Ukraine won the honour of hosting the seventh Junior Eurovision, so saw fit to host it in their capital. It was only the second time that a city had hosted both a JESC and a senior ESC. And the Palace of Sports became the only venue – to date anyway – to host both contests. So fans out there who went to Kyiv will know it well. It was perhaps unfortunate, therefore, the number of entrants also dropped to its lowest number to date. Lithuania took a year out, Greece have yet to return, and Bulgaria has since returned. On the plus side, Sweden came back after a year out.

You may notice that surname Sandén cropping up again. Younger sister of Molly (JESC 2006) and Frida (JESC 2007), Mimmi decided to have a go at the big prize too. She didn’t win, but put up a brave fight. Winner Ralf Mackenbach is still a star in the Netherlands, and has been a judge on the talent show “My name is…”. Luara from Armenia is now recording in the USA. On the administration side, a certain Ani Lorak was one of the hosts. I don’t think she was quite dressed as she was when she represented Ukraine at the senior event in 2008.

Sweden – Mimmi Sandén – Du (You)

Russia – Ekaterina Ryabova – Malenkiy prints (Little prince)

Armenia – Luara Hyrapetyan – Barcelona

Romania – Ioana Anuța – Ai puterea în mâna ta (You have the power in your hand)

Serbia – Ništa Lično – Onaj pravi (The right one)

Georgia – Princesses – Blue bird

Netherlands – Rald Mackenbach – Click clack

Cyprus – Rafaella Kosta – Thalassa, ilios, aeras, fotia (Sea, sun, air, fire)

Malta – Francesca & Mikaela – Double trouble

Ukraine – Andranik Alexanyan – Try topoli, try surmy (Three poplars, three trumpets)

Belgium – Laura Omloop – Zo verliefd (So in love)

Belarus – Yuriy Demidovich – Volshebniy krolik (The magic rabbit)

Macedonia – Sara Markoska – Za ljubovta (For love)

The voting went down to the last jury – who doesn’t love a close contest – with Armenia leading by four points before the final vote was called. Macedonia then gave only one point to Armenia, seven to Russia and 12 to Netherlands. So Russia and Armenia shared second place, and Ralf from the Netherlands claimed his country’s first win. It was also the first Western European nation to win since Spain in 2004.

Which songs did you like best?

Author: John Stanton