2013

• Hosted in: Kyiv, Ukraine

• Won by: Malta – The Start by Gaia Cauchi

There is change in the “three” this year, Belgium withdrew, which no doubt made the Dutch heartbroken, being replaced by tiny San Marino. We love you San Marino! Meanwhile, Macedonia and Malta substituted for Albania and Israel, bringing the grand total to… still 12. The same number as last year and 1 less than when Kyiv last hosted the contest in 2009. This period is what I call the dark age of Junior Eurovision – There’s little competitors and most of them are from the East. The EBU should have given up already…

Speaking of, the number of ex-USSR winners have been extended to 8 since 2004 after Ukraine’s win last year. With the sole exception continued to be the Netherlands in 2009, also in Kyiv. The last winner before that turning point was Maria Isabel’s Spain, who, as you might remember, withdrew from 2007 onwards because the show doesn’t align with their values. We actually have some news from the Spanish broadcaster: Because the EBU have changed the format of the JESC an awful lot since they left, they have checked those changes and may reconsider participating in the future. We’re waiting for you back there, Spain!

At least Armenia brought us some wtfs along the way. First they sent a winning entry, then football fans, then Beatles fans, and this year it’s sugar addict named Monika. Sugar-themed songs work… when executed correctly, this is just… fine. Try to listen to Georgia’s entry from 2011 over and over again to see why it works. Armenia finished 6th. Meanwhile, Georgia has a flawless and colorful group performance with vintage-inspired choreography and upbeat charm, makes you think of… right, Malta ’08! Armenia ’12! Macedonia ’11! We didn’t forget y’all, wrong kind of nostalgia folks, C, I mean 5th place.

Even with San Marino’s inclusion, they are continued to be packed tighter than a pair of jeans, now occupying 8th to 10th, with Moldova and Macedonia being the only countries that happen to finish below them. The Dutch has some cheerleading, Sweden send in… you guessed it, some rock, and San Marino got a ballad-pop, neither of them are good. San Marino’s placing of 10th is actually their best, because it’s their debut 🤣🤣🤣 (Actually they never placed higher than that since). Let’s be honest though, while we can forgive San Marino, for the other two Western countries, this is a brand new low. Are we finally going to see a Junior Eurovision without Western countries? And, dare I say it again, turns into Junior Intervision where votes are counted by electricity consumption? It may be true…

After presumably a year off, yet another dramatic finish for the contest. A 2-horse race between Ukraine, who sent a heartfelt pop ballad performed solo center-stage with notable vocal strength and presence, and Malta, a powerful, self-penned English-language ballad delivered with maturity far beyond her 11 years. Yes, this is the first time an English-language song had a realistic chance of winning due to their entries being forced to be at least 75% in their country’s language prior. Yes, I know you’re shocked to hear that Malta speaks English. 

Going into the final spokesperson, Mariya Bakhireva from Russia, Malta held a 7-point lead over Ukraine. There’s two ways there, either Ukraine scores 8 or higher while Malta scores nothing, or Malta scores 6 more points. 8 points went to Ukraine, which the Ukrainians cheered as they the lead… for 9 seconds. 10 points went to Malta. It’s kind of deserving for a Whitney Houston-like ballad to win the contest, even winning the hearts of the Kids’ Jury, and so the contest will go to an English-speaking country for the first time, no not the UK, Malta. This is also the first winner this decade, and the first since 2009, that is NOT an ex-Soviet country. Cry now everyone, cry.

Presentation and format

The show was held at the Palace “Ukraine”, yes with quotation marks, no not the Palace of Sports, different venue here. This venue never hosted a Eurovision event before or since. Zlata Ognevich and Timur Miroshnychenko took care of hosting duties. The latter represented Ukraine in the adult contest earlier that year, just without this childish dress, and the former previously co-hosted 2009. An awful lot of Eurovision experience here from this duo!

This year the Supervising team found themselves cosplay as a panda and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, led by the contest’s newly-appointed Executive Supervisor Vladislav Yakovlev, who threatened Timur to be sent back to the job centre if he don’t reverse his spell, which he did. Yakovlev would assume this role until 2016. For the first time ever, all spokespeople announced their points directly from the arena, having seen the laziness of the Belarusian spokesperson from 2010. This tradition would continue, with the exception of the pandemic-hit 2020, until 2024. Last year’s winner Anastasiya Petryk announced the Kids’ Jury points.

This year finally legalizes the practice of “winner gets to host next year” tradition, with the winning country given right of first refusal to host the next year’s contest.

For the first time ever, the trophies are given to ALL podium sitters, not just the winner. Third place was given a pink one, second gets a blue one, and first gets a yellow one, all in the shape of the contest’s symbol “Puzzle man”. This year’s theme is “Be Creative”, probably in response to last year’s Armenian entry.

The postcards consisted of a group of children interacting with a computer-generated scene made out of puzzle pieces before seamlessly transition to the contestant introducing themselves, their theme and/or their song, as this has been the case since 2004, bar once in 2011. The first half of Malta’s postcard consist of two girls sitting on a small cruise ship.