Bulgaria’s Poli Genova hosted Junior Eurovision 2015 and Destiny Chukunyere won the contest.
And on November 20 officials at Junior Eurovision revealed that the two stars will share the stage once more, this time as interval acts at Junior Eurovision 2016.
Poli, who earned Bulgaria its highest-ever finish by placing fourth at Eurovision 2016, has been on our radar for the gig for a while. In late October we shared five reasons why we were dreaming of her performing as the Junior Eurovision interval act — see the list here — and the JESC gods have answered our prayers. Say it with me now: Hallelujah!
In Stockholm, Poli — a two-time Eurovision competitor — wowed all of Europe with her on-trend track “If Love Was A Crime”. Ahead of Eurovision the Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music professionals — could not stop singing her praises, ranking her third out of the 42 competing acts.
One juror wrote:
Ethnic but not off-putting, “If Love Was a Crime” manages to think locally while translating globally. The opening verses build steadily and confidently, leading to a pre-chorus that is all kinds of amazing. The chorus itself could be a tad bigger, but the Bulgarian lyrics and turbo-folk feel make it sufficiently special to carry the song…Breezy, catchy and feel-good, this is easily Bulgaria’s best Eurovision entry ever.
Poli, who has also served as a judge on Bulgarian X Factor, has plenty of experience with kids music.
As a teenager, Lil Miss Genova worked every single frame of her music videos for Bon Bon — an incredibly popular Bulgarian children’s group. Whether she was immersed in water or rocking the night club, she brought that Bulgarian teenage girl with braces realness that we could all relate to. The duckling definitely became…a swan!
Destiny killed the competition in Bulgaria, serving soul, power and charisma with her song “Not My Soul”.
Ahead of the contest we wrote:
Young Destiny serves Aretha Franklin realness from the very first note. The song is well-paced, builds from verse to verse, and gives Destiny plenty of space to fill it with her enormous vocals and range. It hints at black spirituals from the American South and funky jives straight outta Motown. Yet this remains accessible to kids. They can’t take Destiny’s soul, and honey, they can’t take her voice either! My favourite song of the year.
It’s weird. Poli Genova has nothing to do with Eurovision for kids.It was nice to see her performing even if twice on Eurovision,but for God sake please not again…Wouldn’t it be better for her as a beginner in singing to work on building strong performer career ?
Str8 is obviously a phony moron just trolling. Ignore.
Poli(na) Genova Because Johan Leekes said there would be no Maltese interval act.
@str8
Im also st8 (see whatcha did there). And i loved poli and her song. Its not even a gay song, but something all-encompassing. So chillax, and be a bit less paranoid. And if malta wants poli singing, then by God let poli sing
I’ve seen on her instagram she has new music coming out very soon, hopefully she will debut a new song. I can’t wait to hear new stuff from her.
*Poli and not Politics in my entry below. My smart phone finishes the words I type, which is super annoying…. @str8: you definitely have a problem, and it is not Poly, but what is in your head… if some of the lyrics appealed to the gay listeners, it does not mean the song has no other fans. Poli has many fans with all kinds of background, race and sexual orientation. She has performed in JESC, returned not once, but twice in the adult Eurovision, hosted Bulgaria’s show last year and achieved Bulgaria’s best score, which for such a small country… Read more »
@Str8 dude, u have to chill. I am straight too and love #ILWAC. Your argument has no sense.
Jesc full of solo female kids will have two solo female as interval act. Great idea lol. Last Jesc winner but why Genova? She will sing her boring gay song from Stockholm? Ebu forgot that straight men are watching their competitions too. And we would prefer Young Georgian Lolitaz for example.
This is great! Too good to be true. It makes sense because Politics hosted the last JESC, so just as it makes sense to have Destiny, it makes sense to have Poli, particularly since she finished 4th last year. I do not think many adult Eurovision performers will easily fit into the JESC interval act. Poli’s song and her personality fit and the JESC fans already know her. I do not know who in Malta would have beensuch a good choice. In any case, they can always add Maltese performers.
Now there is one more act to look forward too…
I was hoping for this, yay! 🙂
Yasssss! As my name may indicate, I am SOOOO HAPPY! 😀
@RoelofMeesters Why do you say Destiny has dropped out? She hasn’t :/
Johan Leekes I thought Destiny was performing too 🙁 Why did she drop out the day she was announced as an interval act?
Realness is about to get real. 😀
Yaaaaaassssss! 😀
William Lee Adams, I think it’s more that the show is overall most watched in Bulgaria and they are pretty much the only ones to sell it as really big event on their TV. So, I think it’s more to please the Bulgarian audience of the contest which is the biggest one. Sadly, no one else maybe besides Malta takes it so seriously, this contest has more potential….
Looks like Poli’s excited to meet her Maltese fans! 🙂
Uh, why would Malta get an interval act that isn’t Maltese, it’s not like Poli is a world star like Justin Timberlake (don’t get me wrong, I like Poli and her song was great, but it’s kind of weird to get a Bulgarian interval act while the contest is in Malta)
+ Darren I 100% agree with you 🙂
Polo Genova gave us Bulgarias best ever entry in my opinion. I love her! I hope she performs ILWAC as the interval act, that will make me tune in. We should all be heading to Sofia in 2017 if it wasn’t for politics, non-legitimate countries participating and a sexy guy with ott stage production covering up a dreadful song.
Poli Genova and Bulgaria are my winners of ESC 2016. Ethnic but modern = perfection