Yerevan, Armenia, after a dramatic ending to the voting procedure back in Minsk. From this point onwards, the fact that the winning country withdrawing from hosting duties is becoming less common. While the contest continues to have a majority of the total competing countries hailing from the East, we’re happy to announce that we have one less Eastern European country than last year – Malta and Serbia withdrew, Bulgaria returned. Still, only Sweden, Belgium and the Netherlands came from the West. Should we call them the new “big three”? or just “three” because these kids didn’t made an impact – well except the Netherlands, they had their stuff together anyway.

Speaking of the Netherlands, who, at this point is now the only Western side to win the contest since 2005, is also the only country who have a realistic chance of taking it home in 2011, as the other members of the “three” didn’t stand a chance against the continued dominance of the ex-Soviet countries. Sweden placed 5th to last, and Belgium is only 2 places higher. The Netherlands on the other hand, had other plans. The country was represented by Rachel, who wrote a song about teenage life (this is Junior Eurovision, remember?!), and dancing in an oversized bunker bed. It is another close call, this time between the Dutch and the Georgian. All the Dutch need, going to the final spokespeople that is the Belgian, is 12 points for them and 0 points for Georgia. However, Belgium’s 6 points have gone to Georgia. I actually watched a recording of the show from Dutch broadcaster AVRO, and their commentator was like “why did I sign up for this?”. The Netherland was only 5 points behind 1st place.

2009 PTSD anyone? Because there’s another tie for 3rd! Both of the tied countries are, of course, ex-Soviet countries, Russia, who almost won 2010, and Belarus, who’s still finding their heyday missing since 2007. As it is now Junior Eurovision tradition, aside from the contestants introducing themselves and their songs in the postcards, televote money going to charity (which is no longer the case), the sympathy 12 points, the hilarious amount of contestants, ex-Soviet dominance, the sheer lack of Western countries, and overall Swedish misunderstanding of one specific genre, both countries sent emotional ballads, the former is named after a Shakespeare play. It’s 2011, do something!

Fortunately, the contest DID have a tiebreaker, which you no doubt thankful for. Simple math tells you Belarus has 3 “douze points” while Russia has 2. Belarus take the podium spot and Russia goes 4th.

One of the most standout performances to me is Moldova’s. Lerika’s “No-no!” is all about resisting peer pressure, all while dressing as a fashion addict, throwing pieces of clothing from her bag, and… wait, is she actually riding a scooter? Moldova finished 6th. FYR Macedonia has gone full Malta 2008, or in other words, 60s swing, because outdated music is a new high! At least in their minds of course. In realty they finished worse than Sweden, Lithuania and Ukraine.

Belgium, meanwhile, has a delightfully sweet pop about Femke wanting “one more kiss,” sung in Dutch with a warm and youthful charm. It got themselves to an acceptable 7th place. And look what’s Sweden’s sending, that’s right! Pop, because ballads really aren’t their thing anymore. “Faller” by Erik Rapp features two backing singers, a guitarist, a drummer and a DJ who pretends to scratch. You really gotta express sympathy for them (well the EBU gave them 12 points but no one else but that’s besides the point) because surprise surprise! They finished 9th. Sweden are so cursed at this point.

If Belgium send in 5 girls and doesn’t work, why does Georgia send in 5 girls and does work? Oh because “Candy Music”. That’s right people, Georgia sent in what promises to be literal ear candy. The group is called “CANDY”, the song is called Candy Music and the song itself is a sugary disco-themed pop song performed by five teenage girls in bright, candy-inspired costumes. The upbeat “who loves sweet caramel?” chorus was a midpoint showstopper and crowd favorite. It would become one of JESC’s most sophisticated winners in history, just after Georgia’s won “Bzz…” (remember that? Me neither!), and won the whole thing with 108 points. If that’s not sweet victory then I don’t know what is.

With Armenia hosting this year after last year’s win, will Georgia follow, or will we see “hosting roulette” again?

Presentation and format

The show was held at the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex in Yerevan, Armenia. The venue would later host the 20th edition of the contest, albeit with more larger and sophisticated staging. The show was hosted by Gohar Gasparyan and Avet Barseghyan.

The graphic of the contest involves Mount Ararat formed by equalizer bars. This appears on the stage as the backdrop, the closest we’d ever got to an LED screen from 2009 up until this point, and as a glass-like trophy this year. This year’s slogan was “Reach for the top!”

This year the role of Executive Supervisor changed for the first (or second) time, that being Sietse Bakker, who only got this job for two years.

Despite the show going for over 2 hours this year, only half of them are the performances, so the producers had some time to kill. The interval included Molly Sanden performing "Spread a Little Light", whilst Sirusho performed a remixed version of "Qélé, Qélé" and last year's winner Vladimir Arzumanyan also took to the stage. At the start of the voting procedure, there is a prerecorded message from a kid in Australia, who also have the honor to give every entry 12 points, as this has now been JESC tradition. Thanks Australia!

That is the only difference between this year’s voting procedure and the one from 2003. Because the number of participants are so depressing this year (and even though Kyiv 2009 has the same number) spokesperson returned to reading ALL points in the 12 point ladder. In addition, voting lines are no longer opened at the start of the show, and instead going back to the usual timing of after all of the performances are done.

For the first time since 2004, the participants themselves did not appear on the postcard to introduce themselves and their song. In fact this is the first time the participants did not appear in the postcard at all. Instead some footage of a random activity involving children centering a theme. Georgia’s postcard starts with kids making bread with flour covered on their face, before we flew over to the military to taste some food there, then over to a baker baking a birthday cake for even more children before being blown away by them. The postcard ends with the Mount Ararat graphic in the respective countries’ flag colors.