When SBS announced that Bella Paige would be singing the Delta Goodrem-written song “My Girls” as Australia’s Junior Eurovision debut, it seemed like a perfect match of singer and song. But it turns out that “My Girls” was once intended for a very different singer – The Voice winner Anja Nissen.

Delta Goodrem originally co-wrote the song in a session for her upcoming fifth album. Delta eventually decided not to use it herself, and in 2014 the song was announced as being the debut single for the winner of the third Australian series of The VoiceAnja Nissen.

Anja Nissen: her boy Will didn't want her "Girls"
Anja Nissen: her boy didn’t want her “Girls”

Anja’s version of the song had been recorded and was all set to be released, but at the last minute it was announced that “My Girls” wouldn’t be Anja’s debut after all. This lead to the unusual situation of Anja being crowned the winner of The Voice but not having a winner’s single to perform on the show.

Anja explained to the press that her mentor on the show, will.i.am, had made the call because he felt the song wasn’t Anja’s style.

We didn’t have enough time. Will wanted to be part of the decision making process when it came to choosing the single. Will wasn’t sure if My Girls was the right style for me. He wanted to have a few more days to think about that and start working on ideas, looking at where to go next.

Anja later released the synthpop song “I’m So Excited” as her debut, which spent only one week in the Australian chart, peaking at No.42.

But Anja’s loss is very much the gain of Junior Eurovision. It looks like “My Girls” has finally found a home with Bella Paige. If the initial fan feedback is anything to go by, this combination of singer and song is a perfect match.

Follow all of our Junior Eurovision news here

15 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Mario = Legend
Mario = Legend
8 years ago

This comment about this article on Wiwi Fb, just to clear this up… 🙂 Robert Rigby: “Dear Robyn, I am the A&R Manager for The Voice at Universal Music Australia and I wish to correct your blog here on the song MY GIRLS. The song was a co-write by Delta Goodrem when she was a coach on The Voice Kids program in Australia in 2015 and she wrote it with the young girls on her team of The Voice Kids in mind. Never intending it for her own album as you are saying here in your report. Anja Nissen did… Read more »

Warrior
Warrior
8 years ago

And there goes irrelevant info Mario again. YAWN!

Mario esc fan
Mario esc fan
8 years ago

This girl has the same name with *Bella* of the Twilight love romance vambire movies <3 🙂
And the same name with that australian singer Bella Ferraro that took part in Australia's XFactor in 2012 & she went too far there with finishing 4th! 🙂
And the same name with the actress Bella Thorne too 🙂

Daniel
Daniel
8 years ago

PP

I thought Turkey hadn’t fully said no. I was under the impression that no confirmation had been made and that they were still deciding whether to parficipate. B&H have withdrawn citing financial issues, again.

Mario esc fan
Mario esc fan
8 years ago

Australia’s song in the Junior Vision is really nice <3 🙂 And this girl Bella looks charming <3 🙂 I put Australia up to 3rd place in my top8 so far 4 the JESC of 2015 🙂 ———————————– Yeah i was expecting 4 Bosnia to withdraw,as the same will gonna happen 4 Croatia & possibly Turkey as well i guess.. The only countries that will likely to return 4 sure are Ukraine & Bulgaria.. Hopefully Serbia,Moldova will confirm their participation in the Vision of 2016 & we won't see any other country leaving our contest so {along with Australia i… Read more »

PP
PP
8 years ago

Daniel

They do it, because Turkey. Both say first yes, and then first Turkey say no for eurovision, and now Bosnia.

PP
PP
8 years ago

I don t like to see Australia at Eurovision or Junior Eurovision,, maybe only one time as guest at both contest , but I must to say, they have best song so far for Junior Eurovision
1.Australia
2.Belarus
3.Albania
4.Ukraine
5.The Netherlands
6.Slovenia
7.Russia

Daniel
Daniel
8 years ago

But Olly had already said so…ugh, I need to read the comments first more often.

Daniel
Daniel
8 years ago

Sadder news, Bosnia and Herzegovina will not be at Eurovision 2016. 🙁

Olly the Swede
Olly the Swede
8 years ago

I think that Australia definitely has a chance of winning in Sofia this year, their entry is much more current and fresh compared to those of Russia and Belarus for example, which are the type of songs the younger kids would vote for instead. I just heard on Eurovoix, unsurprisingly, that Bosnia & Herzegovina (one of my favourite countries in Eurovision) are pulling out again from this year’s Eurovision in Stockholm. 🙁 Even though they will try to secure funding towards the end of October, I never expected to see them send an entry in 2016. I really do hope… Read more »

YoungsterJoey
YoungsterJoey
8 years ago

JESC Malta 2014 seems to have been a better contest than whatever Sofia is planning — in terms of the songs.

Alison
Alison
8 years ago

I think it’s something that juries should have to take into account when judging.

Mario = Legend
Mario = Legend
8 years ago

Yeah.. I always thought JESC songs had to be cowritten by the singer? Or has that rule changed now?

Banana
Banana
8 years ago

She did’nt wrote the song by herself (Bella). I thougt that you have to write your own song for the contest. The Netherlands always wrote theire song self they only get a little bit help when they got through to the next round. I think It has to be a cotest for self-writing and singing childeren not something that some professionals make!!!

Ariso Light
Ariso Light
8 years ago

Australia has the best song for this year so far! 🙂