Spain came back to Junior Eurovision in 2019 with a bang. After 13 years, Melani granted the Spaniards a very respectable third place. The country hadn’t seen such placings at any Eurovision contest since its last participation at JESC, back in 2006, and Head of Delegation Ana María Bordas believes it may have to do with the voting system.
Melani became the fifth (out of five) singer that took Spain to the top five at Junior Eurovision. That heavily contrasts with the adult contest, where RTVE hasn’t managed to leave the bottom five in the last five years.
Hence, the question is obvious: What makes Spain so successful at Junior Eurovision while their strike rate at the adult version is so miserable?
Head of Delegation Ana María Bordas has shared her theory. During the Tuesday’s press conference after JESC 2019, she said: “There are a lot of different causes, but the voting system at Junior Eurovision favours us”.
Comienza la rueda de prensa de @_melaniofficial.@anabordas: “Solo quiero felicitar a Melani y destacar su profesionalidad. Estamos felices de haber trabajado con ella, de volver a @EurovisionJr y del resultado”#bienvenidamelani #felicidadesmelani
???? https://t.co/fOaN1KPJ9U pic.twitter.com/cRzX5PgHWF
— eurovision_rtve (@eurovision_tve) November 26, 2019
“It’s hard to tell, but the voting system at Junior Eurovision helps us. We had a great song, a great singer and a great message, and there was a lot of coordination between those elements. It’s also a different situation because the participants are kids,” she further explained. Bordas went on to point out that fewer countries participate at JESC as well.
Along those lines, she commented on how the team at RTVE felt the passion of the Spanish fans (who didn’t?!) and that their response to the voting system at JESC was great. Indeed, Spain came second in the online voting and amassed over 100 points — although it fell quite short of enough support to surpass Poland.
Eurovision 2020: “We’re going to do our best just like with Melani”
Bordas also commented on the preparations for Eurovision 2020. RTVE announced Blas Cantó as their representative back in October, and preparations are well underway.
“We’re already working to find a great song, and we’re going to do our best, just like we did with Melani,” she said.
Speaking about Melani, Spain’s opera starlet was very happy about her result: “Junior Eurovision is the best thing that has happened to me ever”, she said.
She also had advice for her successor, whom she told to “enjoy the experience because it’s going to be one of the best moments of their life”. Regarding Spain’s participation at JESC, Bordas couldn’t tell yet whether RTVE will be back for 2020 as it’s not up to her, but she did state that the reactions within the broadcaster were positive.
Melani: “Al próximo candidato le diría que disfrute esta experiencia porque se pasa muy rápido y va a ser de los mejores momentos de su vida”#BienvenidaMelani #EnhorabuenaMelani @_melaniofficial
???? https://t.co/fOaN1KPJ9U— eurovision_rtve (@eurovision_tve) November 26, 2019
Do you agree with the head of delegation? Did Spain do so well at Junior Eurovision just because of the voting system? Will RTVE have a better approach to Rotterdam 2020? Will Blas be able to match Melani’s result? Sound off in the comment section below!
Spain in JESC is ALWAYS quality.
2005, 2006 are among my top favourites and especially in 2005 it should have been a victory.
Please Spain remain in JESC for next year in Krakow 😉
how can i agree if she does not explain ‘Why’ the voting system was helpful?
Spain is big country wiht lots of support. Wales is a small country with no one. So if you can vote for yourself Spain is in the top always and Wales bottom always. thats why.
Maybe they should withdraw like Israel and Azerbaijan did .
Ooowh, and that’s positive? I think heads of delegation should be more quiet on such things. If I, for example, see that a voting system favors Netherlands, then I want change, so that the contest becomes more honest. Not that an official TVE representative promotes flaws in a voting system.
To be honest ….Spain had good entries at ESC ( Miki, Daniel, Pastora, Ruth, Edurne or even Barei, Amaya/Alfred were all good) EsDM (2013) wasnt that good, Lucia’s song was shit ….and Manel was bad as well … Edurne was my favourite to win, bud the cameras angles were bad actually, i remeber i was so dissapointed but She didnt come at the botton 5, she was botton 7….. Pastora had voice so she neednt have a stage Ruth have nice presentation as well +rain Barei stage looks cheap Daniel’s stage was good Alfred and Amaia were victim of running… Read more »
Maybe that’s exactly what EBU is banking on – hoping the new voting system will draw in countries that otherwise would not be interested in the contest – but that doesn’t make it fair to smaller countries. Armenia finishing 11th with “viewers” and Malta finishing overall last is very unfair even by objective standards.
P.S. I believe Head of Armenian Delegation announced that if the voting system does not improve they are going to withdraw.
And rightfully so! Armenia work so hard on their songs and performances and get nothing out of it. This is one of those instances where s country is way too good for Junior Eurovision That I kinda hope it withdraws. But at the same time, Armenia is probably the best country in Junior Eurovision and I would love for them to stay.
I don’t want Armenia to withdraw! 🙁 #ArmeniaForJuniorEurovisionSongContest2020
Armenian Head of Armenian Delegation announced the “withdrawal threat” in 2017.
I fully Support Armenia. Some said i was a polish hater haha. i dont hatePoland at all. I hate the voting and in the voting have Poland now 2 years in a row crushed everyone with The most voters and 7 million big audience from Poland. so Armenia makeEBU change it to telvotes and jury again!
True though. Poles and Spanish are so into this. Probably millions were watching this during the night.
It got 1.5m viewers (11.2%) in Spain, not bad after a 13 year absence and considering its timeslot, but not comparable to the audience “senior” ESC finals gather (the Tel Aviv final got 5.5m viewers, 36.7% share).
Maybe they should just pick a good song and that’s it…. No joke entries like Miki or Manel’s crap songs
I do agree their junior song can be top 10 in the adult version.
Her honesty in those few sentences already makes her more likable than anyone I’ve ever encountered at the EBU.
This woman tells the truth. This sistem ONLY favours countries with more then 15 million people. top 5 this year was ALL over 15 million people. And the bottom were all with less then 10. end the online voting now!
Ukraine came bottom 5 with online voting despite having a population of more than 40 million.
I love how not one comment has highlighted that Australia would’ve won 2017 and 2018 JESC without the dodgy vote for your own country system. Probably 100 Australians are awake at 3.30am in the morning voting after lines open compared to millions of Poles, Spanish and French.
I always think this too. It seems like Australia is one of the most disadvantaged countries when it comes to the whole ‘voting for your own country’ because it airs at like 2,3,4 am in the morning.
uh,, you do realise Australia beat Russia in the 2017 online voting by a big margin.
Russia won that year because they swept the floor with the juries.
It shows that Speak Up was such a strong entry that many Europeans voted for that song in 2017.
Well, they are always favoured by the jury so, as unfair it sounds, there’s still a balance.
I applaud those who wake up in the morning for a show. I’ll never sacrifice my sleeping time for this.
https://www.change.org/p/european-broadcasting-union-queremos-que-españa-compita-en-el-festival-de-la-canción-de-eurovisión-junior-2020
Here’s what I’ll say: adult Eurovision has proven time and again that a giant diaspora vote doesn’t mean jack if the juries weigh it down. Polish diaspora definitely help give their entries a boost, but if their song isn’t up to snuff, the juries will bring it down to earth a bit. Donatan and Cleo would’ve finished fifth and Michal Szpak would’ve finished third if it were just the televote. I like both of those songs but I definitely don’t think they would’ve deserved such high finishes. Poland wouldn’t have won these last two years even if they won the… Read more »
Honestly I can’t think of any polish entry in last like15 years which would would have qualified with juries
If the online votjng was in ESC ,Poland would have more then 5 wins. 100% sure so dont say its not true.
Thing is people in Poland don’t care about ESC. Like at all. Just look how many polish people watched ESC in Israel. Only reason there’s so much people watching JESC this year is because Roxie won last year and she’s pretty popular because of that. If this year JESC took place in France, TVP wouldn’t even show it probably.
And what about Sweden?
We dont vote for ourselvesso sorry you dont have a case 🙂 we are 9 million. Poland are 40
Is there anyone who think voting system is alright? Change it already
How about “Don’t vote for your own country!” 🙂
That would be welcome change. No more drama pls. I mean there will always be diaspora comments, but that’s not reason to not try to.
and you think people do that? haha. people cant vote.
The problem is how, they pbviously don’t want kids to pay any money so they can’t do televoting, and its way too easy for someone to use a Vpn to bypass a geoblock
How mamy people would use vpn though? I mean if someone was crazy about it, s/he would be able to, but its not like everyone cares enough. It would help for sure
The voting system should be changed But Melani actually had a great song, delivered great vocals with a beautiful staging, so obviously she would score high We don’t quite see that at ESC with Spain Songs are fine, but you gotta bring something incredible to win and get votes Say Yay for example was simply unlucky to compete on a year full of pop songs (to eventually have a ballad as the winner) I want to stay positive, but I don’t get much hype from Blas Canto so far Of course, we have to wait for the actual song, but… Read more »
In 2016 only Finland and Belgium were in the same dance-pop vein as Spain and the former wasn’t even in the final.
Not exactly the same, but there were a lot of upbeat pop songs (or just pop-ish)
i would not bring up france as a good example they misuse issues like refugees, bullying, sad people.
Well, it does favor countries with big followings. Basically explaining 1.5 mil Spanish views — and also 5.5 mil Polish views
More than the voting system, what helped Spain was that the stage production was really great, something that you don’t see it from Spain in the senior edition
@Miss Uncongeniality – totally agree with you – Melani, her staging, the song and her vocals made it to a TOP song. Spain knows exactly how to pull the strings for a good staging …..but in adult ESC they forget it sometimes. I hope that Spain stays in the JESC now ….. and that the EBU makes sure that you can’t vote for your country. The online voting in general is a good thing (my opinion) because the whole globe is able to vote for the songs ….and that is awesome. One of the highlights this year was the staging… Read more »
Here in Wales. This is our 2nd time off competing and 2nd time coming last. We are tiny compared to other countries and won’t have the opportunity to have as many home votes as others. I wonder if we will compete next year.
I think that a song that is loved by many is very important for smaller nations. Take Czech Republic in ESC, for instance. 2016 – 0 points from the televoters. 2017 – 2 points from the televoters (in semi-final). 2019 – 7 points from the televoters. But then, in 2018, Mikolas Josef amassed 215 televoting points. So it IS possible to score very well for Wales too, especially if they (and I hope they eventually do) go back to televoting/get rid of online voting. But yeah, I think that smaller countries are penalized more than any other for having less… Read more »
Size and diaspora have increasingly proven irrelevant. Norway, who might have a big diaspora I haven’t heard about, won the televote this year, but I’m pretty sure it was just because people liked the song. And look at the winners and how they did the year after! Portugal swept it in 2017, and I count maybe two countries you could call it a neighborly vote for (Spain and France). 2018? 18 points. Then Israel! Five points from the televote the year before they won, 300-odd points the next year, 35 points the year after that. They’ll vote for it if… Read more »
Norway has a very big and very active diaspora in north western Europe, if you look at their televote score, all of their 12s came from north western europe except australia
Well, they also got a whole load of high scores from Eastern and Central-Eastern countries (Hungary, Moldova, and Belarus)
Surely, Norway would qualified easy every year if that’s the case, but its qualification rate and final placement history say otherwise.
It’s the Norway Rule: either rousing success or complete failure. And lord knows even the Nordics can totally snub each other if the song isn’t up to snuff (see: Norway finishing dead-last in two all-televote years with pretty much all of their neighbors voting). Even Sweden isn’t exempt if you recall how even places like Finland and Iceland didn’t think much of Dance You Off.
thats not online voting. If poland could have vote for themself Portugal would not have won in 2017 and you know that to. they have 40 million votes. Portugal has 10
You’ve really gotta let this one go dude. You can dish it but you can’t take it.
You know im right. i will give up when they change the voting in JESC. 🙂
Hey, you even forgot Malta was below Wales this year!
No worries, even Poland got really bombed up on their several first participations. However Wales needs to be persistent and up their game each year.
it was not online voting then. Poland didnt have their homecountrys support. If they had it they would have won. You know it to
Malta came last, not Wales!
On your point, countries with bigger fanbases get more votes with the online voting. It’s simply unfair!
I hope Wales are asking EBU to end the online voting. Or else Poland will win in 2020 and Wales will be last again.
Could also be Poland had a better song than Wales?
But you’re stubborn. I’ve defended you before cuz I like Sweden at Eurovision but you’ve repaid that by being very stubborn and indignant about this. It’s not worth getting this worked up about and it’s not fair assuming a country would only win because of a diaspora vote, no matter how many times you repeat it.
The Welsh song this year needed a revamp and didn’t get it. The current voting system is unfair to small countries, but the Welsh entry also could’ve been so much better. Ukraine, a country with one of the biggest populations, also didn’t do well this year.
I mean you shouldn’t pretend that you didn’t have the worst song both times.
As a South African, I enjoy having the opportunity to vote at JESC, through the online voting platform. However, it’s now pretty clear that this system isn’t ideal, as it is fostering negative connotations, and it’s only a matter of time that smaller nations stop competing. Even though I won’t be able to vote any more, I think JESC should revert to televoting. Televoting was dropped, in 2016, due to “a significant decrease in the number of viewers casting votes”. This is a strange reason to me, since just 5 people on the jury decides half of a nation’s score,… Read more »
as i said before, it’s a contest on who has the biggest audience. this voting is just not fair
agree 1000000000000000000000000000%
I love Marte, but yes the voting system is better for bigger countrys like Poland, Spain, France, Russia and Italy tiny countrys don’t have a chance against this country, the system need to be change
The important thing is the number of people watching Eurovision, not the population of the country.
Netherlands won the first online vote in 2017 and its not a big country, compared to Poland.
Netherlands has big following for Junior Eurovision though.
Yeah, but there was a point were live ratings for its JESC broadcast plus Junior Songfestival weren’t strong as it was earlier in its participation history. Despite that, there has always been a consistent interest with Dutch entries in JESC outside the country.
I agree with Joe. Spanish jesc song was great.
I mean, they also sent a better song for their JESC representative than they have for their adult one in ages.
Melani, I should say, also had an amazing attitude about her result. Better than some adult representatives! She was just happy to be there and incredibly pleased to finish third. Such a healthy attitude.
No sh*t Sherlock. Spaniards vote for themselves in order to win.
The same thing for the voters of all the participating countries. Their inhabitants voted for themselves in order to win, not only the Spanish people.
Nice she noticed it. But the voting have to change to favour none of the participating countries.