Good Afternoon Europe, and Good Evening Australia! The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016 has come to an end, and whenever a Eurovision contest comes to an end, we have a winner.
From Georgia, Mariam Mamadashvili singing her song “Mzeo” has won the competition, giving Georgia their 3rd win, and has officially crowned Georgia as the ultimate Junior Eurovision Champions, being now the only country to win the contest 3 times.
What a run it also was, for the second time within only 3 years, Malta hosted the contest for the second time. After Destiny secured the small isle’s second victory last year in Sofia, Bulgaria.
The show was hosted by Ben Camille and Valerie Vella. The pair guided us through the 17 participants taking part from all of Europe’s corners and Australia.
To begin with, we were introduced into dance and joy as we got presented the 17 participants, who would take the stage.
Before the start, out lovely hosts decided to let all the viewers know, that the winner this year, will be decided by 3 groups of juries. The first group being a professional jury, the second being a kids jury from the countries taking part, and lastly, the third group of juries, who were invited to attend the show in the hall, which consisted of Mads Grimstad, Christer Björkman & Jedward. This meant, that any kind of viewer televoting, was completely removed this year.
Anyways, let the show start, and let’s just sit back and enjoy the 17 performances, which we all probably did. Just as fast as it all started, then as well, it finished just as fast.
As we all knew for a long time, countries such as Montenegro, Slovenia & San Marino decided to not take part, while countries like Israel, Cyprus & Poland all returned to join the event.
We were also in for some Eurovision treats, since Poli Genova, who represented Bulgaria earlier this year and also back in 2011, and even hosted the Junior Eurovision last year, was on stage to perform her song, that gave Bulgaria their best ever Eurovision placing “If Love Was A Crime”.
Since the twins from Ireland was also there, they could as well take the stage and perform a song for the audience.
The slogan for the show was embrace, and we sure got to embrace a lot. Before every single act, we were presented with a very specially made postcard, which showed parts of Malta and the joys the isle has to offer, but we also got a small sneak peak of the kids competing, just having fun on Malta, and what they could offer the audience.
After we were halfway into the show, it was time for a break from the competitors, this is where Poli Genova made her appearance, and then first after all the 17 acts had performed, then it was time for some Jedward magic. However, the show didn’t stop there, since Malta was hosting the competition, and they won last year, then of course we also needed to see Destiny performing her winning song from last year as well.
As it was indeed much fun to watch, then we needed to find a winner. This is where it all got serious, and the question was as always “who would win?”. First we were given the points from the professional adult jury, these points were presented by the kids from the different competing countries. The points were awarded in the same way, as they were at this years Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm. After getting the adult votes first, Georgia had placed themselves way ahead in the lead, and were on a solid first place. Afterwards we got the few extra points, from Mads Grimstad, Christer Björkman and Jedward. Georgia was still in the lead after these few extra points, and then finally we would get the points from the kids jury in the competing countries. As a big surprice, Georgia was far from being the favorite of the Kids jury, this was won by Armenia getting a total of 110 points, with Malta & Russia finishing the top 3. However, when all the points where put together, it was simply not enough for Armenia, and Georgia kept their lead until the end.
- Georgia – 239 Points
- Armenia – 232 Points
- Italy – 209 Points
- Russia – 202 Points
- Australia – 202 Points
- Malta – 191 Points
- Belarus – 177 Points
- Netherlands – 175 Points
- Bulgaria – 161 Points
- Ireland – 122 Points
- Poland – 60 Points
- F.Y.R. Macedonia – 41 Points
- Albania – 38 Points
- Ukraine – 30 Points
- Israel – 27 Points
- Cyprus – 27 Points
- Serbia – 27 Points
Congratulation Georgia!
In conclution, it was a close race, until the very end, but it was just not enough, and Georgia has now claimed their 3rd Junior Eurovision victory. It is not certain, that Georgia will host the competition next year, despite their 3 wins, Georgia has never hosted the contest before. We all wish Mariam a huge congratulation with the win.
If you wish to re-watch the show, or if you wish to see how it all happened, then you can watch the entire show right here.
