As you’ll know, the selections for Junior Eurovision are continuing apace, so we at EI thought it would be good to do a small round-up of where we are. Don’t forget, there are just over five weeks to the big night.

Australia’s inclusion of Bella Paige and her song My girls means we now know eleven songs for the contest in Sofia in November. And we have a field of 17 entrants – a record only beaten by the second JESC in 2004 in Lillehammer. Who knows, that record could still be equalled.

We won’t know the running order until the week of the contest itself, so the list below is purely in alphabetical order:

Albania – Mishela Rapo – Dambaje

Armenia – Mika – Love

Australia – Bella Paige – My girls

Bella will be 14 at the time of JESC, and comes from Melbourne. Her parents were born in Macedonian so Bella feels very close to her Balkan roots. She’s no stranger to competition, and finished as runner-up in The Voice Kids Australia in 2014. In addition to singing, Bella is a dancer, and loves ballet, jazz and hip-hop. Her song has been co-written by Delta Goodrem.

Belarus – Ruslan Aslanov – Volbshestvo (Magic)

Ruslan is 13 and comes from Minsk. His musical instrument of choice is the saxophone, and plays it at the music school he attends. He’s participated Voice: Ukraine and New Wave: Russia.

Bulgaria – Gabriela Yordanova – To be announced

Georgia – Virus – Gabede

Ireland – To be decided on 8 November

Italy – Chiara & Martina Scarpari – Viva

Macedonia – Ivana & Magdelena – Pletenka (Braid)

Ivana and Magdelena are both 13 and come from Skopje. Ivana’s background is in Macedonian folk music. She participates in several ensembles and choirs. She’s been performing since she was three. Magdelena has been in children’s choirs for six years, and also plays the flute. She’s even recorded her first song. Both girls draw inspiration from the late, great Toše Proeski.

Malta – Destiny Chukunyere – To be announced

Destiny is 13 and goes to school in Ħamrun. She’s already been in several musical competitions in her native Malta (including winning the right to represent her country in Sofia in November. Overseas, she represented Malta in San Remo in May 2013 at the famous Teatro Ariston, and also in competitions in Skopje and Verona.

Montenegro – Jana Mirković – Oluja (Storm)

Netherlands – Shalisa – Million lights

Russia – Mikhail Smirnov – Mechta (Dream)

San Marino – To be decided

Serbia – Lena Stamenković – Lenina pesma (Lena’s song)

Lena is 11 and comes from Zaječar. She plays the trumpet with a local band, and performed at her younger brother’s christening. She’s currently learning to play the piano at the elementary music school where she is enrolled.

Slovenia – Lina Kuduzović – Prva ljubezen (First love)

Ukraine – Anna Trincher – Pochny z sebe (Start with yourself)

Anna is 14 and comes from Kyiv. Like Ruslan from Belarus, she’s performed in Voice Kids: Ukraine (performing in front of Tina Karol), and the New Wave Contest. She also tried to represent Ukraine in the 2014 edition of JESC .

Stay tuned as the last remaining countries pick their songs for Sofia. And tell us which of the selected songs you like. Do we have a winner yet? And just to remind you, here’s the winner from JESC 2014 in Malta.

Author: John Stanton