The sixteenth Junior Eurovision Song Contest saw a record breaking 20 countries take to the stage in Minsk. Portugal’s Rita Laranjeira had us reaching for our phones. Italy’s Melissa & Marco pulled at our heartstrings. And Australia’s Jael made us all feel like champions.
Unfortunately, and despite all the immense talent on display, only one act could win. This year’s honour goes to Roskana from Poland with her song “Anyone I Want to Be”.
Junior Eurovision 2018 Winner: Roksana with “Anyone I Want to Be”
Providing a solid and sophisticated stage show accompanied by impeccable vocals, Poland’s Roksana brought a message of empowerment to the screens of Europe and beyond. The camera angles worked, the visuals were on point and the scenography elevated the performance to another level.
The song also brought a new note to Junior Eurovision — and indeed Eurovision — with its pop-rock sound that melded girl power with just the right amount of grit. This isn’t a teeny bopper pop number, nor is it a hardcore rock anthem. It tows a line between the two to great effect. That alone makes it a very deserving winner of Junior Eurovision 2018.
Junior Eurovision 2018 Results
Jury Results
Jael form Australia, who came third overall, managed to win the jury vote earning top marks from 6 countries.
Ukraine gave 12 points to Australia
Portugal gave 12 points to Australia
Netherlands gave 12 points to Australia
Belarus gave 12 points to Australia
Italy gave 12 points to Australia
Wales gave 12 points to Australia
Russia gave 12 points to Georgia
Ireland gave 12 points to Georgia
Israel gave 12 points to Georgia
Kazakhstan gave 12 points to F.Y.R Macedonia
Serbia gave 12 points to F.Y.R Macedonia
Australia gave 12 points to Malta
Georgia gave 12 points to Malta
Albania gave 12 points to France
Malta gave 12 points to France
Azerbaijan gave 12 points to Russia
France gave 12 points to Poland
F.Y.R Macedonia gave 12 points to Italy
Armenia gave 12 points to Belarus
Poland gave 12 points to Ukraine
Televote Results
The EBU has confirmed that it received a record of 1,283,921 votes.
Televoters did not agree with the jury. They ranked the jury’s Top 3 — Australia, Malta and Georgia — down in ninth, twelfth and fourteenth.
| 1. | Poland | 136 points |
| 2. | France | 117 points |
| 3. | Kazakhstan | 103 points |
| 4. | Ukraine | 78 points |
| 5. | Armenia | 70 points |
| 6. | The Netherlands | 68 points |
| 7. | Russia | 62 points |
| 8. | Italy | 57 points |
| 9. | Australia | 53 points |
| 10. | Belarus | 53 points |
| 11. | Israel | 47 points |
| 12. | Malta | 43 points |
| 13. | Portugal | 42 points |
| 14. | Georgia | 39 points |
| 15. | Ireland | 36 points |
| 16. | F.Y.R Macedonia | 35 points |
| 17. | Albania | 34 points |
| 18. | Azerbaijan | 30 points |
| 19. | Wales | 29 points |
| 20. | Serbia | 28 points |
A few days before the contest, we launched our own poll here on Wiwibloggs with Armenia coming out on top followed by Kazakhstan, France, Poland and Ukraine. Interestingly, the Wiwi poll managed to predict which countries would be in the top 5 exactly (albeit in a slightly different order).
Voting Method
Keeping with the voting mechanism from last year’s contest, JESC officials opened the voting a few days before the show began. On Friday, after all countries had completed their second rehearsals, fans all over the world were invited to cast their votes. After sitting through a short recap of all the performances, fans were able to vote for either 3, 4 or 5 entries of their choice. If they needed more convincing, longer snippets of each participants stage-show were available.
The first wave of voting lasted up until the live show began, during which fans could vote once per device for their favourite acts. As soon as all countries had had their performance, the voting was open for a second round for 15 minutes, giving fans another opportunity to voice their opinion on the contest.
All of the results were announced during the show with the jury results being revealed first followed by the online votes being combined with them, ultimately producing a country’s total score.
What do you think of the results? Were you surprised by the jury or the televote? Let us know down below!
Photo: Marc Mingels for wiwibloggs
have some punctuation! please!
I think people dogging Australia and Malta is a little childish. Given the difference between Georgia and Malta and their respective televotes was larger then Australia and their televotes. The fact of the matter is that the Jury’s voted for Australia because without a doubt she has the strongest vocals. The jury’s rewarded that.
Poland whilst a suprise deserves to win and we shouldn’t be negative about it. It’s a children’s contest get over it.
Its really strange that they tell armenian and Aserbajani kids to hate eachother so they put their song last. Bann both of them i think for 3 years. Take away the stupid voting for yourself rule EBU and i will watch in 2019. I still love Wales song
hmmm. i’m not sure if the kids actually thought so. obviously no sane country would actually put another country 19, 19, 19, 19 and 19 so i’m guessing the government forced them to do it.
There should be no need for Armenia to withdraw, but Azerbaijan would be in trouble for doing so. 😮
I only listened to a couple of songs, but Poland got it right! Very well deserved. Excellent song. Congrats. So much better than the recent Polish participations in the adults’s contest. Poland should seek inspiration in their youngster…
317/5000
REMINDER! For the Jury and for all: In Junior Eurovision Song Contest and in Eurovision Song Contest, the best song + the best performance is selected and the best vocal is chosen in voice programs …. I think that the jury and part of the audience mixed up the competitions … especially in previous years.
Would you prefer the artists mimed the songs?
There was many good participants. I liked Poland, also many else, like Ukraine, Ireland, France, Armenia, Australia…and still more. My favorite was Ukraine. I feel i’ll take Poland’s, Ukraine’s, Ireland’s, Armenia’s songs on my playlist. Good music.
why… as for me I disliked both. Luckily the winner is decided neither by me, nor by you but by the majority.
Junior Eurovision. An event mostly for children and teenagers. Everyone is happy, everyone is having fun, everyone forgets about conflicts for a day.
Unless you’re in Azerbaijan’s or Armenia’s jury panel.
Can the dearest EBU explain it again, because they’ve already tried it once, how is it mathematically possible and/or fair that during every single Eurovision, and now also Junior Eurovision contest, every single jury member from one of these countries places the other last?
I’m sorry, if they cannot behave properly, they shouldn’t be allowed to have a “professional jury panel”.
Totally agree with you, Pandaman!
While I do agree with you, I’m unsure what their solution would be to be honest. Although I hate to see it (particularly in a contest for children) , I think it is a situation that the EBU is unwilling to make any comment on or get involved in. They have obviously been looking at patterns (e.g recent jurors from Montenegro and Georgia) and expressed concerns, they must know this is not valid voting and are choosing to stay out of it. Ultimately, the conflict is deep rooted and even if a juror did rank the other country higher, they… Read more »
I couldn’t agree more with you! A very sensible point!
Thank you for your comment. It makes sense.
That’s all true. But this still is some kind of an issue, and while both countries are a necessary and important part of the Eurovision family, it’s saddening to see it happen every time. I actually only found the “necessity” to speak up now after the Junior Eurovision this year, since seeing that it happens to the kid jury members as well is, simply put, scary. And yeah, there’s no clear solution here. Giving all 24 points for the public wouldn’t change much, since in televoting the situation is very similar (save 2018, where Azerbaijan put Armenia [or the other… Read more »
I agree, but there are very strong reasons behind them placing each other last each time. But I think that in ESC, they should be in seperate semi- finals every year, because they have been together 8 times since 2008.
The only positive thing is that JESC cant be any worse then this
Actually, this year’s JESC was A LOT better than the one from 2017. Songwise, production wise & even resultwise.
I was shocked with Wales’ last place. I did not expect that. Loved the song & loved hearing Welsh @ Eurovision. Also, I fail to see what juries saw on the Australian & Maltese songs. Finally, it was fairly obvious Kazakhstan did not deserve to win: Poland, France, Ukraine, Macedonia, Italy, Russia, Wales, Ireland all had better songs.
“Finally, it was fairly obvious Kazakhstan did not deserve to win.”
Says no one ever.
Kazakhstan was third in online voting, and it’s obvious that the public loved Kazakhstan.
The Kazakh was good, but there were a lot better songs. 3rd place in televoting? Overrated.
Yes, 3rd place with 103 points, ahead of Ukraine who received 78 points.
Your opinion doesn’t change the fact that the public loved Kazakhstan more than any of those countries you mentioned (except France and Poland).
Just my personal opinion of course, but I would have to say Kazakhstan did not deserve to win, and got more or less the correct result . I loved the studio version but I never found she fully delivered it live. It was a big song, and in all her performances from national final to the final show, her voice was grating to me and often in the wrong pitch. I played the show with someone else in the room and they commented she sounded in pain. The jurors went for more technical vocal ability and in my humble opinion,… Read more »
I love the Kazakh song, it was fully produced and has a big atmosphere that I also favors, yet I also feel like it was never meant to be a winner. It was also proven that the live show was in pain by the throat-edge vocals and some sour notes, and she lacked that stage presence she needed.
Yes exactly. While I understand it’s a song competition not The Voice, there should still be a high standard of vocals as well as a great song. Kazakhstan was often not hitting the notes live. I don’t agree with scoring highly only on vocals when the song is not so great but in the same way , they do need to take vocals into account. Otherwise there would be no point in them performing it live for the show.
EBU and Jan Ola Sand destroyed Kazakhstanis’ chanes to win with that ridiculous running order ( no3), but they placed France and Poland on last places of running order. Blind person could tell that they did with purpose, and jurry voting was charade..You can buy votes from jurries, you can trade jurry votes between delegations. This is Eurovision for you, people from Kazakhstan. Australia, Sweden, Malta will always get lot of points from jurries, every fricking year,cause they are babies from Jan Ola Sand. And Polish people voted in big numbers for themselves.It’s better for you to no perform on… Read more »
“juries”
You know France was 15th, not last and that Poland was drawn last and not put there?
Sorry but even though Manw is a talented sweetheart, Perta was just too boring. No big surprise with the results here. And no need to be rude toward towards Roksana and her song.
Pot calling the kettle black.
Not the winner I expected, but a fair winner I suppose. France deserved to win, it was better in every posible aspect (the staging, the song, it is childfriendly, etc), but most probably a lot of Polish voted in the web, as the online voting is a joke. Don’t get me wrong, the Polish song was okey and the staging was cool too, I just thing France was better. I really thought Armenia was going to place higher, LEVON looked so dissapointed in the green room. There is a couple of points I don’t like at all. The difference between… Read more »
Nothing changes with the hate towards Australia. Even if both Malta and Australia were ‘overrated’ by the juries – only Australia is receiving huge amounts of dislikes on its youtube video, Malta not so much. SAD.
Unbelievable that Kazakhstan failed to get ANY 12 points from the juries! Biased much? Thankfully the online voting recognized her talent and song with a third place ranking. Malta and Australia once again overrated by juries…what’s new? Anyway, congrats to Poland on first ever JESC win, and France for its second place! Both good songs.
Oliver, I’m so surprised about you’re way too relating the show. NOT A WORD about France performance, the second! What was surprising yesterday, as usual with the 50/50 jurys/televoting IS that the winner and the second were not on top from the jurys votes….. Just like you write know, oblitaring the televoting choice…… Pathetic.
I’m just asking to Oliver why he made the choice go not talking about the French performance un his article, I’m eurofan, I know the Eurovision way of fonctionning just like you, thanks.
JESC really stepped it up big time. Great show, great winner, great everything. Keep it up!
Great to see every year in top 4 with juries same countries Australia, Malta,Georgia and Poland in top 3 with televote,
Malta LITERALLY finished 12th out of 16 with the juries last year.
Poland perfomance on junior eurovision youtube have 1.1 miloon views in 11 hous from contest, and second France only 80000 viewers in same period.this explain that Polish massive vote for them in online voting. Thanks to that they won the contest
Poland was amongst the favourites on almost every youtube ranking. Last year (using a similar system), Poland came 7th in the online vote (same as their jury placing).
Sure some Poles voted for their own song but evidence suggests that it just happened to be the best song anyway.
Nope soz dont like polad, neither does a lot of other people stop trying to make it look like a fan favourite.
Even if it’s like you say… well they deserve at least for wanting to win so much, for making so much effort. And you cannot disagree that the song was good and she was vocally and artistically stunning. If French people are not interested in the contest and don’t vote, that’s their problem.
A random russian Guy : The aim of the contest is to determine the best song, it is not Junior Eurovision Winning willingness Contest….
France deserved the victory it just show that the voting system has to be changed again, or Poland will do top 3 every years, no matter if they send a goat or a true singer
That’s just your opinion, a lot of people didn’t like France. For me they were 9-th. I was shocked Ukraine didn’t win, but I’m OK with Poland winning, Georgia would be also good.
Poland is a deserving winner, no doubt. It was a well produced, slick and upbeat song with a very catchy sound. Congrats to Poland and Roksana on their first Junior Eurovision winner. France, my favorite, finishing two and achieving their best result ever was also great! But, honestly, the voting process of the evening was interesting to say the least. And the overall result feels a little bit unsatisfying. The jury vote, overrating the basic generic English songs from Australia and Malta, was very dreadful to watch. Also how the jury bottom 3 were all performed entirely in a language… Read more »
As an Australian, I can personally say that I think our placing is deserved. I was up from 2:00am (I know, I am tired) watching the live show and I can put my hand up and say that I voted for my country on my phone and laptop. All throughout the jury vote I was (quietly) cheering and clapping for my country. I’m just showing patriotism. I thought that we put on a great show, and people need to stop disliking our video. Yes, I know people might not think this result is deserved (and personally, there are many results… Read more »
I agree. People like to put down Australia at every opportunity they can get. It was a good song with amazing vocals, and the jury rewarded it! Isn’t that what a jury is for???? Half the reason Australia struggles in the online voting so much is because Europeans in a degree are still reluctant to vote for a county so far geoegraphically removed from the Europe continent, so Australia has to work even harder than most countries in producing its song. The fact that people are disliking Australia’s video on the YouTube channel makes me sick. Jael is 12 years… Read more »
Hi Luke. Thanks for replying. Are you Australian as well? Yes, why backlash Australia? We play by the rules and bring good quality songs to (J)ESC, that are just going to be jury bait. Addressing your point about Austalia in the online vote, I totally agree. How many children in Australia are going to wake up really early in the morning (like I did) and watch the live broadcast? That’s why ABCme shows the programme on a delayed broadcast. Yes we did have a few days to vote online, but how many kids in Australia know what Junior Eurovision is,… Read more »
not even 12, jael was 11 during jesc! her birthday is in december
We understand that Australia gets jury support. Many countries get jury support. That doesn’t mean it’s right or can’t be criticized.
Tbh, JESC needs to make up its mind if it comes to a voting system. Every year is some sort a change in voting. In 2016 there was no televote, only 3 kinds of juries. In 2017 Kids juries with broken online voting and this year Adult juries with online voting.
The best solution I think would be the 2017 option but with working online voting server. Adults overrate more mature songs (Australia, Malta and even Italy)
The online voting can stay because it works perfectly.
When is Australia NOT successful in the jury vote.
I hope the EBU offer JESC 2019 to Poland to host. Warsaw or Krakow would be awesome host cities. Kazakhstan is totally going to debut at the adult ESC. TG4 need to rethink Ireland at jesc. Singing As Gaelige is just not going to cut it these days. They should go bilingual.
They’ve done bilingual before in 2016 and while it actually fared well that year, inserting an English verse would probably not have made a difference either way.
Are you kidding? Ireland singing entirely in Irish is one of the best things about JESC. So please, Ireland, don’t let TG4 switch to English. We don’t need another Australia-like generic English song in the contest. It’s not the fans’ fault that juries favour English-speaking songs too much.
It’s technically in TG4’s mandate to promote Irish on TV so they won’t change course anytime soon. 🙂
The CEO of Polish broadcaster TVP has already stated that they want to host next year’s Junior Eurovision but also has deemed a Warsaw hosting as very unlikely since the only indoor arena in the Polish capital (Arena COS Towar) can only hold up to 5000 people. So I think Warsaw is out of the party.
Warsaw’s arena (actually a stadium with a retractable roof) has a capacity of 73k… I don’t think they’ll host there. Gdansk, Katowice, Wroclaw, Gliwice and Lodz all have 10-15k arenas.
A stadium for Junior Eurovision would be too much capacity. That’s why we need an indoor arena, whicj Warsaw apparently doesn’t have.
According to my research in Wikipedia (yes, I’m so sorry), If they wanted to go big, they can use the Spodek Arena in Katowice or Tauron Arena in Krakow, or they can go to the Gliwice Arena instead but I doubt it because it is newly opened.
After that abomination of a jury vote (again), I have never rooted so hard for two songs in my life.
Really happy with the winner but absolutely ridiculous how low televoters (online) have to put Australia to stop them from winning these contests. No slight on the singer from Australia but that song and performance had no business being anywhere near the top five. Had Australia managed to finish 6th in the online vote, they would have won the whole contest!
Get rid of juries now, please.
Totally agree with you, after this and also what
happened in Lisbon.
Although i strongly disagree with the voting system and the fact that the same countries and especially ebu’s baby australia is on top 10 every year, the production value and directing this year was amazing. Far cry from last contests and especially the second year that malta hosted the contest….
I’m so happy about the result, since Poland and France were my top two favorites! Both excellent songs. I wish they would eliminate the adult juries and bring back the kids’ juries for each country, I just hate how they voted for the most adult-sounding songs by the two most adult-looking girls… there should be as little involvement as possible from adults in this contest.
Nearly every contest that kids participate in has adult judges. The amount of childrens’ influence in the results of JESC through the existing combination of online vote and jury is more than just about any other music contest.
Who says a kid can’t appreciate a song much more than an adult? At least, make the juries more children-oriented.
Well, the adults voting here are clearly out of touch with the show’s target audience and this needs to be fixed. The format worked much better up until 2015.
Jesc.tv have released the results of the juries and their rankings. Might be some surprises…
Really happy with the results, although some of these results do confuse me.
Wiwibloggs, can you analyse the jury results of Jesc (or at least the stranger results of the jury)?
TOP 2 countries with juries points sang in 100 % English. And countries who had 0 word in english, finished in bottom 3 , 18. Serbia (with only 2 points from 19 juries) , 19 and 20 Wales and Portugal with 0 points. And every year in TOP 5 or TOP 10 in Junior Eurovision we had Malta , EBU baby Australia, Georgia, Italy and many time Malta and Australia is so overrated in juries points. Similar we had in adult Eurovision every year overrated in juries points we had Sweden, Australia, Malta, The Nehterlands, Belgium , Israel.?
40% is the maximum allowable limit to have non-native/official languages be included. Azerbaijan had to slightly tweaked theirs as they likely went over the threshold as did Cyprus last year. Macedonia’s monolingual song placed reasonably well at 12th place.
🙂
Almost every year in Junior Eurovision song contest in TOP 5 or TOP 10 with juries same countries Malta, Australia, Georgia, italy, The Netherlands
Almost every year in TOP 5 or TOP 10 in Eurovision song contest, same countries Sweden,Australia, Malta, The Netherlands, Israel, Belgium.
Poland was bound to win the televote but it’s the juries lack of touch with what people liked is what is baffling!! Only Ukraine from the People’s Top 5 was in the Jury Top 5!
France should have been scored better by the Jury! I have no idea in what way Malta’s song was better than France’s or Poland’s.
I had voted for Ukraine , Kazakhstan , Georgia, France and Poland .
I mean, it’s *adult* juries voting at a *kids’* contest. Something’s off indeed. The juries voted for the two most adult-sounding songs sung by the two most adult-looking girls.
True… the Kids Juries need to come back.
Honestly, the fact that juries aren’t fully comprised of children in a children’s singing competition is baffling. I mean, in the televote, I can understand it since we’re talking about thousands and thousands of children, teens and adults, with the children being the most interested. But there are 3 adults in every 5-member national jury (deciding 50% of the final result), which definitely leaves “what children and teens like” highly unrepresented at the end.
Hmm. When I made my prediction and now looking at the final results, I got two places correct. Portugal and Israel. I’m baffled on how Italy got 7th and Kazakhstan didn’t get Top 5. Also the juries seemed so out of touch with the OV as they put Australia and Malta 1st and 2nd but the OV put them 9th and 12th. And on Malta, 5th! Like she has a great voice but the song wasn’t really that memorable. Oh and Efi. 17th?! She improved her stage presence. Also and I’m sad to say. Wales came last ): She was… Read more »
I’m from Italy and I’m shocked we didn’t come last. Like… people actually enjoyed that old-fashioned love(!!!) duet between a 10-year-old and a 14-year-old? Seriously?
I was also shocked by Italy’s placing… I personally placed them 18th. Would’ve been last but Melissa’s cuteness raised it a bit 😀
Italy in the Top 10 is definitely a travesty. Can’t believe Juries put Italy in Top 5 above entries like Kazakhstan or FYR Macedonia (who are great songs, but also seem like the most jury-baiting entries in the bunch). As well, can’t believe online voters preferred Italy’s clichéd and old-fashioned love story over songs like Albania, Georgia and even Ireland. It’s just nuts how Italy managed to be in the Top 10 in both jury and televote. Are we sure Italians weren’t voting massively as well?
Polegend
After the show I voted for Italy, because in my opinion they simply had one of the best and memorable performance of the night, along with Netherlands, Macedonia, Israel, and France! Marco’s voice is really good, and Melissa is really cute!
Sometimes, in JESC, juries like old-fashioned music, and give high points to songs that would barely score any jury points in the adult contest.
Nevertheless, I was a big fan of Italy’s song and am glad that the strengths were recognized.
Juries should have less influence in the voting.
Such a shame that there’s not a lot of jruy love for Portugal and Wales. At least they got points from the televote.
Eurovision Young Musicians = Check
Eurovision Young Dancers = Check
Junior Eurovision Song Contest = Check
Poland has nowhere to go at this point but up.
and Eurovision Dance Contest 2008. Actually that was first.
Oh yeah, and that was 10 years ago if I recall correctly.
Poland actually has a great song and had a great performance and I was rooting for it since my first listen. Poland haven’t done this well in any Eurovision competition since 2016 so I don’t understand how the diaspora are being blamed? If the diaspora vote was that strong then they would have won or placed high every year! Some people are saying it’s because Poland has the largest JESC following…maybe but one of the most populous countries in the world participates (Russia) and despite being able to vote for your own country they don’t often seem to top the… Read more »
Poland actually had back to back wins on Eurovision Young Dancers for both 2015 and 2017, although yes, their wins in other Eurovision events are based on merit and should be rewarded for it.
Praise to that comment Sal! Finally someone gets it! These comments about Poland winning the whole thing because of most points coming from Polish people need to stop. If anyone is that butthurt about their winner not winning, well… sucks to suck. Not only Poland has a huge JESC fanbase. The Netherlands, Armenia, Russia and Ukraine also have big amount of fans. Besides, that’s the spirit of the contest – to support your favourite as much as you can and if you don’t, then don’t be surprised that your favourite didn’t have as much points as others. Also, even if… Read more »
If fyr Macedonia didn’t manage to get a top 10 with this fabulous song, i dont know what they need to do..
… and finally with a great staging as well. I can understand them if they want to withdraw later.
She sadly did not sing great. they can still have the whole package
Relax! Marija sang just fine. 😮
So happy for my country! There were a bunch of worthy winners tonight, but in the end it was Poland. Congratulations to second place finisher, France and debuting Kazakhstan with 6th place. Also, I hope Wales will come back after that horrendous last place – Manw, you were great!
There’s something seriously wrong with both the jury and televote at JESC. JURY Do you think that children of 20 countries would have, collectively, strongly favoured cliché ballads from Australia and Malta over the perfectly executed, fun, child-friendly songs from the likes of France and Armenia? No. Favouring vocals and ballads over actual song quality is also an issue at ESC, but it’s even more problematic at JESC, as this is a CHILDREN’s show, and children do not want to watch 20 ballads in a row. This is only the 2nd time since 2012 that an upbeat song has won… Read more »
No, no, no, no… JESC is going in a good way getting rid of toddler songs like Albania’s and favoring more mature and professional entries. After all, some if not most of these children are starting to pursue a career in music, and must be judged based on what they can deliver from now on so they can improve. Selecting only candy and bubblegum over vocal quality won’t make any favors for the overall value of a CONTEST. That is why a professional jury must prevail.
Well, JESC is actually meant for toddler song and childish fun so I can’t see your point being valid here.
Sweden got good result with ballad at Junior Eurovision not with fast song (in adult they had better result with fast song than ballad) .. I don t know why Spain, UK, Denmark left the Junior Eurovision , they get good result in past. And Belgium was good in placment in past. I don t like that song in 100 % english was in TOP 2 with juries Australia and Malta (we have same situation in Adult Eurovision from 1992 to 1998 that countries who sang in english had good result and many victory Ireland 1992,1993,1994 UK 1997 , 2… Read more »
Denmark expressed their displeasure with the format of JESC in recent years as they felt it became too similar with its adult counterpart, which is basically a pot calling the kettle black as Denmark still has its own children’s song contest which was the reason why JESC came into being in the first place.
You’ve made a lot of points. I think they should bring back televote, and make it 100%–if you look at JESC voting history, there’s no patterns, the Balkans don’t always vote for each other and neither do ex-URSS countries. Also ever since 2016 ratings have plummeted: people want to have a say in the competition.
Most broadcasters would place JESC in their smaller channels as it doesn’t attract as broad an audience as the adult contest would, which explains why the show always get about a fraction of ESC’s 200 million yearly views live.
People are allowed to vote for their own country because it would be impossible to prevent from a technical standpoint. It’s either this or no online voting at all.
It might be possible to block voting for one’s own country through the same means that Americans are blocked from the Youtube live stream, but I don’t think it’s necessary. The effect of voting for your own country is greatly diluted when the whole world is able to vote.
Graph
To be precise there is a way to cheat in this type of filters. As far as I know there are applications which can hide information from what country you are and can change the info about country witout a prolem :/
I don’t think many people would have skills to do this go-around maneuver. The people who are aware about these things are more likely not interested to watch jesc. Of course, word might spread also among not so tech. people but i doubt it would grow as big movement.
This thing of “favouring vocals and ballads over actual song quality […]” needs to stop!
Vocals are a part of song quality. If a person can’t perform the song to a high standard, they probably aren’t going to get universal approval from both the Jury and Televote. All these complaints about the disparities between Televote and Jury EVERY SINGLE CONTENT (JESC AND ESC) just tire me. I acknowledge your point, but I just don’t agree.
It’s very subject to taste and how it comesI guess across demographics and cultural norms. Adult jurors may have leaned more towards the anthemic themes that “Champion” and “Marching On” brought to the table, song that a broader audience, both kid and grown-up, can all fancy appreciate. Re: People voting for their own country, for its second year of application, it doesn’t seem like that has been a factor yet to deem it bad. Last year, the Netherlands topped the online vote and but its percentage of votes was not enough to overcome Russia’s already extensive jury lead. Poland won… Read more »
Damn! Three points missing for the second place. I am so proud of Jael, but well, the public can’t respect a good VOICE, but blame Australia and hate the jurys. Thank you, jurys, for giving Jael her deserved placement. And now, salty babies will downvote my comment – come on, I expect at least 20 Dislikes by the biased jury-haters 😉
I wasn’t rooting that much for Australia, but I can understand why juries would vote for “Champion”
I won’t downvote you, I just think this type of comment is unnecessary, considering that is an event made especially for children.
Comments like “Why is AUS so high? Bad Juries!” are unnecessary! Jael got more dislikes on YouTube first, now it is almost the same likes as dislikes. 500 dislikes because people are salty about juries? Jael is a kid! People cannot dislike a kid, that is inappropriate. My comment is a protest against Australia haters/jury haters…
Her video is getting dislikes because, indeed, people can’t understand how a generic faux-inspirational Halo ripoff could win the jury vote when barely anyone was rooting for it.
Tbh, Australia and Ireland are the only songs that I still remember and sing along now. Because Australia has a good melody (and yes, English lyrics) and Ireland was also catchy. Can you sing along to Poland now? 😉
I remember the melody but asking a non-native to sing in Polish is such an impossible challenge!
I admit, that is right!
Polegend 1 – 0 ESCFan2009
<3
I mean, I don’t see many children disliking the song on Youtube. Saddening to see such a vitriolic reaction to a song sung by a 12 yo
Exactly… If they want to, people should dislike the “jury vote video”, but no child performance.
What do you want to hear from Australia exactly?
“Halo rip-off”?
In that case, Halo is a rip-off of Kelly Clarkson’s Already Gone.
Sad to see geopolitics at play in a children’s contest. Bitter adults judging talented children, something cries afoul there.
One more edition of JESC in which Macedonia gets 12th place. 🙂
One more edition of good songs being underrated everywhere.
12th out of 20 sounds better than 12th out of 16.
Just shocked.
We had France……….. then we had Kazakhstan. Maybe Netherlands or Italy. We had even Armenia. Then came Poland. ESC and JESC always have their weird stories
Televote saved Portugal
Best JESC since 2014, fantastic produced show with a brilliant field of songs with many maturely convicted performances and ofc the ever so exciting fun unpredictable new voting system! makes such good thrilling entertaining TV, I filmed my reaction to the online vote sequence as well which will be soon uploaded on YouTube. Congratulations Poland on your first JESC victory and 2nd Top 5 finish in a (J)ESC, ending a very long drought lasting almost a quarter of a century. Roksana gave a brilliant performance and though her song wasn’t among my favorites it became a grower! I feel so… Read more »
I’m so happy 😀 This is a precious day for Poland! I really liked our song (more than in ’16 and ’17) which makes it even more fantastic. Also, I find this year’s competition very good, I liked many other songs: Armenia, Ukraine, Italy, FYR Macedonia, just to begin with! It’s an honour for Roksana to win in such a company 😀 What a dayyyy <3
I like the winner, but it’s obvious that polish people gave themselves a BIG boost in the televoting, like they did with Michal Spazk. I loved France, so happy to see them in 2nd place. Great show, Belaurs really organized a great show!
What does Michal have to do with anything? In the normal Eurovision, you can’t vote for your country anyway.
Comments for the top 5: Not really excited with the winner, though I prefer it to the jury top 2 (Australia, Malta). Seems like the juries this years will always find a song that no one is enthusiastic about, a safe song you could hear on the radio with good vocals. I’m talking about Malta, cause though Australia is in that category and is commonly favoured by juries, her vocals were impeccable and I can see why the song is liked. Malta on the other hand, fell really bland to me and I thought Ela’s great voice was the only… Read more »
Kazakhstan’s 6th place fits a trend:
Final placement of Youtube favorite:
2014: Bulgaria (2nd)
2015: Slovenia (3rd)
2016: Russia (4th)
2017: Belarus (5th)
2018: Kazakhstan (6th)
A lot of thins to say so let’s go by country by country: 1. Poland- I was expecting it more and more during their performance, I’m glad Poland finally won an ESC event, but they weren’t my favorites. AND for only the second time since 2012 it isn’t a ballad that won! 2. France- my winner, that performance was eveything and they should have won, but a second place is also great and hopefully they will become a JESC regular. 3. Australia- she was great, and underrated by the fans. But I didn’t expect it to finish this high. Congrats… Read more »
Wow i see a trend here:
2016: Ukraine won ESC and came 14th in JESC
2017: Portugal finished first in ESC and came 14th in JESC
2018: Israel won the ESC and came 14th in JESC
This is quite interesting and lets see if that will continue next year! 😀
Great observation!
Dang, this is the new
Bulgaria 2014: performs second, finished second
Slovenia 2015: performs third, finishes third
Russia 2016: performs fourth, finishes fourth
Belarus 2017: performs fifth, finishes fifth.
Congrats Poland!
Seems like everyone agreed on who would end up in the bottom10… the jury then pushed some countries that could have done much better (like Kazakhstan and Armenia) outside of the top 5.
But in the end, Poland really deserved this victory. And what a coincidence: this year is their 100th anniversary of independence. That’s a very good way to celebrate it.
1. Poland (well, I didn’t expect it to be the winner, but it was really good) 2. France (my personal favorite, still a very good result) 3. Australia (very well deserved, a fantastic performance) 4. Ukraine (deserved) 5. Malta (it was a strong performance, but I am not sure if they deserved a Top 5 result) 6. Kazakhstan (deserved to be in Top 5 IMO) 7. Italy (another strong performance, a deserved place) 8. Georgia (well deserved result) 9. Armenia (OVERRATED!!) 10. Russia (kinda overrated) 11. Belarus (well deserved place) 12. Macedonia (UNDERRATED!!! It was such an emotional performance, that’s… Read more »