In the lead up to this year’s Junior Eurovision, we are looking back on the previous editions of the contest to rediscover the songs we love! Our Top 5 will likely be different to yours, but that’s part of the joy! We encourage you to join the discussion by sharing your Top 5 too!
Today we are looking back to the 2016 contest which was held in Malta’s capital city, Valletta. A total of 17 nations competed including a few returning countries! We welcomed back Cyprus, Israel and Poland, however Montenegro, San Marino and Slovenia withdrew from the contest. Without further ado, here’s our Top 5!
5. Cara Mamma – Fiamma Boccia (Italy)
Italy have been a bit hit and miss at Junior Eurovision, but this was certainly a hit. This is a prime example of letting the song and the artist shine without gimmicks, as it’s simply Fiamma on stage performing the heartfelt ballad dedicated to her mother. The Italian language just fits so well into this style of song, and it’s truly beautiful to listen to – a sentiment clearly agreed on by the voters! Of course it was up to Fiamma to deliver the song well, and she very confidently performed the song that definitely featured some big notes! This is one of Italy’s best at Junior Eurovision.
4. Tarber – Anahit & Mary (Armenia)
Armenia’s entry for Junior Eurovision 2016 was one of the punchiest songs of the night with some killer vocals even from the first few seconds of the song. Both Anahit and Mary nailed their massive intro notes, and gave very confident performances throughout the entirety of the song. This certainly isn’t an easy song to perform, especially when you add in choreography. The energy is infectious in this song, and even before the contest it was clear that this would be a contender for a very respectable result, and the girls came in 2nd place behind only Georgia. Perhaps the clincher was the magical costume change!
3. Magical Day – Lidia Ganeva (Bulgaria)
Bulgaria renewed their efforts both in Eurovision and Junior Eurovision, and this entry was the result of that renewed effort. The talented young star Lidia Ganeva was chosen to represent the country with the song Magical Day which was just that, magical. This is such an uplifting song performed by an inspiring young artist. The song felt grown up, but the colourful staging helped bring the fun into the performance. Although the song in Bulgarian was great, it was also good to feature the ending of the song in English to be able to share the message of the song. Overall this is one of the best, if not the best that we’ve seen from Bulgaria at Junior Eurovision.
2. Musyka Moikh Pobed – Alexander Minyonok (Belarus)
Continuing with the upbeat theme, Belarus also served up an absolute bop for the 2016 contest. Leading in to the contest, this song went completely under the radar for me, and I think for many others, but after watching the contest take place, Belarus proved to be one of the most impressive performances, at least for me. This was extremely well choreographed, and even though there was a lot of it, Alexander manages to absolutely slay the vocals. Not to mention that this song is so catchy and perfect for Junior Eurovision. I definitely think this should have been a bit higher on the scoreboard!
- Water of Life – The Water of Life Project (Russia)
This is such a beautiful song, so beautiful that I’d take it over 90% of the Russian entries at Eurovision. The melody and instrumentation are very charming, and even from first listen I knew this would be my favourite of 2016. That’s not even mentioning the vocals which were pitch perfect, although I do think that Sofia Fisenko could have performed this song alone and achieved the same result. Although this is one of my favourite Junior Eurovision songs, what I was disappointed with was the staging of the performance which felt underwhelming, even compared to their official music video for the song. Visually not the best, but in terms of the song and vocals, spot on.
Check out the previous posts in this series here: