A new star joins the magical list of Junior Eurovision winners! Lissandro is the 20th person to make history at the most extraordinary children’s music event on the planet. Representing France with the song “Oh Maman!”, he has conquered the stage of the Karen Demirchyan Complex in Yerevan, Armenia, with his magical voice.
A total of 203 points were obtained by France from the public and the jury to become the owner of the mini crystal microphone trophy of this Junior Eurovision 2022. Armenia was just behind with 180 points, followed by Georgia in third place with 165 points and Spain in sixth place with 137 points.
And so we close another chapter of the book of what will be a very long history of Junior Eurovision, which for this 20th anniversary we have told you in ESCplus in full thanks to the very complete guide that our colleague José Miguel Mancheño has given us and that we continue writing from now on with the next edition of 2023 that will begin to be forged from today
THIS IS HOW WE HAVE CELEBRATED 20 YEARS OF EUROVISION JUNIOR
At 16:00h CET on Sunday 11 December 2022, millions of screens around the world were switched on to receive the magical signal of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2022 from the Karen Demirchyan Complex in Yerevan, Armenia, whose 20th edition has been heard from many corners of the world
spin The Magic’ was the official slogan of this year’s edition and, after discovering what it means to spin the magic, the winner of Junior Eurovision 2021 and responsible for the continuation of the history of the festival from Armenia today, Maléna, welcomed us to her country and to this significant commemoration with the common song performed by all the participants together, a song that bears the title of the slogan of the contest and was composed by Tokionine, composer of last year’s winner “QamiQami. At the same time, the 16 artists were presented with the traditional parade of flags.
With the presentation of the masters of ceremonies, each of the 16 performances of the brilliant 16 representatives of the different countries began . Unfortunately, the representative of Serbia, Katarina Savić, was unable to be present at today’s live event due to a medical indisposition that prevented her from participating. As health comes first for the organisers, we have instead been able to watch a recording of her performance at yesterday’s dress rehearsal, including the audience in attendance. It is worth noting that the jurors voted by watching the same rehearsal yesterday, so the only downside for Katarina is that she had to miss today’s experience, although at least she was able to enjoy it yesterday.
After the 16 performances, the voting platform was opened for about 18 more minutes, where we were able to watch two recaps to remember the songs and enjoy several guest stars with whom we reviewed and remembered some of the thousands of wonderful things we have experienced in the Eurovision world over the years.
After the first summary, last year’s winner Maléna took to the stage and said goodbye to her Eurovision reign by presenting her new song “Maléna” “Can’t Feel Anything.
And after the second recap, presenter Iveta Mukuchyan asked the audience to help her hum a Eurovision song that has been a big hit in recent months, and it wasn’t a winner and it’s not from Junior Eurovision. It is “Snap“ by Rosa Linn, the song with which she represented Armenia this year 2022 at the Senior Eurovision in Turin and which she sang for us again today on the Junior Eurovision stage.
Just when it was time to close the online public voting network to start counting the votes, the robot Robin appeared on stage claiming to have a card with the name of the winner of Junior Eurovision 2022. The presenters, Iveta and Garik, rode, or tried to, on a robotic-looking three-wheeled mini-bike in a race to get to the stage first to read the card. Iveta arrived, but when she read the card to find out the winner, she was extremely disappointed. It still couldn’t be discovered at that moment, so we have seen that Robin is not able to predict the future
And to celebrate the 20 years that we have been enjoying Junior Eurovision, the endearing robot Robin was then in charge of telling us the history of this festival throughout its different stages. From the old girl with braids who was the image of the contest in its first editions to the awaited reunion with 11 of the 19 magnificent winners of Junior Eurovision until today, who have been in charge of singing a few seconds of the song with which they made history. The attendees we have seen again, now more grown up, have been Bzikebi (Georgia 2008), Ralf Mackenbach (Netherlands 2009), Vladímir Arzumanyan (Armenia 2010), Candy Music (Georgia 2011), Gaia Cauchi (Malta 2013), Vincenzo Cantiello (Italy 2014), Destiny Chukunyere (Malta 2015), Mariam Mamadashvili (Georgia 2016), Viki Gabor (Poland 2019), Valentina (France 2020) and of course Maléna (Armenia 2021).
For the other former winners who were unable to attend, their songs were recorded and performed by a choir of Armenian children who performed, among others, a few seconds of the song “Better Dead Than Single maria Isabel’s song with which Spain won in 2004. Our winner has not been able to attend Yerevan due to the final stretch of her pregnancy, before the arrival of her future baby. Who knows if we will see her one day at the festival?
Finally, the executive supervisor, Martin Österdah, confirmed the correct reception of the votes and the presenters proceeded to announce the results, first the jury’s ratings, with the votes from 1 to 10 automatically appearing on screen and the spokespersons announcing the desired 12 points from the stage, and then those of the public, via the online voting. The sum of both revealed the best kept secret, the winner.
Past winners and participants included Ralf Mackenbach (winner from the Netherlands in 2009), Viki Gabor (winner from Poland in 2019), Gaia Cauchi (winner from Malta in 2013), Viki Gabor (winner from Poland in 2019) and Gaia Cauchi (winner from Malta in 2013), Gaia Cauchi (winner from Malta in 2013), Vincenzo Cantiello (winner from Italy in 2014), Valentina (winner from France in 2020), Niko Kajaia (Georgia in 2019), Petar Aničić (Serbia in 2020) and Maléna (winner from Armenia in 2021).
THE VOTES THAT DECIDED THE RESULTS
The voting system that determined the winner was once again 50% jury and 50% online voting by the public. Once the spokespersons had revealed all the scores of the professional juries, a total of 928 points, the presenters were in charge of revealing the total score obtained by each country in the public vote, which to be fair also adds another 928 points between all, starting with the country that was at the bottom of the table at that moment, based on the jury’s vote, up to the first one. Tension was in the air until the 20th winner of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2022 was announced.
The jury cast their votes yesterday after watching the dress rehearsal, while the public has been able to cast their votes twice on the free online platform, once since Friday and once during today’s gala, choosing their three favourites. Only one attempt per IP address has been validated, ruling out the multiple attempts of some people trying to vote multiple times or using VPN to unsuccessfully mask their location.
Although during today’s festival there have been some difficulties in voting due to the collapse of the voting website due to the large number of votes flooding in
WHO HAVE BEEN THE MASTERS OF CEREMONIES OF THESE 20 YEARS OF JUNIOR EUROVISION?
For such a special date, it was necessary to entrust the hosting of the festival to three excellent people who, in one way or another, have been part of the Eurovision magic throughout its long history. And on such a fabulous date, there were no surprises either, with a fourth presenter who has caused a lot of sympathy among the audience who had not read about his presence. These were the presenters:
Iveta Mukuchyan (1986) is a singer and model born in Yerevan (Armenia). Her connection with the Eurovision world came in 2016, when she was chosen internally by ARMTV to represent Armenia at the Senior Eurovision held in Stockholm (Sweden). With her song “LoveWave”she was the second most voted entry in the First Semi-Final. In the Grand Final, she reached 7th place with 249 points thanks to her unparalleled stage presence and careful staging. It received, among others, 12 points from the Spanish jury.
Garik Papoyan (1984) is a well-known Armenian actor, writer, musician and comedian. He is known as “the funniest guy in Armenia”. His connection with the Eurovision world stems from his having been the composer of one of Armenia’s two best-ever results in the Senior Eurovision Song Contest, and at the same time of the country’s worst result in the same competition. He composed “Not Alone” for Aram MP3, which finished in 4th place in Copenhagen 2014, and “Walking Out” of Srbuk, which did not make it past the Second Semi-Final in Tel Aviv 2019, with 49 points in 16th place. Moreover, you will also know him for having been the spokesperson of the Armenian jury’s scores at Senior Eurovision 2022 this year in Turin, giving his 12 points to Spain, our dear Chanel Terrero,
Karina Ignatyan (2006) returns to Junior Eurovision, now as a presenter, becoming the fifth artist to return to the contest as a host, following Lizi Japaridze (2017), Helena Meraai (2018) and Roksana Węgiel (2019) and Carla Lazzari (2021). Interestingly, her partner in Gliwice-Silesia 2019, French Carla was the presenter at the last edition of Paris 2021. Karina represented Armenia at Junior Eurovision 2019 with the danceable and ethnic “Colours Of Your Dream”. Despite being one of the big favourites of the festival, she only managed to climb to 9th place in the contest with 115 points.
Robin, the robot. For the first time in the history of Junior Eurovision, the contest has been presented by a robot powered by AI (artificial intelligence). Robin is already a superstar in Armenia, and for good reason: as an AI robot, Robin can generate and share feelings, providing emotional support to hospitalised children in their recovery phase, can play with them and help them overcome the difficulties of their treatment. This wonderful Armenian robot is widely used not only by local hospitals, but also by major US medical facilities. TIME magazine featured Robin among the 100 best inventions of 2021. Today, he is taking us through20 years of Junior Eurovision stories and memories.