2008

 

• Hosted in: Limassol, Cyprus

• Won by: Georgia – Bzz by Bzikebi

Whether you liked it or not, you have to admit – 2008 was the year of the Bzzzbzbzbzbzbzbzbzbz. Three Georgian children dressed up and imitate as bees. But before we even go into that, there was a change in format. While bloc voting is yet to exist in the Junior version of the Eurovision Song Contest – mainly because kids doesn’t know what politics is at the time – It’s been four freaking years since the contest was won by a country that is NOT a former Soviet republic. That country, is, of course, Spain. We still get it Maria Isabel, you’d still rather be dead than plain.

No seriously, since 2005, the contest went to Belarus, bounced to Russia and back to Belarus again. It’s either their songs are good or something really fishy is going on. Because the EBU believes in the latter, and because of the fact that they’re really tired of bloc voting in the adult contest – once that led Terry Wogan resign from the commentary box that same year – it was decided that national juries would be introduced, consisting of adults and weirdly enough, children, influencing 50% of the outcome, with the rest being, you guessed it, televote. All participating countries got their own national juries except Ukraine. I wonder what’s in their mind.

Despite efforts to bring the contest out of the east, there was a slim chance – most of the countries participating are in the east, with the sole exception of Benelux countries for good measure. Rendering their efforts potentially useless. It might as well be Junior Intervision at this point!

Speaking of nostalgia, Malta clearly sent a wrong generation of children here. Daniel Testa and… whoever that is, did a 60s swing that is, you guessed it, “Junior Swing”, complete with a prop phonograph and a grainy monochrome filter at one point (Wasted Love eat your heart out) they finished fourth. Russia clearly watched too much early Junior Eurovision, and we find ourselves in the ballad position, at least in Russia’s perspective, anyway…

What’s the most offensive song in Eurovision? Serving by Miriana Conte? I’m sorry, you’re no match for Oliver from Belgium, which its lyrics and title literally told Europe to “shut up”, and no one raised eyebrows except for a few adults and bullies. We unfortunately do not know why he told everyone to shut up but nevertheless the song is bad, the guitar riff is out of place and the piano Oliver was playing was watered out. Not even a few dancers can save him from this disaster. If only the piano can burn… Therefore it was understandable that the Belgian entry got 1 or 2 points per country, but when it comes to the Netherlands, it got 10. I smell bloc voting… it finished fifth to last.

As much as I wanted it to be the wooden spoon winner of 2008, it still performed better than Bulgaria. Which I don’t really understand because it was an okay entry. The heart-shaped glasses got into everyone’s minds. It collected zero points from every country other than FYR Macedonia, who gave them 3 from some reason. Finishing bottom with 15 points (a number impressive only because of the sympathy 12 points). Speaking of Macedonia, Australia-born Bobi Andonov (whom his country of birth, ironically, broadcasted this year’s contest for seemingly no reason as it did in all prior years. Imagine the Aussies when they know this! An Australian entrant before 2015!) got us Prati mi SMS – Send me a message – though we all know what its true purpose of the song. 

Despite all that madness, we all know this is Bzikebi’s stage, a stage where they collect points like honey. As aforementioned, Bzikebi’s “Bzz” is both an ear worm and an ear candy at the same time – It’s an ear worm because most of the time they would make that “bzbzbzbzbzbzbz” sound. Who knows it might cause nightmares. It’s an ear candy because of that techno-pop chorus. All when they wore bee-like costumes. Like you definitely knew what you’re expecting. It collected 154 points to bring the trophy home, but still, not the contest itself.

With another former Soviet republic winning the contest, even with no-nonsense juries, you might be thankful that the actual Soviet Union no longer exist…

Presentation and format

With the contest trophy unwillingly getting out of the boundaries of the former Soviet Union, the contest was held in Limassol, Cyprus instead. It could be worse when one of the bidding cities was Kyiv, Ukraine! Alex Michael and Sophia Paraskeva hosted the contest. The stage has, bizarrely, a fountain pool full of cubes. During the performances a ball of the corresponding country would float on it.

This year’s trophy is even weirder than last year’s. A diorama containing a boat, a seagull, a wave, a fish and the sun – all made out of tin. 2008 saw the introduction of the new generic logo for the contest, heavily based on the adult contest one that was introduced in 2004, with the notable omission of a heart symbol in place of the “V”, a variant that has been used in the now-defunct Eurovision Dance Contest prior. It remained that way, with another alteration but still similar enough in 2015, until 2023. The contest continued to be a fundraiser for UNICEF – with all of the revenue from the televoting going to them, as this was the case for last year.

As aforementioned, this year saw the introduction of national juries consisting of adults and children. The points were carried by a hot-air balloon (virtually on the scoreboard, of course!). While jury points are no stranger to the ESC – This is the first time in any of the Eurovision events that jury and televoting are balanced. While previously songwriters must also be in the same age range as the performers themselves, this year saw the allowance of adults assisting the entries.

The postcards start with scenes from probably around Cyprus before the contestants rudely interrupted the otherwise calm image and doing activities with an object relating to the previous footage. For example, Georgia’s postcard start with a kid dropping a message into a glass bottle before releasing it to the sea in a middle of a family dinner, before Bzikebi opened a similar, otherwise unrelated one. As always, they end by introducing themselves and their song.