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As the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 approaches rapidly, it’s time to start Junior Juke Box Jury. There are a few changes from previous Junior Eurovision runs. One is that – as you’ve asked us in our annual survey – to ensure that each Juke Box Jury season will finish before we get ‘on the ground’ for rehearsals. That’s going to be the case here, as we’re going to do a rapid release and are aiming for an episode released every two days.
The other major change is in keeping with the adventurous spirit of Junior Eurovision itself, we shall be recording these JBJ episodes ‘over the internet’ and we’d love your feedback on the difference this decision has made.
With those bits of housekeeping out of the way, onto a simple question. Hit, miss, or maybe?
Eurovision Insight Podcast: Junior Juke Box Jury #1
with Sharleen Wright and Samantha Ross.Poland:, Anyone I Want To Be, by Roksana Wegiel.
Belarus: Time, by Daniel Yastremski.
Albania: Barbie, by Efi Gjika.
Malta: Marchin’ On, by Ela.
Macedonia: Doma, by Marija Spasovska.
Don’t miss an episode of the Eurovision Insight podcast as we cover this year’s Junior Eurovision Song Contest. You can 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.
Ewan, if you still have that car wreck of a recording, please put it on patreon as a bit of a bonus podcast. Because I’m not sure about everyone else, but I would like to hear it lol.
(Un)fortunately it’s very rare that outtakes are preserved beyond about a seven day window.
Welcome back JBJ, the ESC Insight ‘Jewel in the Crown’. Junior is always particularly difficult to call given, as you say, the different age ranges that songs have to appeal to. As the years go by I admit to finding it increasingly difficult to put myself in the shoes of a 13 year old viewer. (Maybe no bad thing!). But here are my thoughts gleaned from way too many hours of watching the Youtube videos.
Poland – Not really to my personal taste. It has some interesting elements, particularly the middle eight. But it’s all a bit safe and lacks conviction. They could have gone further with the guitar riffs and the hip-hop elements. Like you guys I can see a strong public vote, but I would imagine the juries will deny it any real chance of victory. MAYBE
Belarus – One of my top 3 personal favourites of this year’s contest. It is very modern, very radio friendly and the music video was good. I’m just not sure this will translate into a strong live performance in a competition context, and that’s not to do with Daniel who I think will be very good live. MAYBE
Albania – The panel hit the nail on the head about the problem with this. The message is ‘I’m a strong girl, not a Barbie ‘- but then what you see in the video and probably on the JESC stage is a little girl dressed up as a Barbie. Actually, listening to it now on JBJ without the visuals it sounded not bad at all. But for the reasons given by the panel. MISS
Malta – Another one of the songs I like this year. Sharleen’s comments sum up my thoughts. Ela’s voice is good, the song is good (but doesn’t totally hit the mark in its attempts at an anthemic chorus) and Australia is doing something very similar but doing it better. Mid table. MAYBE.
FYR Macedonia – By far the best song in this year’s contest. I’ve heard a few Balkan ballads at Adult Eurovision, but none as good as this one. Can Macedonia stage it? Will the young people vote for it? I can see it doing well with juries but the public vote will almost certainly pull it down. I’m with Ewan, top 5 will be its limit unfortunately. MAYBE
Finally, a technical question for you Ewan. I’ve somehow managed to arrange to be travelling back from Scotland to England at the time the contest is broadcast. Are you broadcasting on Radio 6 international this year and is this a channel that you can get on a bog-standard car radio? I would love to be able to inform my long-suffering wife that her Sunday afternoon drivetime entertainment has been mapped out.