Junior Eurovision 2022

[CaroLiza_fan]

Only found out there now that the 2022 edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest is being held today in Yerevan, Armenia.

The contest starts at 19:00:00 AMT (15:00:00 GMT). So, 8 hours from now.

And for the first time, somebody from my wee country, Northern Ireland, will be taking part.

13 year old Sophie Lennon, from County Down, will be representing Ireland.

So, that means that both Junior and Senior contests in 2022 will have featured a singer from Northern Ireland, after Brooke Scullion represented Ireland in Turin in May!

Also, having not competed in it since 2005, the UK will be making a return with 13 year old Freya Skye, from Cumbria. She is the fourth singer to represent the UK at Junior Eurovision, and the third to come from Cumbria! The first 2 UK competitors, Tom Morley in 2003 and Cory Spedding in 2004, were from the same county!

Incidentally, the 2005 entry, Joni Fuller, was from Lancashire. So, all four UK competitors have been from England. And north-west England at that.

I've never watched Junior Eurovision before (because the UK hasn't been taking part, the BBC hasn't been showing it), so it will be something new to me. Although, I am familiar with a few former competitors through them appearing on other things, e.g. Senior Eurovision; "Britain's Got Talent"; "The X Factor".

I hope the kids don't have to endure the long drawn-out results announcing process that the Seniors do. That would be cruel on them.

That said, there are only 16 countries competing. So, it shouldn't take too long to get scores from them all (fingers crossed!)

ALL THE BEST EVERYBODY!!!

CaroLiza_fan

 

[alexocfp]

Don’t follow this like I do the Senior event every May, but I heard somewhere that that winner had to close their Instagram account because they were getting a lot of vitriol for winning.

Geez, there are people out there that took the results so seriously that they needed to go online to direct abuse at the winner.

It’s freaken Junior Eurovision. Who cares what the results are?

It doesn’t matter what the results are in regular Eurovision either. If you don’t like a song or artist, just ignore them and move on with your life.

I don’t like every one of the 40ish songs every year either. But I won’t go curse out the artist as a result.

 

[CaroLiza_fan]

Apologies that I didn’t post this sooner. I just didn’t have the time to write it.

You know, I think this was the first time I have ever watched an entire Eurovision Song Contest LIVE. Normally, I watch it the following morning.

Although it was recognisably Eurovision, I did like the differences to the Senior contest. I have often complained that there is too much elaborate staging at the Senior contest, and that it takes away from the main thing – the singing. So, I was pleasantly surprised to see very little staging.

Another thing I liked was that although most of the contestants did have dancers, they were not as prominent as the dancers in the Senior contest. And the things they were doing were not as elaborate either. Probably because they were younger.

The best thing, though, is that the songs weren’t all in English. That is the thing I hate about the Senior contest. In recent years, nearly all the songs have been in English. Each year, you only get a handful of songs that aren’t. But the Junior contest still has the rule that the songs have to be in an official language of the country. Oh, how I wish they would bring back that rule for the Senior contest!

I have to be honest, though, I was disappointed in the songs. Of the 16 songs, there were only actually 4 that I liked.

So, here they are, in order of preference:

1. Zlata Dziunka - "Nezlamna (Unbreakable)" (9th)
2. Sophie Lennon - "Solas" (4th)
3. Kejtlin Gjata - "Pakëz diell" (12th)
4. Katarina Savić - "Svet bez granica" (13th)

The irony! I didn’t like the Ukrainian entry in the Senior contest, but it won both the public vote and overall. Yet the Ukrainian entry in the Junior contest was my favourite, and it finished 9th overall.

The singer representing host country Armenia, Nare, had an amazing voice. But, the song was not anywhere near as good as she was. If she had been given a better song, she would have been in my Top 3 without a doubt. However, she did make it into the Top 3 of the actual contest, finishing 2nd overall.

Don’t follow this like I do the Senior event every May, but I heard somewhere that that winner had to close their Instagram account because they were getting a lot of vitriol for winning.

Geez, there are people out there that took the results so seriously that they needed to go online to direct abuse at the winner.

It’s freaken Junior Eurovision. Who cares what the results are?

It doesn’t matter what the results are in regular Eurovision either. If you don’t like a song or artist, just ignore them and move on with your life.

I don’t like every one of the 40ish songs every year either. But I won’t go curse out the artist as a result.

My goodness!

That is awful! It’s bad enough directing abuse to an adult online, but doing it to a child?! I just can’t understand why anybody would want to do something like that.

There are some really not nice people in the world.

But, before I sign off, I have to say: what a result for Sophie Lennon. The first time somebody from Northern Ireland competes in the Junior contest, and she finishes 4th in both the jury vote and overall! That is the best Eurovision result for a singer from Northern Ireland since Linda Martin won the Senior contest in 1992.



WELL DONE SOPHIE!!!

CaroLiza_fan