drj
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10
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One of the millions of fans of European-based song contests around the world, not in Europe
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Post by drj on Dec 2, 2021 13:36:59 GMT 1
Thank you, Shanfachai! That's real social science research!
I don't think your respondents necessarily represent the majority of voters in JESC (an interesting question to have asked them would have been "Who do you think YOUR FOLLOWERS ON YOUTUBE will vote for?) but as people immersed in music and ESC/JESC they might represent how the national juries will vote.
If that is true, Poland is going to have to have a big enough majority in the televote to win the contest without winning the juries, like Roxana and Viki did. Sara (Poland) appears to have lost some 7,000 instagram followers in the past fortnight (wonder what she did to anger them, or are they drifting over to other JESC contestants?). Whether Poland can win without the juries will depend on whether Russia's Tanya, whose instagram followers have levelled out at 121K to Sara's 124K, can cut Poland's majority in the televote enough to make Poland need the juries. If the juries do vote as your respondents did, then Russia might win.
North Macedonia is my personal vote as I think only their song has some meaning and care about the environment, like the songs in 2019. But I really don't think that Dajte Musika, unknown outside the Balkans, has a chance to come in 2nd. And little Armenia coming 1st? I know Arpine ("Malena Fox") is your personal vote but I don't think there are enough telephone numbers in Yerevan to put her over the top. As I said, you could be proving that Armenia will win the jury vote and that is possible because her song is good. But I don't know where "Malena Fox"'s 125,000 televotes will come from to defeat Poland and Russia's instagram voters alone, when she has a grand total of 462 followers on instagram. Her 5.91 K followers on youtube can't do it and youtube followers could be following most of the other candidates too, not certain to vote for her. And if they ever see her photo on her YouTube community page, where she declares Vladimir Lenin as her "new crush", it will not help her get votes in other ex-Communist countries where she might have had a chance. Even the kids know that Lenin was a big problem for their countries and their families!
Well, we'll see . . .
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drj
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10
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One of the millions of fans of European-based song contests around the world, not in Europe
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Post by drj on Dec 3, 2021 14:28:21 GMT 1
In 2013-2015, Malta was the force to be reckoned with in JESC, as Georgia had been before and as Poland was later. Since then, it has sunk to the bottom of the rankings in most contests, with average results in others.
This year, Malta has stopped strangling the goose that laid its golden eggs in 2013-2015 and resurrected it. Will going into its magic box stop the withering away of Malta in the JESC? Could Malta actually win this year?
First, we have to understand what Malta's magic was in 2013-2015: "La Voix". Yes, Gaia, Federica and Destiny had powerful voices but that is not what I mean. All Malta's representatives in those years were friends who went to the same singing school, La Voix Academy, in Marsa, a little town near Valletta where the 2015 JESC was held.
La Voix's founder and engine is Gillian Attard, "Miss G". Gillian has been a popular singer and TV personality in Malta since the start of the millenium. She was a child prodigy and likes to work with them. When Gaia Cauchi got one of Malta's highest awards from the President, the MQR, for being the first Maltese representative to win the JESC, so did Gillian.
Gillian is the singing specialist. She often works with Matthew "Muxu" Mercieca, the composer, who writes the music for the songs or sometimes the words. Often the child singer also participated in writing the lyrics.
In 2013-2015, Malta's magic was Gillian + Muxu + great kid singer. With that winning combination, La Voix took on the role Bzikebi Studios had performed in Georgia in 2008 and thereafter, as a training ground for JESC representatives. In 2014, the combination stumbled, probably because the singer, Federica Falzon, was too classical and operatic: she sounded like a 50-year-old woman when she sang. Even Muxu's lyrics, which one could not understand, couldn't save her. Modern audiences hate operatic songs, even delivered impressively by a child prodigy: ask Jackie Evancho, Emanne Beasha and, alas, Melani Garcia (2019) (Spain). It didn't stand up well to Vincenzo Cantiello (Italy)'s easygoing, heartthrob performance of his song about his first love: he probably got a lot of Maltese votes too.
Malta's magic was there in 2016, too: Christina Magrin actually got more votes than Destiny Chukunyere had got the year before for a landslide victory. Yet, in 2016, the televote was abolished. Destiny had won the televote in 2015 and the juries by an even bigger majority but, in the professional-children mixed juries, the decision-making process was different: basically the children's preferences were watered down and perhaps even led by the impressive professionals.
So, in 2017-2020, La Voix was out. The magic was gone. The goose that had laid the golden eggs was dead. Malta went to 9th place in 2017 and last place in 2019 mixing Maltese and English in the lyrics. Maltese is an ancient Semitic language that no one but a Maltese understands. As a former British colony, English is an official language. Thus, Malta could use English as its national language for JESC songs. JESC fans got used to listening to the Maltese songs as ones they could understand because, before 2017, they were all in English. Making them half Maltese was not a step forward. Ela Mangion did rather better in 2018, even without "the magic", coming up to 5th place out of 20 contestants, but singing a song that sounded like it was written for Whitney Houston, sung like Mariah Carey, nothing new or different, she couldn't keep her head above water when the Polish tide came in and outvoted everyone else.
In 2020, the Monseigneurs took over. Alejandro Spiteri Monseigneur composed the song with others and his relative, little Chanel, aged 9, sang it. Chanel's singing was flawless but the song was monotonous and Chanel was rather wooden compared to other contestants who were dancing around the stage. Malta sank to 8th out of 12.
Now, Malta has brought the magic back. For "My Home", Muxu and a friend did the music. While Miss G did not write the lyrics, Kaya Gouder Curmi is a La Voix student and carries the perfect technical singing, poise and stage presence which are marks of that institution. Can they win?
There are a lot of hurdles for the two 10 year olds to surmount. JESC has changed since 2015. Swamping the polls with one's nation's votes and being a social media star are now the main determinants of the winners. Malta, with a population of 443,000 men, women and children, less than Valentina's total vote in 2020, half of whose votes will go to Italy, from the Italophilic fashionable class, is not going to swamp any poll with its own votes. As for social media, Ike and Kaya each has about 1,500 followers on instagram, compared to 124,000 for front-runner Sara Egwu-James (Poland). Second, Malta has made two big mistakes: neither rap nor duos have ever won JESC. Younger children do not like them. Malta offers both this year. Malta's performance looks like "Kaya is trying to sing a beautiful song and Ike is barracking her." So now the question is can Muxu's music and Gillian's voice training for Kaya save the cause?
Truthfully, I have my doubts. But it is theoretically possible. At least Malta is putting its best forward this year.
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💜 Your friendly Finn, rock/metal music, Alexa Bliss, Isla Dawn, Zelena & sports fan 💜
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Post by тнєяσиттi95 on Dec 16, 2021 16:31:02 GMT 1
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Post by AussieSwarm on Dec 17, 2021 7:32:38 GMT 1
Ukraine Armenia North Macedonia Russia Poland France Italy Netherlands Kazakhstan Spain 11th Georgia 12th Albania 13th Portugal 14th Ireland 15th Azerbaijan 16th Germany 17th Serbia 18th Malta 19th Bulgaria
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Post by Jozef on Dec 18, 2021 0:01:29 GMT 1
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we are domi - lights off is stuck in my head whenever let's count the smiles isn't :p
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Post by thatesc on Dec 19, 2021 7:57:18 GMT 1
They're all so sweet!
My winner is Georgia (followed by Azerbaijan and France), but they're all great!
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Amanda
4 points
She/Her
1,401
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We are Veronika
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Post by Amanda on Dec 19, 2021 8:08:30 GMT 1
My top: 1. Netherlands 2. Armenia 3. North Macedonia 4. Poland 5. Russia 6. France 7. Georgia 8. Azerbaijan 9. Serbia 10. Ukraine 11. Spain 12. Italy 13. Albania 14. Germany 15. Ireland 16. Portugal 17. Kazakhstan 18. Bulgaria 19. Malta
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Post by Joseph on Dec 20, 2021 0:39:09 GMT 1
the contest has come to an end and I'm so happy with the results but also I wrote a letter to my friends in Baku “So, yes, the winner of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 is a country that has killed most of our people, but we should not be sad. Sona Azizova did an excellent job on stage and she was awarded the 5th place, which is the best result in Azerbaijan. This is also the first time that all three Caucasus countries are in the top five. But we are surprised that she took fifth place. I didn't even expect that. When she comes home, everyone should welcome her as a hero, not a traitor” Congratulations to all the kids, and happy holidays to all of you
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we are domi - lights off is stuck in my head whenever let's count the smiles isn't :p
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Post by thatesc on Dec 20, 2021 4:15:14 GMT 1
The results shocked me, but I'm not unhappy!
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Post by Robert on Dec 20, 2021 4:25:35 GMT 1
the contest has come to an end and I'm so happy with the results but also I wrote a letter to my friends in Baku “So, yes, the winner of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 is a country that has killed most of our people, but we should not be sad. Sona Azizova did an excellent job on stage and she was awarded the 5th place, which is the best result in Azerbaijan. This is also the first time that all three Caucasus countries are in the top five. But we are surprised that she took fifth place. I didn't even expect that. When she comes home, everyone should welcome her as a hero, not a traitor” Congratulations to all the kids, and happy holidays to all of you As a teacher, I have one thing to say loud Politics and conflict should have NO PLACE with the involvement of children and/or events such as Junior Eurovision.
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