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Eurovision Insight Podcast: Junior Juke Box Jury #1 Written by on November 20, 2017 | 3 Comments

You can listen to Junior Juke Box Jury and our daily podcast from Junior Eurovision on the ESC Insight podcast. Add the RSS Feed to your favourite podcast application, or click here to follow us in iTunes and never miss an episode.

As Junior Eurovision week gets under way, it’s time to run this year’s edition of Juke Box Jury over the next three nights.  Just to note, we’ve recorded al of these ahead of the first rehearsals to give everyone a fair chance of finding their Hit, a Miss, or Maybe.

Eurovision Insight Podcast: Junior Juke Box Jury #1
with Lisa-Jayne Lewis and Brent Davidson

Portugal: YouTuber, by Mariana Venâncio.
Russia: Wings, by Polina Bogusevich.
Albania: Mos ma prekni pemën, by Ana Kodra.
Ukraine: Don’t Stop, by  Anastasiya Baginska.
Netherlands: Love Me, by Fource.
Australia: Speak Up, by Isabella Clarke.

Don’t miss an episode of the Eurovision Insight podcast by subscribing to the RSS feed dedicated to the podcasts. iTunes users can find us in the iTunes Store and get the show automatically downloaded to your computer.

About The Author: Ewan Spence

British Academy (BAFTA) nominated broadcaster and writer Ewan Spence is the voice behind The Unofficial Eurovision Song Contest Podcast and one of the driving forces behind ESC Insight. Having had an online presence since 1994, he is a noted commentator around the intersection of the media, internet, technology, mobility and how it affects us all. Based in Edinburgh, Scotland, his work has appeared on the BBC, The Stage, STV, and The Times. You can follow Ewan on Twitter (@ewan) and Facebook (facebook.com/ewanspence).

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3 responses to “Eurovision Insight Podcast: Junior Juke Box Jury #1”

  1. John Egan says:

    That moment when three native English speakers are trying to correct the Russian entry’s English syntax: shouldn’t it be “reach FOR the sky”? 😉

  2. James says:

    As someone who speaks English as a second language, there’s also another part of “Krylya”‘s English lyrics that seemed off for me:

    “We all are just the humans,”

    They could have worded this phrase better.

  3. Eurojock says:

    Like the panel I’m coming to this without any knowledge of the rehearsals as I’ve been away, so all my comments are based on the song and the video. If last year is anything to go by, a lot can change as a result of the staging, live performances and running order. And, as Ewan says, allowing online voters to vote for their own country throws a complete spanner in the works for this year’s JESC.

    Portugal – I’m afraid the song is boring and monotonous. That is not young Mariana’s fault. She seems vocally sound. But based on the song alone. MISS

    Russia – Lisa-Jayne, you may be being a touch pedantic about the English. ‘Off’ English lyrics surely are part of the charm of Eurovision. Strong song. Even stronger video. Can the live performance match the video? On the evidence of last year’s JESC (and I’m thinking particularly of the wonderful Albanian video here) probably not. I’m not too confident we’ll see the superb young dancer with the black eye on the JESC stage, and if Polina just delivers the song herself as she did during the qualifiers, although well sung, ‘Wings’ will lose a lot of its meaning and power. That said, this is one of the two strongest songs in this year’s contest. So, based on the song and the video – HIT.

    Albania – The production on this song is dreadful. It sounds as if they are singing in a church hall. That said, compared to Klesta last year, where the live staging failed to match the video, the only way for this song is up. MISS.

    Ukraine – I agree with Lisa Jayne that is one of the better songs at this year’s JESC. The video has a lot of musical ideas which the live 3 minutes doesn’t have time for – like the build from the solo violin to the scream and then the final chorus. For me, the chorus is a bit of a let down following a very promising beginning to the song. On Youtube I saw two national live performances and there was a great deal of staging progress between the first performance and the one given in the national final. So, Ukraine are clearly moving in the right direction. MAYBE

    Netherlands – It’s interesting the strategies that different countries adopt for JESC. The Netherlands have basically gone for the same approach as last year – but this time substituting boys for girls. The verses are truly awful and as Lisa Jayne says, in translation, somewhat dodgy. The chorus is pretty good and appeals to my inner eight year old. (Sorry if that also sounds somewhat dodgy). Watching a live performance it seemed that one of the four’s voice had broken and didn’t quite blend with the others. I see Love Me finishing mid table at best. MAYBE

    Australia – I partially disagree with the panel on this one. Over the last three years Australia have basically sent the same type of song – with a teenage/teenage girl empowerment theme. The song is not the best in this year’s competition but probably targets a young audience more successfully than any other. From memory, the last couple of times Australia have only had the singer on stage. If Speak Up is to do really well it needs live dancers. But will the budget stretch to that? MAYBE

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