At the start of April, Eurovision Ireland entered its 10th anniversary year. Now that the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest and its aftermath is over, we thought it was about time we got around to celebrating. Some of the current team, along with some of our contributors, have put their thoughts together.

Today, we are looking at our favourite Junior Eurovision Song Contest Winner from the first ten years of Eurovision Ireland.

John

Easily has to be Not my soul by Destiny. She exuded star quality and, along with one other act, took the JESC in Sofia in 2015 by the scruff of the neck. We knew Destiny was destined for bigger things too, and I wasn’t surprised when she represented her country in Rotterdam in 2021. Other winners have come close, but 2015 stands out.

Richard

While it would be easy to choose Destiny or Valentina, we shouldn’t forget Mariam Mamadashvili from 2016. Right from the very start of rehearsals, Mariam’s performance of “Mzeo” transported me back to the early years of the Eurovision Song Contest and because of that classical element, that is the reason I believe she was a standout winner.

Sarah

Has to be Valentina, singing for France with J’imagine for me, a happy, jolly song, which in a year of misery we all needed to hear.

Phil (OnEurope)

Destiny from Malta.  It was at this point that we knew that her talent would eventually get her to the adult contest and some of us even thought she would win the adult at her first attempt – she was clearly robbed.  Not My Soul is a really well written song that would do well in the big show, it just so happened to be sung by a child with a damn good voice.  It really suited Destiny’s power which only grew as she got older.

Roy (Eurovision Apocalypse)

Without a doubt it’s the only JESC song that I’ve ever been sure was going to win from the first moment I heard it – J’imagine by Valentina. Rather than trying to be all grown up like so many of the singers to at that contest, she just celebrated everything about being a kid, and it was as near to perfect as I could want a JESC song to be.

Let us know what you think about Eurovision Ireland’s 10th Anniversary – either in the comments below or on our FACEBOOK and TWITTER pages.

Author: Richard Taylor

Source: Eurovision Ireland