2012

 

• Hosted in: Amsterdam, Netherlands

• Won by: Ukraine – Nebo by Anastasiya Petryk

Last year while many people speculate that 2011 would kick start a new tradition of the previous year’s winning country will host the following year, which would theoretically mean that 2012 would go to Georgia, it landed on runners-up Netherlands instead, the first contest to have been held in the west since 2007 – which is, coincidentally, also held in the Netherlands. They really are the only country there who had a realistic chance of winning AND hosting the contest. The reason for Georgia’s withdrawal from hosting duties was undisclosed. Don’t worry though, as this will be the last time the contest wasn’t held in the country that won the previous year… until 2015.

While 2012 also marks the 10th edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest if you can imagine such a thing, the contest still hasn’t recovered from the old “Benelux vs. the East” narrative, later Sweden & Benelux vs. the East in 2009. While we’re more than grateful that the East is decreasing, with Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, and Macedonia withdrew, and Israel, Albania, and Azerbaijan debuted. However, the west did not add anyone at all, resulting in the smallest Junior Eurovision in history – a mere 12 participants, the same number as the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest, which coincidentally also in Amsterdam. That’s how bad it was. Still, it manages to run for an impressive 2 hours, thanks to the lengthened voting procedure introduced last year and one country-neutral jury.

That country-neutral jury is the Kids’ Jury, following a reform in jury voting which saw the national juries being strictly adults only and children were moved to a Kids’ Jury independent from those participating from the televote. It’s complex but they need to bulk up the voting procedure somehow. Other than, I don’t know, longer postcards? That’s what postcards are made for in the first place back in 1970, right? The Kids Juries’ 12 points went to Georgia, whose song, “Lemonade”, while not as equally as a pop earworm as Candy Music last year, is a fun, youthful pop song with a vibrant beat and playful staging featuring energetic choreography. They finished second. Not bad for a defending winner.

It’s rare to see a returning artist in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest up until this point, with Katya Ryabova representing Russia in 2009 and 2011 being the only case so far. However this year, Lerika, who have represented Moldova last year, returned to become… Russia’s representative? Imagine the Moldovans reacting to this news! Still, It’s weird if you told me that there’s someone who’s changed entirely over the course of a year because I think Lerika is the only example here. Having changed her haircut, and clothing, and nationality, and musical style from last year, from a jealousy musical score to straight up EDM akin to Euphoria. That change proved to be effective (sort of), as she (not Russia) finished 4th, an improvement from 6th the previous year.

It's weird to talk about Israel today – or even back in 2012, since they debuted in this competition. Their song, ironically, was “Let the music win”. Uhhhh… you should let someone else win too. Have you heard of “peace”? Still, the song was performed by a URL address: kids.il. That address doesn’t exist by the way, and it is most likely up for grabs for you Israeli citizens. So, if you’re a fan of the band then you can now make a website out of it, I guess? They finished 8th. This was the highest a debutant could get this year, as Azerbaijan and Albania kept warm the bottom 2.

It felt kinda sad that there were only 12 participants, and even sadder to see that 9 of them came from the East. The western countries packed together like sardines in a crushed tin can. Occupying postions 5th to 7th. Our hosts were actually the worst of the bunch, with Femke Meines, yes that’s her name, no not that Belgian representative last year, that was a group, performing Tik Tak Tik, supposedly a clockwork-themed song, albeit without a man in a hamster wheel. The best performing Western European country was Belgium, with Fabian’s “Abracadabra”, all while his backing performers doing last-minute magic tricks. Finally, and you have already guessed, Sweden is sandwiched in the middle, after they sent another ballad. Though that’s what they’re desperate for, anyway…

If you think Armenia sending a Barcelona fan back in 2009 wasn’t enough, wait until you see the Armenian fab four. Dear Armenian head of delegation for 2012, you had your best moments, you won 2010, sure. But why did you follow up with a Beatles knock-off? What’s the motive behind this thing? Do you even know what you’re doing at this point? And the Compass band wasn’t nearly as good as the Beatles, you could argue that the actual fab four was the greatest band in the world, but I don’t really think it would, or even should, spawn a carbon copy of them. Though the audience are too young to notice the obvious plagiarism, and gave Armenia third place. Impressive that they went on 13 straight years without Apple Records suing them after that.

Despite all of that madness, there’s one thing we all agree, not just the fact that ex-Soviet countries would win anyway, as this was the case for the past 6 out of 7 editions, with the sole exception being the Netherlands in 2009, but also Ukraine’s entry was a banger. Nebo by Anastasiya Petryk was a breathtaking, emotional ballad that showcased Anastasiya’s powerful voice and stage presence. Her performance, complete with dramatic lighting and a soaring chorus, was a clear highlight of the evening. And rightfully so, as she went on to win the whole thing. Having 8 douze points that evening, including those from ALL Western countries. Wheeeeeeew!

So, as we’re heading towards Kyiv once again, please we’ll finally have more western countries next year. It’s been ages…

Presentation and format

You might have not known this but the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2012 was the first Eurovision event to debut the now-familiar present-day Eurovision transmission ident, a mesmerizing sequence of rings appearing in and out before forming the “O” in “EUROVISION”. Eurovision contests prior to that still uses the 2008 ident.

The contest was held at the Heineken Music Hall and hosted by Ewout Genemans and Kim-Lian van der Meij. The latter already hosted 2007, now without the funky hair. Let’s just hope that children are kept away from alcohol brands as far as possible… The show was opened by Rachel Traets, who represented the Netherlands last year, performing “Euphoria”, if you know, you know.

During the interval, Kim-Lian herself performed the contest’s theme song “Break the Ice”, all participants performed “We can be heroes”, no not that David Bowie song, and Ralf Mackenbach reprised his 2009 winning song “Click clack”. The LED screen is finally back for the first time since 2009, but it's ridiculously small, and it's curved! it's vertical! Going with the icy theme, the green room is renamed the "ice room" for this year only.

Due to the sheer number of participants, for the first time since 2005, the spokespeople returned to reading ALL points. As aforementioned, the voting procedure featured a Kids Jury for the first time, which would lengthen the procedure and the show, if it wasn’t for the points being announced in the middle of the interval act. Ralf Mackenbach announced the Kids’ Jury points before Kim-Lian stole the show and WAY before the other countries’ points are announced.

Since then the previous’ year winner has announced the Kids’ Jury points until the abolition of a unified kids’ jury in 2016. Profits from the televoting once again went to charity – not to UNICEF, but to the Netherlands-based KidsRights Foundation. The trophy is simply a physical version of the contest logo, but bizarrely given by Ewout himself, because, and this is true, last year’s winner CANDY stayed at home and announced Georgia’s points.

This year’s theme is “Break the Ice”, which is misleading because we haven’t broken the ice on Eastern European countries, but at least we had a contemporary look for the contest. The postcards consist of a girl, unrelated to the participants, dancing in places in Amsterdam next to a solid block of ice before breaking it. The latter sequence of the same girl breaking the ice with a hammer is recycled over and over. This is followed by, after a year’s absence, the participants introducing themselves, their country, and/or their song.