2021

 

• Hosted in: Paris, France

• Won by: Armenia – Qami Qami by Malena

This is the second part of the “French monopoly” saga: Young audiences who have grown fond of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest are no doubt delighted to become better predictors than Netta as the contest went to the most obvious French city imaginable (no pun intended), Paris, with the venue being only about 6km from the Eiffel Tower, or exactly 100 baguettes. Just a short 20-minute drive from there. Gone from the total isolation Valentina expressed in her winning song, the contest managed to pretend that it never happened. Pretend. Like the adult contest earlier that year, the EBU have set many scenarios for the contest to move forward, from “let’s do 2020 again!” to “What the heck is COVID?” Of course, they didn’t announce which scenario they were going for, but judging from the show, I presume it’s “Let’s pack this arena but make sure they all masked. No one will know”

Germany returned from the lockdown 2020 edition, having finally see the light of day that is a full audience. Will they capitalize? Uhmmmm… ahhhhh… Having the number of participants shoot up from 12 to 19, competition for the title is back to being fierce than ever. They send in Pauline with the song “Imagine Us”. Despite trying to manifest what works last year, they got the cursed position of performing first, and got down to a 17th place this year. The performance itself is unexplainable, but I can assume it’s about protests for peace and environmental protection, the latter is much like Spain 2019!

Speaking of Spain, in all of the prior appearances, they finished in the top five on all occasions, proving why they deserved to be a member of the OG “big three” that once dominated the first two editions, even with the notable absences of the United Kingdom and Croatia. However, this year, that hot streak finally came to an end, in fact, they failed spectacularly, something that Maria Isabel would commit to you-know-what when she sees this. Levi Diaz got us “Reir”, a funky pop with a positive message, got some fan enthusiasm. However, Spain failed to reach high places, joint 12th with Italy in the online vote, as well as 14th in the jury vote, sent the Spanish to 15th, their lowest placing to date. Something is VERY wrong with their selection… 

Even worse, though, is the Netherlands. Now being the only country to have participated in ALL JESC editions after Belarus withdrew, they have hit a brand new low. They got us a quiet ballad, as this is JESC tradition, alongside some Japanese theming. However, clearly the voters are not their toy (get it?), both the juries and the online voters said that the Dutch had seen better days and the juries voted the Dutch into third to last and the online voters voted them to DEAD last. And so, it took the Netherlands 12 years to go from champion to wooden spoon. Coincidentally that’s Valentina’s age at the time. Equally unimpressive was Ireland, whom their Celtic-language piece was niche in appeal. They were voted dead last by the juries and only the online voters saved them from being literal last. But they got sandwiched between the Netherlands and Germany.

With Poland breaking the host curse, will France repeat the Polish fortunes? Contrary to the adorable melody of J’imagine is Enzo’s “Tic tac”. Clearly, they haven’t seen the Dutch entry for 2012. Despite the eerily similar clockwork theming, Tic tac is an upbeat mid-tempo number, and is one of the contenders to become the sequel to the “Click clack” saga of Ralf Mackenbach (who have started researching quantum physics by then, surprisingly). It proved convincing enough to put them into 1st place after the juries have done voting. However any hopes of being the next Poland was not to be. The online voters only gave them the fourth highest score of 67 points, failing to overtake Poland and Armenia. Poland, meanwhile, while unable to win anything since the double, have managed to push momentum after a disappointing finish last year, finishing 2nd in both categories, resulting in, you guessed it, 2nd overall.

After two disappointing second place finishes in a row, Kazakhstan once again trying to prove that this will be their year. It isn’t. I don’t know why would they send in a sob story while their history in the JESC is already a sob story on its own. This year the country was represented by Alinur Khamzin and Beknur Zhanibekuly. At first I thought Beknur is the first disabled participant, but after talking with an actual, real-life JESC maniac (thanks Chopi!), he's has phocomelia, and was only the SECOND disabled participant. The only other one was Andranik in 2009. They’re not relatives or anything, during the national final they were tied on the top, and decided that BOTH should go to Junior Eurovision. Well done boys, hard day at the office isn’t it?

Unfortunately, this is still NOT the Got Talent series, and even the online voters argue that having a singer on wheels doesn’t guarantee a win, and sent Kazakhstan to eighth place. Meanwhile, Portugal was victim of a jury vote robbery, being given the 3rd highest score in the online vote, while the juries voted third to last, resulting in a bottom half finish of 11th place. Tensions have risen once again.

Ultimately, it was never about disability, clockwork, ballads, or copying the cultures of another country. It is ultimately another night for our ex-Soviets. Armenia, having last won the contest in 2010, sent in an entry that hit us hard, a rare vaporwave-wave “Euroclub” entry. A sleek electro-pop piece about space, backed by four dancers and subtle pyrotechnics. If it isn’t “songs you can rave at a nightclub to”, then I don’t know what is. It was Malena’s “Qami Qami” that stole the show, and girls LOVED it. While not as big of a margin as France last year, Armenia topped the online vote and placed third in the jury vote, Armenia became the first former Soviet country to win the contest since Russia in 2017. Meanwhile, France would plot their revenge…

Presentation and format

This year’s contest was back to a full audience, albeit with everyone wearing masks, but other than that, most of the aspects pre-Covid was reinstated. The show was held at La Seine Musicale, which, as the name suggests, is located in the banks of the river Seine, and was hosted by Élodie Gossuin, Oliver Minne and Carla. The latter represented France in the 2019 contest. True to Paris, the stage has some French architecture on it, mainly the bridges where the green room is situated. 

Due to the date being 19 December, the first Junior Eurovision to be held in December since 2012, and the latest date for any Eurovision event, the show has a Christmassy theme in it, with the contest icon being a combination of the Eiffel Tower and a Christmas tree, and during the interval act Valentina performed a jingle bells cover of J’imagine. Speaking of, her winning song became the theme of this year’s contest, “Imagine”. The voting sequence was largely back pre-COVID, the spokespeople flew to Paris again, and the 12 points are once again placed after every other point, unlike last year. Due to the country hosting the contest, the points are also announced in French, a practice commonly seen in the adult contest, for the first time since 2005.

The postcards start with the contestant flying on a stream of light while sparkling pixie dust on a group of children in a Parisian location, who starts dancing. The postcard ends with the image of the contestant being projected on La Seine Musicale.