Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010

Date: November 20 2010
Venue: Minsk Arena, Minsk, Belarus
Presenters: Denis Kourian, Leila Ismailava
Host broadcaster: BTRC
Opening act: Ksenia Sitnik and Alexey Zhigalkovich singing Hello, Eurovision
Interval act: Alexander Rybak singing Europe's Skies, all participants and Dmitry Koldun singing A Day Without War, Winners of Junior Eurovision 2003-2009
Number of entries: 14
Debuting countries: Moldova
Returning coubtries: Latvia, Lithuania
Withdrawing countries: Cyprus, Romania
Voting system: Citizens of each participating country vote by telephone and SMS message, which counts for 50%. Each country's 10 favourites are awarded 1 to 8, 10 and 12 points based on the number of votes. Results 1-5 are automatically displayed on-screen, then each country announces 6-8, 10 and 12 points. A jury in each country also has a 50% say in the outcome.
Winner: Mama - Vladimir Arzumanyan, Armenia

Vladimir Arzumanyan

Entries

01. Lithuania: Bartas - Oki doki (6th place, 67 points)
02. Moldova: Ștefan Roșcovan - Ali Baba (8th place, 54 points)
03. The Netherlands: Anna & Senna - My family (9th place, 52 points)
04. Serbia: Sonja Škorić - Čarobna  (3rd place, 113 points)
05. Ukraine: Yulia Gurska - Miy litak (14th place, 28 points)
06. Sweden: Josefine Ridell - Allt jag vill ha (11th place, 48 points)
07. Russia: Sasha Lazin & Liza Drozd - Boy and girl (2nd place, 119 points)
08. Latvia: Šarlote Lēnmane & Sea Stones - Viva la dance (10th place, 51 points)
09. Belgium: Jill & Lauren - Get up! (7th place, 61 points)
10. Armenia: Vladimir Arzumanyan - Mama (1st place, 120 points)
11. Malta: Nicole Azzopardi - Knock knock!..Boom! Boom! (13th place, 35 points)
12. Belarus: Daniil Kozlov - Muzyki svet (5th place, 85 points)
13. Georgia: Mariam Kakhelishvili - Mari dari (4th place, 109 points)
14. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Anja Vetrova - Eooo, Eooo (12th place, 38 points)

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the eighth edition of Junior Eurovision Song Contest and took place in Minsk, Belarus. It was held on 20 November 2010. The contest was won by Vladimir Arzumanyan of Armenia with the song Mama. This gave Armenia its first Junior Eurovision victory.

Anna & Senna

Location

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) invited broadcasters to bid for the rights to host the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010. Belarus broadcaster National State Television and Radio Company of the Republic of Belarus (BRTC) won the rights to organise the contest over bids from Russia and Malta. Under construction through 2009, the 15,000-spectator Minsk Arena hosted the event. Belarus has twice previously won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which is, according to EBU Executive Supervisor Svante Stockselius, one of Belarus' most popular television shows.

Visual design

The theme art for the contest was revealed on April 8 2010, consisting of multi-coloured circles, symbolising different people, cultures and countries, that form the shape of wings, that symbolise freedom, ease of flying, creative inspiration and rising above. On  September 8, the mascots of the show were presented, being a bear and a wisent.

Jill & Lauren

The stage, by Swedish stage designer Ulf Mårtensson, was unveiled on July 15 2010, featuring five constructions in the shapes of wings. The hosts were also involved with each performance on their own dedicated section of the stage.

Theme art was also incorporated in the promotional billboards and posters featuring 11 faces of Junior Eurovision selected through casting procedure. Results of castings were revealed on 20 July 2010 and the 11 chosen ones were Belarus TV personalities Denis Kourian, Olga Barabanschikova, Irina Kazantseva, Andrey Bibikov, former JESC entrants Alexey Zhigalkovich, Ksenia Sitnik, Yuriy Demidovich, Alina Molosh, Daria Nadina as well as non-professionals Yulia Brazhinskaya and Ilya Ilmursky.

Sonja Škorić

Participants

On 28 July 28 2010, the EBU announced the competing countries for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010. A total of 14 countries competed, with Moldova making its début and Latvia and Lithuania returning. Cyprus and Romania withdrew from the contest. Sweden returned to the contest through Sveriges Television (SVT) after TV4 withdrew. The EBU's coordinator of the contest, Svante Stockselius, labelled SVT's return to the contest as a big achievement in terms of negotiations with possible participants and expressed hope that other Scandinavian broadcasters may also return to the show.

The show also featured all winners of Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003-2009 Dino Jelusić, María Isabel, Ksenia Sitnik, The Tolmachevy Twins, Alexey Zhigalkovich, Bzikebi and Ralf Mackenbach, who performed remix-medley of their winning entries and presented the trophy to the winner of 2010 edition. Also, a special documentary Kids of Eurovision was filmed by BTRC about them.

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009

Date: November 21 2009
Venue: Palace of Sports, Kiev, Ukraine
Presenters: Ani Lorak, Timur Miroshnichenko, Dmytro Borodin
Host broadcaster: NTU
Opening act: Dance acts featuring perofmance of Karina Rudnycka & Yuriy Kuzynsky
Interval act: Ani Lorak
Number of entries: 13
Debuting countries: -
Returning coubtries: Sweden
Withdrawing countries: Bulgaria, Greece, Lithuania
Voting system: Citizens of each participating country vote by telephone and SMS message, which counts for 50%. Each country's 10 favourites are awarded 1 to 8, 10 and 12 points based on the number of votes. Results 1-5 are automatically displayed on-screen, then each country announces 6-8, 10 and 12 points. A jury in each country also has a 50% say in the outcome.
Winner: Click Clack - Ralf Mackenbach, The Netherlands

Ralf Mackenbach

Entries

01. Sweden: Mimmi Sandén - Du (6th place, 68 points)
02. Russia: Ekaterina Ryabova - Malenkiy prints (2nd place, 116 points)
03. Armenia: Laura Hayrapetyan - Barcelona (2nd place, 116 points)
04. Romania: Ioana Anuta - Ai puterea în mâna ta (13th place, 19 points)
05. Serbia: Ništa Lično - Onaj pravi (10th place, 34 points)
06. Georgia: Princesses - Lurji prinveli (6th place, 68 points)
07. The Netherlands: Ralf Mackenbach - Click Clack (1st place, 121 points)
08. Cyprus: Rafaella Kosta - Thalassa, ilios, aeras, fotia (11th place, 32 points)
09. Malta: Francesca & Mikaela - Double trouble (8th place, 55 points)
10. Ukraine: Andranik Alexanyan - Try topoli, try surmy (5th place, 89 points)
11. Belgium: Laura Omloop - Zo verliefd (Yodelo) (4th place, 113 points)
12. Belarus: Yuriy Demidovich - Volshebniy krolik (9th place, 48 points)
13. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Sara Markovska - Za ljubovta (12th place, 31 points)

Laura Omloop

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the seventh edition of Junior Eurovision Song Contest and took place in Kiev, Ukraine. It was scheduled for  November 21. 13 countries were confirmed by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to compete in the Contest. The contest was won by Ralf Mackenbach for the Netherlands with the song Click Clack. At the age of 14, he is the oldest person to win the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in its 7 year History. Luara Hayrapetyan achieved Armenia another second place. Ekaterina Ryabova also took second place for Russia.

Location

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) invited broadcasters to bid for the rights to host the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009; three bids were received from Belarus, Serbia, and Ukraine. TV4 of Sweden had originally sent in a bid during summer 2007, but soon withdrew its bid after deciding to completely withdraw from the contest. After deliberations by the EBU, National Television Company of Ukraine was granted the rights to the 2009 contest and will host it in Kiev. Ukraine also hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 at the same venue.

Ekaterina Ryabova

Concept and logo

Logo of the contest titled Tree of life is based on the artwork Sunflower of life by Maria Primachenko, a well known Ukrainian folk art painter. Creative design of the show was based on the logo of the contest, works and ideas of Primachenko as well as on the concept of the show, titled For the joy of people.

Participants

The EBU announced the complete list of participating countries in the 2009 Contest on 8 June 2009. 13 countries competed in the contest: Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Cyprus, Georgia, Macedonia, Malta, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Serbia,Sweden and Ukraine. Sweden returned after missing the contest, while Bulgaria, Greece and Lithuania withdrew from the Contest.

Junior ESC 2012 - The Netherlands

Singer: Femke
Song: Tik tak tik
Composer: Femke Meines, Anne Kees Meines, Tjeerd Oosterhuis
Lyricist: Femke Meines, Anne Kees Meines

Femke is a 12-year old girl who lives with her 3 little sisters and her parents in Tuitjenhorn, a small village in north-west of The Netherlands. Last year Femke already tried to reach the finals of the Dutch national selection, but this year she took revenge by winning it with the song Tik, Tak, Tik that she wrote herself.

Because she believes time is going too fast, she wishes to freeze the time. Femke has the desires to do a million things like feeding the cat or taking the dog out for a walk, but the only thing she really wants is to stay forever young and never grow up.
The producer of her song is Tjeerd Oosterhuis, who was also responsible for the winning Junior Eurovison song of Ralf, Click Clack in 2009.
Femke is a typical bubbling girl who loves to sing and dance, but also finds enough time to skeeler, swim or eat lots of chocolate. Her biggest dream is to be a famous singer. But when this goal will not be reached, she wants to become a hairdresser or maybe a maternity assistant.
The Netherlands will be hosting this year’s Junior Eurovision Songcontest. Femke is very proud that the 10th anniversary will take place in Amsterdam; she loves to show Europe how beautiful her country is.
She’s enjoys the advantage of staying for the Contest in the Netherlands which means she doesn’t have to travel to another country because Femke has fear of flying. She is really looking forward to make a big party on the Eurovision stage and hopes that she can freeze the European time with her spectacular moving clock-act.

Junior ESC 2012 - Moldova

Singer: Denis Midone
Song: Toate Vor Fi
Composer: Marian Stircea
Lyricist: Radmila Paraschiv

Denis Midone (10) won the right to represent Moldova at the 2012 Junior Eurovision Song Contest and is a talented singer who has already participated in several children competitions and also won some of them.

Denis Midone was born in Petah Tikva, Israel on June 14 2002 and currently lives in Chisinau, Moldova, where he studies Romanian and Spanish at the Cervantes School.

Since 2009 he is a member of the vocal ensemble Do-Re-Michy at the Children and Youth Creativity CentreGiochel. Some of his impressive song contest participations include a 3rd place at the 2010 Sanremo Junior in Italy and victories at the International Art Festival Jezerski Perle 2010 or the 2012 Slavic Bazaar Vitebsk.

Denis is looking forward to this new great adventure which is the 2012 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Amsterdam.

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Date: December 22 2008
Venue: Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Centre, Lemesos, Cyprus
Presenters: Alex Michael, Sophia Paraskeva
Host broadcaster: CyBC
Opening act: Dance act featuring Yiorgos Ioannides and Mariam Venizelou.
Interval act: Dima Bilan, Evridiki & Dimitris Korgialas, all JESC 2008 participants singing Hand in Hand
Number of entries: 15
Debuting countries: -
Returning coubtries: -
Withdrawing countries: Portugal, Sweden
Voting system: Citizens of each participating country vote by telephone and SMS message, which counts for 50%. Each country's 10 favourites are awarded 1 to 8, 10 and 12 points based on the number of votes. Results 1-5 are automatically displayed on-screen, then each country announces 6-8, 10 and 12 points. A jury in each country also has a 50% say in the outcome.
Winner: Bzz.. - Bzikebi, Georgia

Bzikebi

Entries

01. Romania: Mădălina & Andrada - Salvaţi planeta! (9th place, 58 points)
02. Armenia: Monica - Im Ergi Hnchyune (8th place, 59 points)
03. Belarus: Dasha, Alina & Karyna - Sertse Belarus (6th place, 86 points)
04. Russia: Mihail Puntoc - Spit angel (7th place, 73 points)
05. Greece: Niky Yiannouchu - Kapoia nychta (14th place, 19 points)
06. Georgia: Bzikebi - Bzz.. (1st place, 154 points)
07. Belgium: Oliver - Shut up (11th place, 45 points)
08. Bulgaria: Krastyana Krasteva - Edna mechta (15th place, 15 points)
09. Serbia: Maja Mazić - Uvek kad u nebo pogledam (12th place, 37 points)
10. Malta: Daniel Testa - Junior swing (4th place, 100 points)
11. The Netherlands: Marissa - 1 dag (13th place, 27 points)
12. Ukraine: Victoria Petryk - Matrosy (2nd place, 135 points)
13. Lithuania: Eglė Jurgaitytė - Laiminga diena (3rd place, 103 points)
14. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Bobi Andonov - Prati mi SMS (5th place, 93 points)
15. Cyprus: Elena Mannouri & Charis Savva - Gioupi gia (10th place, 46 points)

Format

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the sixth Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which is the world's largest song contest for children. It was held at the Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Centre in Lemesos, Cyprus and hosted by Alex Michael and Sophia Paraskeva. It was won by the Georgian trio Bzikebi, with the song Bzz... This is the first song to win any Eurovision Song Contest in an imaginary language. Ukraine took 2nd place and Lithuania finished 3rd.

Marissa

The theme of the event was Fun in the Sun, despite the fact that there were thunderstorms in Lemesos the day of the contest. The stage, which was designed by George Papadopoulos was nominated for the prestigious international Live Design Excellence Awards. The design is an abstract composition and consists of a round stage representing the island of Cyprus, real water along the front of the stage, two jetties, the waves breaking and moving away from the island and five sailing boats with oars.

For the contest, various changes to the rules were made. One was that adults could assist children to write the songs submitted to their national broadcaster; previously only children could write the songs, with no assistance from adults. Another change was only six people could be on stage during a performance, instead of eight. The most significant change, however, was only half of the vote was decided by the tele-voters. Before the 2008 contest tele-voters completely decided the whole result. The other half of the result was decided by a jury of adults and children.

On May 27, 2007 the Eurovision Steering Group decided to award CyBC of Cyprus to host the 2008 contest, over TV4 of Sweden and NTU of Ukraine. On 10 September 2008 the hosts were announced as Alex Michael and Sophia Paraskeva; both presenters with Cypriot backgrounds. On 13 October 2008 the draw of the running order took place live on CyBC1. This involved drawing the first and last countries and performers, and then drawing countries into various 'pots' to decide when they would perform. The full running order was announced on 14 October 2008. The stage was constructed between 30 October 2008 and 14 November 2008.

Victoria Petryk

Voting

As in all previous Eurovision Song Contests each country gave their top 10 countries songs points from 1 point for their 10th favourite song up until 8 points for their 3rd favourite song. Then 10 and 12 points were given for the second favorite and favorite respectively. But, the difference between this contest and other past contests is this is the first Eurovision Song Contest that implements a jury vote that counts for half of each countries vote.

Only Ukraine calculated their vote using a jury. Ukrainian broadcaster NTU opted not to broadcast the contest live, but to air it deferred on Sunday, November 23 as Saturday, November 22 is Holodomor Remembrance Day in the country.

Participating countries

Fifteen countries took part in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest: Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Macedonia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine. Portugal, which had taken part twice since 2006 announced that it was no longer interested in the contest and withdrew along with Sweden, a founding country in 2003, which left because of other broadcasting plans during the time of the event. On the other hand, Israel and Bosnia & Herzegovina announced their intention to participate, but both decided to withdraw before the contest. Azerbaijan announced its intention to take part also, but withdrew from the contest in early October. According to İctimai Televiziya və Radio Yayımları Şirkəti, the network was unable to select and prepare children for such a high scale event without proper help from other governmental structures and bodies. The broadcaster also confirmed payment of a fine to the EBU due to its late withdrawal. Poland had also considered participation but decided that it would not take part this year. The 2008 contest was the first Junior Eurovision Song Contest to have no debuting countries.

Junior ESC 2012 - Georgia

Singers: The Funkids
Song: Funky Lemonade
Composers/Lyricsists: Giga Kukhianidze and The Funkids

Funky Lemonade is a song about cold, sparkly lemonade.

The Funkids is the group that will represent Georgia at the 2012 Junior Eurovision Song Contest. It has four members: Ketevan, Nino, Luka and Elene. Together they'll perform the song Funky Lemonade and try have as much fun as previous Junior Eurovision winners from Georgia: Bzikebi and Candy.

Ketevan Samkharadze – 13 years old. She was born in Borjomi. She is a member of ensemble Little Georgian. She is the winner of TV project Ana-Bana. She ranked the 1st place in Choral music festival , which was held in Italy. In 2011 she became a laureate of Gogi Dolidze Festival. In 2011 she took part in National Selection of Junior Eurovision and was qualified 2nd place.

Nino Dashniani – 11 years old . She was born in Brussels. She studies at 52 public school. She is a scholarship holder of Music school 7 . Nini took part in the Musical Oliver.

Luka Karmazanashvili – 12 years old . He is the winner of music contest 2008 Stars. He is a participant of TV Project Talents. In the animation Skupi he dubbed the main character.

Elene Arachashvili – 10 years old. She is a student at gymnasium Shavnabada. She studies at Bzikebistudio. Elene plays the piano.

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007

Date: December 8 2007
Venue: Ahoy, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Presenters: Sipke Jan Bousema, Kim-Lian van der Mey
Host broadcaster: AVRO
Opening act: 60 young dancers performing One World
Interval act: Ksenia Sitnik,
Break-dancing + traditional Romanian dancing and a remix of the last 3 Romanian participants at JESC.
Number of entries: 17
Debuting countries: Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Lithuania
Returning coubtries:
Withdrawing countries: Croatia, Spain
Voting system: Each country awards 1-8, 10, and 12 points to their 10 favourite songs
Winner: S druz'yami - Alexey Zhigalkovich, Belarus

 Alexey Zhigalkovich

Entries

01. Georgia: Mariam Romelashvili - Odelia ranuni (4th place, 116 points)
02. Belgium: Trust - Anders (15th place, 19 points)
03. Armenia: Arevik - Erazang (2nd place, 136 points)
04. Cyprus: Yiorgos Loannides - I mousiki dinei ftera (14th place, 29 points)
05. Portugal: Jorge Leirira - Só quero é cantar (16th place, 15 points)
06. Russia: Alexandra Golovchenko - Otlichnitsa (6th place, 105 points)
07. Romania: 4Kids - Sha-la-la (10th place, 54 points)
08. Bulgaria: Bon-Bon - Bonbonlandiya (7th place, 86 points)
09. Serbia: Nevena Božović - Piši mi (3rd place, 120 points)
10. The Netherlands: Lisa, Amy & Shelly - Adem in adem uit (11th place, 39 points)
11. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Rosica Kulakova & Dimitar Stojmenovski - Ding Ding Dong (5th place, 111 points)
12. Ukraine: Ilona Galitska - Urok hlamuru (9th place, 56 points)
13. Sweden: Frida Sandén - Nu eller aldrig (8th place, 83 points)
14. Malta: Cute - Music (12th place, 37 points)
15. Greece: Made In Greece - Kapou mperdeftika (17th place, 14 points)
16. Lithuania: Lina Joy - Kai miestas snaudžia (13th place, 33 points)
17. Belarus: Alexey Zhigalkovich - S druz'yami (1st place, 137 points)

Lisa, Amy & Shelley

Format

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007 was the fifth edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. It was held in the Ahoy' indoor sporting arena in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on December 8. The host country was chosen by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) on July 13 2006. The host city was announced on 11 September 2006. AVRO won the rights to host the show over Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT) of Croatia (who didn't actually participate in this contest) and the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) of Cyprus. The budget for the contest was stated to be more than €2,000,000.

Belarus won the Contest by a single point over Armenia. The winning performer was Alexey Zhigalkovich, singing "S druzyami" (With friends). This was Belarus' second win; they won for the first time in 2005. This is the only contest to date where the winning song did not receive points from all of the participating countries.

 Nevena Božović

Participants

Patricia Goldsmith, Communications Adviser of the Eurovision TV department, stated that "18 countries will take part" in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007 though Spanish broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE) later announced its withdrawal from the contest.

Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia and Lithuania were the newcomers this year. Bosnia and Herzegovina was going to be one of the four débutants but Georgia took this place when Radiotelevizija Bosne i Hercegovine (BHRT) decided to withdraw from participation.

The minimum age of contestants was raised from 8 to 10 years this year.

Junior ESC 2012 - Ukraine

Singer: Anastasiya Petryk
Song: Nebo
Composer/lyricist: Anastasiya Petryk

Anastasiya Petryk was born on 02.05.2002 in the City of Odessa. She is living in the village Nerubaiske, Odessa Region. Four years ago her sister Victoria got the best place for Ukraine at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest when she came 2nd.

Anastasiya (10) went to the first grade of Nerubaiske grammar school № 1 in autumn 2008. Starting from March 2009 she is taking vocal lessons with Kravets Nina. In July 2009 she ranked 1st in the International Contest Moloda Halychyna (Young Halychyna) in the city of Novoyavorovsk, Lviv Region.

In August 2010 she became the winner and won the audience favorite prize at the New Wave Junior 2010. Since Summer 2010 till Summer 2012 she shared the stage with such famous singers as Leonid Agutin, Philipp Kirkorov, Kamaliia, Iryna Bilyk, Nina Matviienko and sister Victoria Petryk.

Together with her sister Victoria she took part in various charitable and public concerts all over Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, Italy and Lithuania.

She also became a diploma winner at the 40th anniversary concert of the Song of the Year in Moscow for performing the song Snow. On 08.07.2012 she became the winner of the national selection for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2012.

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006

Date: December 2 2006
Venue: Sala Polivalentă, Bucharest, Romania
Presenters: Andreea Marin Bănică, Ioana Ivan
Host broadcaster: TVR
Opening act: Various circus style dancers and performers including an appearance by Mihai Trăistariu
Interval act: Ksenia Sitnik,
Break-dancing + traditional Romanian dancing and a remix of the last 3 Romanian participants at JESC.
Number of entries: 15
Debuting countries: Portugal, Serbia, Ukraine
Returning coubtries: Cyprus
Withdrawing countries: Denmark, Latvia, Norway, Serbia and Montenegro, UK
Voting system: Each country awards 1-8, 10, and 12 points to their 10 favourite songs
Winner: Vesenniy Jazz - Tolmachevy Twins, Russia

Tolmachevy Twins

Entries

01. Portugal: Pedro Madeira - Deixa-me sentir (14th place, 22 points)
02. Cyprus: Luis Panagiotou and Christina Christofi - Agoria koritsia (8th place, 58 points)
03. The Netherlands: Kimberly - Goed (12th place, 44 points)
04. Romania: New Star Music - Povestea mea (6th place, 80 points)
05. Ukraine: Nazar Slyusarchuk - Khlopchyk Rock 'n' Roll (9th place, 58 points)
06. Spain: Dani - Te doy mi voz (4th place, 91 points)
07. Serbia: Neustrašivi učitelji stranih jezika - "Učimo strane jezike (5th place, 81 points)
08. Malta: Sophie Debattista - Extra cute (11th place, 48 points)
09. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Zana Aliu - Vljubena (15th place, 14 points)
10. Sweden: Molly Sandén - Det finaste någon kan få (3rd place, 116 points)
11. Greece: Chloe Sofia Boleti - Den peirazei (13th place, 35 points)
12. Belarus: Andrey Kunets - Noviy den (2nd place, 129 points)
13. Belgium: Thor! - Een tocht door het donker (7th place, 71 points)
14. Croatia: Mateo Đido - Lea (10th place, 50 points)
15. Russia: Tolmachevy Twins - Vesenniy Jazz (1st place, 154 points)

Kimberly

Format

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the fourth edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest for young singers aged 8 to 15. On December 2 2006, the contest was broadcast live from Bucharest, Romania making it the second time the contest had been held in a capital city. It was organised by the Romanian national broadcaster, Romanian Television (TVR), in co-operation with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). TVR won the rights of hosting the contest over AVRO of the Netherlands (who hosted the next contest). Croatia also expressed an interest in hosting this contest.

The contest was won by The Tolmachevy Twins from Russia with the song Vesenniy Jazz/Spring Jazz.

Dani

Originally 16 countries had initially signed up for the contest but one unspecified country later dropped out. Radio télévision belge de la communauté française (RTBF) of the French speaking Wallonia in Belgium left the contest this year after co-hosting the previous edition with Flemish broadcaster Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep (VRT). They claimed that continuing with the contest was not in their interests financially. The viewing figures for the 2005 contest for RTBF were also low. Belgium continued to be represented at the contest by VRT. The show was broadcast live in the competing countries, as well as Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Australian television channel Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) that acquired the rights for broadcasting the show, which was broadcast on 1 January 2007.

Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT) of Croatia announced that they would withdraw from the 2007 edition and future contests, as otherwise they would have faced a fine from the EBU as they did not screen this year's event live and did not broadcast it on a nationally available network. Broadcasters previously had to screen the event live and on a channel available to the majority of the public however this rule was scrapped in 2007.

Molly Sandén

Withdrawn countries

The Scandinavian broadcasters; DR of Denmark, Norsk rikskringkasting (NRK) of Norway and Sveriges Television (SVT) of Sweden; decided to withdraw from the contest for various reasons, one being that the content put too much pressure on the participating children. Instead they staged a solely Scandinavian contest called Melodi Grand Prix Nordic in Stockholm, as they did in 2002. However, Sweden did participate, with commercial broadcaster TV4 supplying Sweden's entry. This meant that Sweden participated in both contests.

ITV, the United Kingdom broadcaster of the contest from 2003 up until and including 2005, withdrew from the contest, after they were originally given the rights to broadcast it when the BBC declined the offer. In 2003, they broadcast the contest on main channel ITV, relegating it to ITV2 for the next two years due to bad viewer ratings, before their complete withdrawal in 2006.

Latvia also withdraw, mainly due to financial reasons. They have not returned before 2010.

Serbia and Montenegro participated in the 2005 contest, but since then, Montenegro voted for independence. The EBU gave their national broadcaster, Radio televizija Crne Gore (RTCG), extra time to decide whether or not to participate, but they finally declined the invitation.

Junior ESC 2012 - Armenia

 
Atists: Compass Band
Song: Sweetie Baby
Composer/Lyricist: Davit Paronikyan

Compass band was founded in 2011 during a Christmas concert in N 55 School after A. Chekhov, were the members of the band study. Besides being classmates David, Abraham , Arshavir and Aram are close friends. Each has its own vision and idols in music.

Davit Paronikyan (13) is the soloist of Compass band and the composer of Sweetie baby. He loves school and his classmates. He likes to sing and to listens to rock music. His favorite groups are Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd and Queen.
His first steps in music Davit made with the help of his producer Zara Petrosyan, and he got vocal lessons at Hovhannes Nazaryan. He is grateful to his father for developing his music taste, and also to his mother for his listening skills and sensitivity. Davit loves people with the sense of humor, especially smiling girls. The song is just about that.
The other members of Compass band are Abraham Aznavuryan (13) who plays the keyboard, Arshavir Grigoryan (13) who plays the the drums and Aram Tsaturyan (13) who plays the guitar.

Andraž Hribar

Andraž Hribar is a Slovenian singer, born in Ljubljana. After high school he studied communications and graduated in March 2001. He made his debut at EMA 2001. During his career Andraž recorded succesful singles and albums

Andraž participated 5 times at EMA, the Slovenian pre-selection for the ESC:

2001: Zilvljene Je, 2nd place
2002: Moja Moja, 6th place
2003: Letim Naprej, 10th place
2006: Rapad Tepe Ipi Mapam, 11th pla
2008: Corpomorto, 6th in semi-final 1

Junior ESC 2012 - Albania

Singer: Igzidora Gjeta
Song: Kam Një Këngë Vetëm Për Ju
Composer: Xhavit Ujkani
Lyricists: Jorgo Papingji and Igzidora Gjeta

Igzidora Gjeta was born on the 19th of March 2001 in the capital of Albania, Tirana. Even being only 11 years old, her career as singer started at an even earlier stage, when she was 7. Then Igzidora participated for the first time in the festival of Young voices where she achieved the 2nd place.

Igzidora is a very good pupil and has a very good performance at school. Besides singing, her hobbies are acting, learning foreign languages and reading books. She is very fond of dancing and practically likes all colors. She prefers pop music, hip hop and traditional Albanian folk music.

The young artist participated four years in a row in the Children’s Festival in Tirana. During these four participations, she ranked in the third position twice. She also ha participated for three years in the National Children Festival in Shkodra, last year she was awarded the price Inva Mula.

Igzidora studies canto at the Children’s National Center in Tirana and participates in many activities. And now after winning the National Selection in her country she will become the very first representative of Albania in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005

Date: November 26 2005
Venue: Ethias Arena, Hasselt, Belgium
Presenters: Marcel Vanthilt, Maureen Louys
Host broadcaster: RTBF/VRT
Interval act: Cirque du Soleil, María Isabel peforming Antes muerta que sencilla and Pues Va A Ser Que No
Number of entries: 16
Debuting countries: Russia, Serbia and Montenegro
Returning coubtries: -
Withdrawing countries: Cyprus, France, Poland, Switzerland
Voting system: Each country awards 1-8, 10, and 12 points to their 10 favourite songs
Winner: My vmeste - Ksenia Sitnik, Belarus

Entries

01. Greece: Alexandros and Kalli - Tora einai i seira mas (6th place, 88 points)
02. Denmark: Nicolai - Shake shake shake (4th place, 121 points)
03. Croatia: Lorena Jelusić - Rock Baby (12th place, 36 points)
04. Romania: Alina Eremia - Țurai! (5th place, 89 points)
05. UK: Joni Fuller - How does it feel? (14th place, 28 points)
06. Sweden: M+ - Gränslös kärlek (15th place, 22 points)
07. Russia: Vladislav Krutskikh - Doroga k solntsu (9th place, 66 points)
08. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Denis Dimoski - Rodendeski baknež (8th place, 68 points)
09. The Netherlands: Tess - Stupid (7th place, 82 points)
10. Serbia and Montenegro: Filip Vučić - Ljubav pa fudbal (13th place, 29 points)
11. Latvia: Kids4Rock - Es esmu maza jauka meitene (11th place, 50 points)
12. Belgium: Lindsay - Mes rêves (10th place, 63 points)
13. Malta: Thea & Friends - Make it right (16th place, 18 points)
14. Norway: Mailin Reitan - Sommer og skolefri (3rd place, 123 points)
15. Spain: Antonio José - Te tragio flores (2nd place, 146 points)
16. Belarus: Ksenia Sitnik - My vmeste (1st place, 149 points)

Ksenia Sitnik

Format

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the third Junior Eurovision Song Contest for young singers aged 8 to 15. On November 26 2005, the contest was broadcast live from the Ethias Arena in Hasselt, Belgium, in a joint effort by the national broadcasters Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep (VRT) and Radio télévision belge de la communauté française (RTBF), in co-operation with the European Broadcasting Union. Belgium won the right to hold the contest over five other countries including Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) of Croatia and AVRO of the Netherlands. Marcel Vanthilt and Maureen Louys hosted the event.

The show was not only broadcast live in the competing countries, it was also available on satellite worldwide and the Australian television channel SBS who acquired the rights to broadcast the show one month later.

As many as twenty countries could have participated in this contest: Cyprus should have taken part but on October 13, Cypriot broadcaster Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) announced their withdrawal after questions arose over the song's origins, with complaints stating that the song they had chosen appeared to be plagiarism. This did not affect their ability to take part in the voting. In addition, Lithuania and Ukraine had planned on entering but later withdrew. Georgia had also wanted to appear but missed the participation deadline for the contest.

The public broadcasters of Switzerland and Poland didn't send candidates for financial reasons. France didn't join because of restructuring within the channel. Russia and Serbia and Montenegro made their debut in the competition this year.

The theme of the show was 'Let's Get Loud', standing for the new generation on the stage.

Tess

The show was watched by 8,500 people in the Arena, including the Belgian Prince Laurent and 20-25 million people around Europe.

Belarus was the winner of this edition, with 10-year old Ksenia Sitnik singing her song My vmeste.

Acts

The show opened with fireworks and bungee jumpers.

As surprise act the young Vladik Myagkostupov from the famous Cirque du Soleil showed his juggling abilities in a four minute performance while people were voting during the interval. While the votes were being counted, the Spanish María Isabel, performed a medley from the song with which she won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004 and some of the numbers from the album she had recently released. She also presented the trophy to the winner.

Junior ESC 2012 - Israel

Singer: Kids.il
Song: Let the music win
Composers/Lyricist : Kids.il & Ohad Hitman

The Kids.il band is made of five girls - Libi Panker (14), Adi Bity (11), Adel Korshov (10), Adi Mesilati (14) and Tali Sorokin (10) and one boy - Daniel Pruzansky (13). All six of them are experienced performers and will represent Israel in the 2012 Junior Eurovision Song Contest with the song Let The Music Win which they wrote alongside composer Ohad Hitman.

Libi Panker was born on 29.03.1998 and lives in Rosh Ha'ayin. Music for Libi is everything, music is her love and with the music she brings her feelings out. She writes and composes music. She taught herself to play keyboard and guitar. She had studied vocal pedagogy and played the clarinet for two years. She started to sing at the age of 4, and was a finalist of the popular show Music School.

Adi Bity was born on 26.5.2001 and lives in Hod HaSharon. She started her career at the age of 2.5 in a young talent show, in front of hundreds of people. Since then she has gained a lot of experience in music: singing in a choir, studying vocal pedagogy, dubbing cartoon characters and perform along Andrea Bocelli are just an example. She's also taken part in the Music School TV show.

Adel Korshov was born on 20.11.2001 and lives in Oranit. Another young and trained performer and the daughter of former opera singers, her older sister is also singing and playing the guitar, and together they perform in family events. She achieve her biggest dream to perform on stage when last year she took part in Music School. Furthermore, she performed in various TV shows and other stages.

Adi Mesilati was born on 31.7.1998 and lives in Kfar Saba. She is an exceptional student and also a member of two youth groups and of the school choir. Adi also sings in the Mimouna celebrations and during the Independence Day shows. She took part in a competition called To be a star of the Israeli Ministry of Education, where she ended up as a finalist.

Tali Sorokin was born on 12.2.2002 and lives in Rehovot. As she started singing before talking, her parents decided to send her to study musical theatre when she was very young. Now she is the soloist of the Flowers of Ashdod band. She already won many international awards and represented Israel in the Slavic Bazzar in 2012. Tali is also a rhythmic gymnast and is taking part in competitions for 4 years.

Daniel Pruzansky was born on 30.9.1999 and lives in Rosh Ha'ayin. He is performing since 5 and in six languages: Hebrew, English, German, Italian, Yiddish and Russian. He plays the piano and the clarinet and knows how to sing opera. He performed with the Kinderlach band all over Israel as a soloist and at age 9 released his first album. His biggest achievement was representing Israel in the Slavic Bazzar.

The composer Ohad Hitman was born in Tel Aviv in 1977 and is a Graduate of the Rimon School of Jazz and contemporary Music and The Academy of Music by the Hebrew University. He already has two albums and several hits to his credit. Ohad has been the music producer for several of the Israeli Military Bands, and has appeared in live concerts in Europe and the Far East. His work combines composing, lyrics and production for television series, choirs and for many leading performing artists and is currently recording his third album.

Junior ESC 2012 - Russia

Singer: Lerika
Song: Sensatsiya
Composer/Lyricist: Lerika

The song is about Lerika's first love.

Lerika, real name Valeriia Engalycheva, was born on April 7 in 1999 in the Moravian city of Olomouc in the east of the Czech Republic. She now lives with her family in the town of Yubileinyi in Moscow Oblast, Russia. The young singer is now attending a middle school while taking singing and violin classes. Her dream is to study in The Russian University of Theatre Arts and become a famous singer.

Lerika (13) started to sing at four. She was characterized by her outstanding music skills. She often gave concerts to her family at home which became an important family tradition. Her hobbies are chess, reading and holidays on the seaside and in the mountains.

A popular face in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, Lerika came sixth last year in Yerevan representing Moldova with No, No. Apart from that Lerika took part in a large number of prestigious international contests such as Slaviс Bazaar 2007, Festival Orpheus in Italy 2008, where she came first, and also in the New Wave Junior 2009.

She already has an impressive list of collaborations with Russian pop stars: the girlband Ranetki and the rapper Timati, Polina Gagarina and the Ukrainian-Russian singer Vera Brezhneva.

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004

Date: November 20 2004
Venue: Håkons Hall, Lillehammer, Norway
Presenters: Stian Barsnes Simonsen, Nadia Hasnaoui
Host broadcaster: NRK
Interval act: Westlife performing Ain't That a Kick in the Head?
Number of entries: 18
Debuting countries: France, Switzerland
Returning coubtries: -
Withdrawing countries: -
Voting system: Each country awards 1-8, 10, and 12 points to their 10 favourite songs
Winner: Antes muerta que sencilla - Maria Isabel, Spain

Cory Spedding

Entries

01. Greece: Secret Band - O palios mou eaftos (9th place, 48 points)
02. Malta: Young Talent Team - Powe of a song )12th place, 14 points)
03. The Netherlands: Klaartje and Nicky - Hij is een kei (11th place, 27 points)
04. Switzerland: Demis Mirarchi - Birichino (16th place, 4 points)
05. Norway: @lek - En stjerne skal jeg bli (13th place, 12 points)
06. France: Thomas Pontier - Si on voulait bien (6th place, 78 points)
07. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Martina Siljanovska - Zabava (7th place, 64 points)
08. Poland: KWADro - Łap życie (17th place, 3 points)
09. Cyprus: Marios Tofi - Onira (8th place, 61 points)
10. Belarus: Ego Volchek - Spiavajce sa mnoju (14th place, 9 points)
11. Croatia: Nika Turković - Hej mali (3d place, 126 points)
12. Latvia: Mārtiņš Tālbergs & C-Stones Juniors - Balts vai melns (17th place, 3 points)
13. UK: Cory Spedding - The best is yet to come (2nd place, 140 points)
14. Denmark: Cool Kids - Pigen er min (5th place, 116 points)
15. Spain: María Isabel - Antes Muerta que Sencilla (1st place, 171 points)
16. Sweden: Limelights - Varför jag? (15th place, 8 points)
17. Belgium: Free Spirits - Accroiche-toi (10th place, 37 points)
18. Romania: Noni Răzvan Ene - Îţi mulţumesc (4th place, 123 points)

 María Isabel

Format

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the second Eurovision Song Contest for young singers aged 8 to 15. It was held on November 20 2004, in Håkons Hall, Lillehammer, Norway and lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes. The theme of the competition was Bright Nordic Winter Nights. It was presented by Stian Barsnes Simonsen and Nadia Hasnaoui, broadcast in 20 countries and viewed by 100 million people. 18 countries participated, France and Switzerland participated for the first time. Originally 20 countries had applied to take part but Germany and Israel later pulled out. There were also reports that Ireland had planned to enter the programme. The contest was won by 9-year-old María Isabel with her song Antes Muerta Que Sencilla. Dino Jelusić, who won the 2003 contest, presented the award to María. Since, María Isabel has entered the charts in not only Spain but France, Italy, Scandinavia, Latin America and released a second album. Greece, who came ninth received more sets of twelve points than the United Kingdom, who came second. France, who came sixth, were voted by all the other countries that took part, which is more than the number of countries that voted for Romania, who came fourth and Croatia, who came third.

Klaartje & Nicky

Norway was the third country of choice for this contest as the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) had originally chosen ITV of the United Kingdom to host it in Manchester. However, ITV pulled out in May 2004 due to finance and scheduling problems. The venue was therefore moved to Croatia, the winning country of 2003, but the Croatian broadcaster HRT reportedly forgot that the prospective venue for the event was already booked for the period the Junior Eurovision Song Contest was to take place. NRK therefore offered to organise the next contest.

Incidentally, the same three countries occupied the top three places as last year, just in a different order. These three countries were Spain, the United Kingdom, and Croatia.

Junior ESC 2012 - Belgium

 
Singer: Fabian
Song: Abracadabra
Composers and Lyricists: Jeroen Swinnen, Stefaan Fernande, Fabian Feyaerts

Fabian is a charming boy with a rather shy smile. This 14-year-old guy from Arendonk, a village near Antwerp, plays guitar and piano. He hopes to follow in the footsteps of bands like Green Day and Simple Plan. Rock music is his passion and playing football his hobby.

When he is on stage, all eyes are on Fabian. But when he is at home, he has to share the attention with four other children: one little sister and three brothers. As a true Belgian, whenever Fabian gets to choose, he eats fries - preferably fried in his own mum and dad’s fries shop.

In the Junior Eurovision Song Contest Fabian will be singing his song Abracadabra to win the heart of one girl. Becoming a magician has never really been his dream, but he wishes he could conjure up absolutely everything for that one girl: from golden roses to a trip to Jupiter. Just this once, he really wants to believe in magic.

The Disco Brothers

r Girls
The Disco Brothers, a Tech-trance production project, were formed in 1999 in the UK by Timothy James Cole and Mark David Gareth Wilson.

The Disco Brothers became a one-man project in 2006 as a result of Mark Wilson's death on October 26th at the age of 29.

In 2002 The Disco Brothers were joined by the Weathergirls and they performed the song Get Up, which was witten by the Disco Brothers, in the German national final for the ESC were they came 13th. 

Also in 2002 The Disco Brothers released an album called Presenting Stars Of The Eighties. They made, especially for that album, a remix version of the song Get Up.

Click here if you want to know more about the Weather Girls

Junior ESC 2012 - Azerbaijan

Singers: Omar Sultanov & Suada Alekberova
Song: Girls & Boys (Dünya Sənindir)
Composers: Jessica Appla & Simon Ellis
Lyricists: Jessica Appla & Zahra Badalbeyli

Girls and Boys is a song about boys and girls, acting cheerful and happy.

Suada Alekperova is a very active, cheerful and optimistic girl. She has shown a big interest for music and dancing since her childhood and started piano lessons at six and singing at five years old. Suada is the soloist of the Tebessum vocal group and does ballroom dances as well. She prefers Jazz style and has taken part in different festivals. Her biggest expectation is to be able to represent Azerbaijan worthily.

Omar Sultanov is a very clever, vivacious, talented boy. He is in love with music and thinks that music is the pulse of life. Omar was born in Baku and wants to be a big star. He became interested in music when he was just 7 years old and has taken vocal lessons for over three years. Now he studies at school and prefers mathematics and English language most of all. Collecting coins and singing songs are his hobbies. Omar has a strong interest in folk and pop music and his favorite singers are: Shakira, Beyonce, Adele and Bruno Mars. He is also a Eurovision fan; his favorite Eurovision Song is Euphoria by Loreen.

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003

Date: November 15 2003
Venue: Forum Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Presenters: Camilla Ottensen, Remee
Host broadcaster: DR
Interval act: Sugababes performing Hole in the Head,Busted performing Crashed the Wedding
Number of entries: 16
Voting system: Each country awards 1-8, 10, and 12 points to their 10 favourite songs
Winner: Ti Si Moja Prva Ljubav - Dino Jelusić, Croatia

Dino Jelusić

Entries

01. Greece: Nicolas Ganopoulos - Filoi gia panta (8th place, 53 points)
02. Croatia: Dino Jelusić - Ti si moja prva ljubav (1st place, 134 points)
03. Cyprus: Theodora Rafti - Mia efhi (14th place, 16 points)
04. Belarus: Volha Satsiuk - Tantsui (4th place, 103 points)
05. Latvia: Dzintars Čīča - Tu esi vasarā (9th place, 37 points)
06. F.Y.R. Macedonia: Marija & Viktorija - Ti ne me poznavaš (12th place, 19 points)
07. Poland: Kasia Żurawik - Coś mnie nosi (16th place, 3 points)
08. Norway: 2U - Sinnsykt gal forelsket (13th place, 18 points)
09. Spain: Sergio - Desde el cielo (2nd place, 125 points)
10. Romania: BUBU - Tobele sunt viaţa mea (10th place, 35 points)
11. Belgium: X!NK - De vriendschapsband (6th place, 83 points)
12. UK: Tom Morley - My song for the world (3rd place, 118 points)
13. Denmark: Anne Gadegaard - Arabiens drøm (5th place, 93 points)
14. Sweden: The Honeypies - Stoppa mig (15th place, 12 points)
15. Malta: Sarah Harrison - Like a star (7th place, 56 points)
16. The Netherlands: Roel - Mijn ogen zeggen alles (11th place, 23 points)

Roel

Format

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003 was the first Eurovision Song Contest for young singers aged eight to fifteen. It was held on November 15 2003, in Copenhagen, Denmark. With Camilla Ottesen and Remee as the presenters, the contest was won by the then eleven-year-old Dino Jelusić, who represented Croatia with his song Ti Si Moja Prva Ljubav while second and third place went to Spain and the United Kingdom respectively.

It was the first Eurovision to be broadcast in the 16:9 widescreen format. It was also the first Eurovision Song Contest where a DVD of the contest would be released. It was decided that the country that won the contest would not necessarily host the next contest, in order to reduce the pressure on the contestants.

Tom Morley

Slovakian broadcaster Slovenská televízia (STV) and German broadcaster ARD expressed an interest in joining this contest and were included in a draw for the chance of participating in the programme (though the results of this draw later became redundant).

Interval acts

The half time entertainment was provided by two acts from the UK. Busted performed Crashed the Wedding but Charlie Simpson was absent due to illness. However, the following day he was present for a radio interview in the UK where it was implied by both himself, and the other band members, that this was in fact a lie. The real reason for his absence was that he hated Eurovision. The Sugababes performed Hole in the Head.

Junior ESC 2012 - Sweden

Singer: Lova Sönnerbo
Song: Mitt Modd
Composers/Lyricists: Lova Sonnerbo, Janni Steffner, Lydia Westin Malm

Mitt Mod is a song about courage. The singer discribes her anxiety to do all kinds of stuff but with a lot of courage the singer feels confident to do the things she wants to do. 

Lova Sönnerbo (14) has been singing since she was 3 years old. She composes her own songs since she was 6 - 7 years old.

Lova studies today at music school Kulturama in Stockholm. In addition to piano, she plays guitar and just started playing the drums.

Besides music, Lova loves movies, fashion, football, swimming, cooking and baking. She also likes to travel and hike in Norway. She wants to continue to invest in music and will do everything to fulfull that dream.

Kejsi Tola

Më Merr Në Ëndërr was the Albanian entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, held in Moscow, Russia. The song was composed by Edmond Zhulali and Agim Doçi. At the ESC the song was performed in English by Albanian singer Kejsi Tola as Carry Me In Your Dreams.

The song was the winner of Festivali I Këngës 47, the festival used to select Albania's Eurovision entry. Albania was the first country to select and publicly present its song. The song was chosen as the winner of the festival on 21st December 2008, five months before Eurovision, to be held on 16th May 2009. The song was performed during Festivali I Këngës in Albanian as Më merr në ëndërr (Take me into your dreams), and the English version of the song, Carry me in your dreams was premiered on 18 March.

Kejsi performed the song at the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 semi-final on May 14 2009, performing 16th in the running order. She received 73 points, placing 7th of the 19 competing songs, and qualifying to the final.

At the final on 16 May Kejsi Tola performed 19th in the running order. The song received 48 points, placing 17th of the 25 competing songs.

The staging featured two b-boys dressed as mimes (twin brothers) and a sequined green man (Jenia Evgenios Buli, who has performed with Kalomira in 2008 and Giorgos Alkaios in 2010). If only tele-voting had been used, Albania would have come in 11th.

***

Kejsi Tola (February 5 1992, Tirana) is an Albanian singer and the winner of Albanian Idol 2007. In 2008 she was the winning contestant in the Festivali i Këngës competition to find the representative for Albania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia.

Her career started when she was 11 years old in the Young Voices of Albania Festival where she won the first prize. Kejsi was also a two time winner of the young voices of the Shkodra Festival.

In the first Contest of Young Geniuses she was one of the ten finalists. In 2008 she won the Best New Artist prize in the Friday Fever Song Contest of Albanian modern music, and in 2008  she won Festivali i Këngës with the song Më merr në ëndërr.

Kejsi Tola attempted to enter the Eurovision Song Contest again in 2010, for the second consecutive time, by participating in Festivali i Këngës 2009 on 27 December 2009. But she placed just 15th with her ballad Ndonjëherë.

Kejsi tried once more to represent Albania for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 in Düsseldorf, Germany. However, her mid-tempo song Pranë did not go through the second semi-final during the selection process.