EBJ’s top 10…JESC winners
Yeah, that’s right – I said the J word again. It’s only been a few weeks since we left Junior Eurovision behind for another year (and I swore to myself that I wouldn’t write about it again for ages because it seems you can get too much of a good thing) but the fact is that up until December 1st, doing a top 10 of Junior winners was impossible. Thanks to Anastasiya ‘Demon Child’ Petryk, it’s now totally possible, and in case you hadn’t guessed, I’m doing it today. Think of this list as:
a) my belated and frankly rather disappointing celebration of JESC’s 10th birthday (double digits, woohoo!)
and:
b) me handing out ESC-style points to the winners of 2003-2012 as if they were all in competition with each other in some sort of super mega JESC that would ultimately end up turning nine of them into losers. Fun, huh?
Douze points: Ti Si Moja Prva Ljubav by Dino Jelusić (2003)
This wasn’t the first Junior winner I ever heard, but it is my favourite. Obviously. I can never get my head around the fact that an eleven-year old wrote it, mainly because when I was eleven I wrote “songs” too, and they turned out to be absolutely terrible (hence the inverted commas). Dino, on the other hand, had the knack. Ti Si is irresistible, upbeat pop-rock that made me want to learn Croatian so I’d know what I was singing along with (before I could have just Googled it). Hvala, Mr. Jelusić.
10 points: Antes Muerta Que Sencilla by Marìa Isabel (2004)
Is this not the ultimate JESC bum-shaker? AKA what Allez Ola Olé by Jessy Matador is to adult Eurovision? Methinks it is. Once again the songwriting prowess of a small child both impressed me and made me feel inadequate. I also felt, and still feel, that this song could do brilliantly in the ESC with a few minor adjustments.
8 points: Mama by Vladimir Arzumanyan (2010)
I don’t want to pick sides (or fuel an already-flaming fire) but Armenia’s winning Junior song is infinitely better than Azerbaijan’s winning adult song. Vlad was yet another pre-teen who wrote and composed his entry himself, totally nailing mass-appeal ethno-pop in the process. And he could sing circles around Nikki.
7 points: Click Clack by Ralf (2009)
The Netherlands love their retro pop, and in Kyiv, so did everyone else. This song has something extra that sets it apart from the similar entries that came before and after it, and I never get tired of it. You can’t tell me you’re immune to the charm of those ‘woah-oh woah-oh’s’, can you?
6 points: Nebo by Anastasiya Petryk (2012)
The most recent, most mature and least happy-clappy winning song sits at the halfway mark in my ranking. I was a fan of this from the moment it won the Ukrainian final, but I never in a million years thought it would win anything else. As we know (this being a list of winners and all) it did, and not by the narrow margin we see a lot in mini Eurovision. I like the message behind it, which is along the lines of ‘do good and not evil, or else I will strangle you with my flowing locks.’
5 points: Candy Music by CANDY (2011)
This was another winner that blindsided me, and when it did I was livid because I loved the Netherlands so much and was 99.99% sure they would win. I’m not so livid a year later, because the song has really grown on me. Georgia has a way with Junior Eurovision, always bringing unique and very catchy stuff to the table. Candy Music is well and truly (if still a little begrudgingly) included.
4 points: S Druz’yami by Alexey Zhigalkovich (2007)
This shouldn’t feel like a guilty pleasure, since it out-scored everything else in Rotterdam, but somehow it does. And 1980s-esque soft-rock performed by kids in glorified tracksuits should so not be my thing, but because this is a bit of an ear worm and it has the Eurovision tag attached to it, apparently it is.
3 points: My Vmeste by Ksenia Sitnik (2005)
This one has un-grown on me over time, meaning I’m not as in love with it as I was say, five years ago. It’s one of the more childish winners from a competition for under 15s, and the squeakiness of her voice back then really grates on me now. It’s still a decent song though, always reminding me of summer holidays for some reason – probably not because of Ksenia’s tutu and legwarmers (I don’t know about you, but I tend to steer away from wearing those on vacation.)
2 points: Vesinniy Jazz by the Tolmachevy Twins (2006)
Here’s another one that I have gotten a little bored of since it won. Since 2006 was the first JESC I watched I’ll always think fondly of the twins, and I do think their few minutes of jazz is one of the better examples from contest history. But there comes a time when the throaty ‘wap bap do-ahhh!’ bits lose effect (still, these guys and Anastasiya Petryk should battle to see who can most accurately mimic the sound of a chainsaw).
1 point: Bzz… by Bzikebi (2008)
On the contrary, I like this more now than I did at the time. But that doesn’t mean I will be referring to it as a ‘song’ anytime soon. Macedonia was my hands-down favourite in 2008 and I’m sure some of you will agree they had the goods to win, so when it came in 5th – well behind two-and-a-half minutes of buzzing – I was slightly enraged. That aside, I still can’t warm up to Bzz… completely. But I have to commend Georgia again for sending entries to Junior that can do no wrong.
How would you rank the ten winners of the Junior ESC?
NEXT TIME: A very merry Eurovision playlist, and the first impressions of Albania, Lithuania and Ukraine’s entries for 2013!
eurovisionbyjaz.com 
6 Responses to “EBJ’s top 10…JESC winners”
That’s crazy because I felt that way last year! I had 15 songs above 85/100 for Baku! I guess it just depends on the year. I’m really excited to hear Belgium in studio and maybe with a few refinements. In terms of countries yet to come, I’m vastly excited for Latvia, Iceland and Bulgaria (to see if they actually used those fan surveys from summer). And of course Sweden, but that’s a given. 😉
If I could bet, I’d probably have won $2,000 already! And that’s without Norway, Estonia and Austria, where that ALWAYS happens to me. I might as well make some money off of my misery.
Well, I’ll probably get a Swiss flag anyway, but hopefully Iceland can pull a 2008 and blow everyone out of the water again… probablyprobablynot, but it’s still good to dream. 🙂
Your Christmas sounds like my summer! Although, it probably should be that way since you live in the Southern Hemisphere but, anyway. Enjoy not freezing like a popsicle! 🙂
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Merry Christmas! Enjoy it with a day at the beach for all of us who are freezing in the Northern Hemisphere, please!
Aside from my usual stupidity, it’s nice to take a break from the festival of mediocrity that Malmö 2013 is shaping up to be. Only Switzerland scores above a 70/100 from me, the rest are sub-60. Without Bosnia & Herzegovina (who have pissed me off so royally that I don’t even want to think about it), Portugal, Slovakia and Turkey (hypocrites!), this is probably going to be my least favorite Eurovision of the past five years. Well, a little part of me actually wanted it that way to kind of get back at SVT for all their terrible “improvements.” What a load of pretentious trash coming out of them. Ugh, how frustrating.
Anyway, back to JESC. I think that I agree with Croatia and Spain being on top, but right after that, I’d have Ralf, then Vladimir. After that, we’d have the exact same lists. I 100 percent agree about 2008 and Macedonia (as we’ve discussed before) and with 2011 and Rachel, who more than made up for a silver medal with her performance of Euphoria to open Amsterdam’s show this year.
I wanted this to be a longer comment, but I guess that’s not going to happen, unless I continue to bitch about how my favorite NF song ALWAYS ends up in second place (or is just completely withdrawn, like the screaming grandma from Ukraine). Honestly, the first country to send my favorite NF song will get an automatic 50 points. At this point, with the expectations these six countries have given me, I think that Gerai Gerai and Miss Sheep will probably be my winner of the whole year. Hopefully Iceland can save us! Or, maybe someone like France, but that’ll never happen. It just HAS to get better… 😦
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Merry Christmas to you too =D I won’t be spending it at the beach for several reasons, but mainly because it is going to be freaking hot over here and I would absolutely fry. I’m jealous of your winter. The grass is always greener I suppose.
I just commented to Annika that I might be too easily pleased when it comes to Eurovision. Or Malmö, at least. All but Lithuania and Albania would be above 70 for me right now. I really want to hear studio versions from Ukraine and Belgium.
I guess 2013 may be pretentious in a different way to Baku, which was all flashy, touristy pretention, not that I minded much at the time. Even though there’s a part of you that wants a low-quality field, I hope by the time the 39 have been picked, you’re happier. If not, at least you can wave a Swiss flag!
If your favourite NF song always ends up second, you could be making money betting on that to happen, I guess =P I think Lithuania would have been better off choosing Girmante or Gerai Gerai etc, but who knows – maybe Andrius will pull an Alyosha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAveryverymaybe.
Sweden will make it better!! Even if that’s not til March.
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Hi Jaz 😀
I just wanted to say that Maria Isabel didn’t write her song (or at least not completely) and there are proofs. I used to like this song a lot, I even bought all of Mari Isabel’s albums, but a couple of years after her victory it started to annoy me and I don’t really like it anymore. I just find the lyrics are so wrong for a 9 year old! I still like Maria Isabel though, some or her other songs are awesome.
I think out top 10 jesc winners are similar, but I probably have Russia 2006 higher than both Belarusian entries. I have no idea of how to rank “Nebo” though. Totally agree on bzikebi’s place.
I guess you’re going to blog soon about this, but what do you think about the entries that have been chosen? I only like Ukraine so far..but meh.
Also, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! May all your wishes come true! (And that hopefully includes your wish of Bosnia returning to eurovision next year bwaaaa 2013 is going to be a long year without them :’()
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I thought she did, for some reason. What were the rules back then?? All the songs had to be written and composed by kids, didn’t they?? If that was the case then it’s still impressive. I kind of wish that adult assistance wasn’t allowed nowadays.
‘Nebo’ seems so out of place in this list!! It’s from another planet. All I know is that I like it. And I’m not surprised you agree about Bzibeki X]
The entries so far…well, I have indeed just blogged about three of them! I think I might be too easily pleased, because I don’t think the field is too ‘meh’. Ukraine is the best, and Albania and Lithuania are the worst, but even those I don’t hate. Lithuania grew on me a teensy bit the second time I listened to it. TBH I’ve only listened to Albania once and already forgotten how it goes.
MERRRRRY CHRISTMASSS to you too *Santa voice*!!! If I could have asked for Bosnia back in Eurovision under the tree then I would have. Is it really too late for them to be saved now the participant list has been published? Wah =”(
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*BziKEBI
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