Before we begin this let me get one thing off my chest. The running order for Junior Eurovision 2021, competitively, means very very little. At best how early or late you are in the show is a difference of a few percentage points of difference in the scores. With Junior Eurovision’s public vote making up fifty percent of the final score through an online vote that opens before the live show, the running order’s impact on the scoreboard is somewhat diminished.
Now small is not statistically insignificant and there are good draws and bad draws, runs of songs that amplify energy or create a narrative. However we have to take this in context with everything else. The effects are minuscule compared to how good your song is, how good you sing it, and, especially in Junior Eurovision whether you have millions of fans at home who will vote for you or not.
Rant over.
How The Draw Went Down
And it’s good that we move on and look at how this year’s running order was decided because that was what makes this so perfect. The format for Junior Eurovision’s running order is that three draws were held during the Opening Ceremony in Paris on Monday evening. Firstly, the host nation drew which position they would perform in, followed by a randomly drawn country to open and close the show.
The other countries were placed in a running order decided by the EBU, together with France Télévisions to “create the most exciting show possible”.
That running order is as follows
Germany, Georgia, Poland, Malta, Italy, Bulgaria, Russia, Ireland, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Albania, Ukraine, France, Azerbaijan, Netherlands, Spain, Serbia, North Macedonia, Portugal
From a production standpoint the three drawn elements are pure perfection. France drawing position 13 leaves them right in the middle of the second half of the show. I adore this from a perspective of a home crowd crescendo, it is desirable to have the crowd build up excitement for the host participant throughout the show, but not to dominate the ending. I find this positioning for ‘Tik Tak’ perfect for allowing and encouraging home crowd support without distracting from the rest of the competition.
An Accessible Opener
The drawing of Germany with ‘Imagine Us’ as a show opener works fantastically. There is firstly the perfect marriage with the show’s slogan for this year – Imagine – but also the type of music on show here screams gentle show opener. Now this isn’t the producer led show opener one may expect – your uptempo get-yourself-bopping-around-your-living-room number, but as an introduction to what Junior Eurovision is this hits exactly what many would expect.
‘Imagine Us’ is your four chord pop loop mid-tempo sing-a-long – easily accessible and understandable music from east to west – Furthermore the song’s message asking the listener to imagine the world as a better place – a message that the youth for too many generations have preached – fits with viewer’s expectations. In fact if you told me without knowing it was the common song for this year’s song I could fully believe it. This sets the scene so well for the rest of the show’s diversity to follow.
An Ending Of Contemplation
Finally ending the show as song number 19 is the Portuguese song ‘O Rapaz’ from The Voice Kids Portugal winner Simão Oliveira. Let me tell you now, few song producers would ever dare to place this Portuguese fado flavoured track last in the running order. It goes against all the classic tropes of show production, saving the best ‘till last, building to a dramatic finale, ending with something all appreciate or look forward to seeing . ‘O Rapaz’ is sentimental, ethnic, unconventional, thought provoking – it is the song in this year’s show most utterly different to anything else in the line up. I love that viewers will have to think while this plays.
Let me show why this works with some examples. In analysing the running order for the 2016 Junior Eurovision Song Contest I wrote that I have “no clue” how having ‘Mzeo’ ending the show would feel to the listener. Unfancied even during rehearsals, this old music hall style of craftsmanship in the composition gave little Mariam Mamadashvili room to grow and flower into life during the jury final – getting two huge rounds of applause as her voice just grew and grew through the song. There was something about how different the song was to the other that made it feel like a breath of fresh air and a true performance. It’s easy to say that running order helped ‘Mzeo‘, but I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed a show that felt so perfectly finished as that show in Malta did then.
Of course this can happen at Junior Eurovision where the final act is always drawn, but some producers are catching on and trying this. Melodifestivalen is brilliant at it, throwing in acts that offer up something different to end the final and so filled with joy that the audience can’t help but dance around Friends Arena in joyous escapism. But Melodifestivalen’s running orders follow the same recipe year after year, without risk or challenge from this mantra.
There are rare examples of such daring though. In recent National Final history I remember the success of Australia Calling in 2020 – following up Montaigne’s performance with Didirri and ‘Raw Stuff’, a most gentle and sombre piano number. But the crowd energy followed – one could hear a pin drop in the arena as Didirri sang through the first lines with everybody’s focus on him. Ending on a diminuendo, and manipulating the audience to intimitly listen to this tender song, worked so incredibly well that I applauded the production team from my Stockholm apartment that morning.
Buried in the middle of the running order Didirri would have been swallowed up – with an audience waiting for whatever was coming next. Last in the running order has a perceived value of success, but more than that it also focuses the listener to pay attention to that song. If a good running order is designed to tell a story, to captivate an audience and allow all songs to stand out, then I argue the closing number should be a song that makes one contemplate might actually be the smarter approach.
Should Eurovision Borrow The Junior Approach?
Does all this mean that I want to draw each and every song randomly? I used to think so. Not only do I find the idea that Eurovision must begin with an uptempo pop number rather stale broadcasting, I am concerned about that competitive difference, however small. The idea that the EBU can have influence over the winning chances in their competition still leaves me uneasy at the possible bias, however unconscious it may be. I had the way artists feel when they find out that producers placed them in the number two slot – like the producers do not believe in them.
However, I also appreciate that the idea of a run of ballads isn’t desirable, and that spreading out songs in a running order that need intensive time to set up their stage show would make the production flow easier. A producer led running order is designed to produce a show after all. The solution Junior Eurovision has, with this hybrid model, does ensure these elements are not lost with some extra randomness.
This running order draw that France, Germany and Portugal received made me think something new. There must be another way – there must be a way to preserve all that makes a producer-led running order special, the variety of music and the ease of production, as well as its storytelling – while allowing for the fairness and beauty that randomness has demonstrated just like this Junior Eurovision running order draw.
We could take the entire Junior Eurovision model. It would work, and have that difference, but it still doesn’t solve the woe of being drawn 2nd and allows for the perceived favourism of being later the show to only grow – especially in a 26 song production. Instead I want to suggest a left-field idea.
Firstly, like it is today, the Eurovision Song Contest running order should be selected from first to last, completely to the producers’ wishes. But, once this is revealed, the starting number of that draw should be decided randomly.
To explain, imagine the Eurovision 2021 Grand Final running order, starting with Cyprus and ending with San Marino. Let’s say we announced that running order, and then, immediately after, we announced that we would start the running order at position 12 (the random suggestion from random.org). That would have led to Iceland opening Eurovision 2021, followed by Spain, and the show would close with Switzerland. Now I don’t think any producer in the world would have placed either Iceland or Switzerland in those positions by choice – but they both pique my interest and immediately makes that Eurovision show feel far more unique and have a more intrigue to it.
The running order announcement for Junior Eurovision, on a purely competitive basis, is not highly significant. But as a storytelling and mood making machine in all Eurovision contexts it is incredibly powerful. The instinct of the producer to make their Eurovision ‘feel right’ means we miss out of much of the beauty that randomness creates, and instead fall often into similar patterns. Junior Eurovision, with the part random draw, once again creates a model humans wouldn’t naturally and is all the better for it.
Our running orders in the main Eurovision Song Contest would also benefit from that randomness.
You having said that “Imagine Us” being picked as opener was such karma to kick off this JESC that has the slogan “Imagine”, has only just lit that light bulb in my head! Well done Carla for her selection of that sphere!
I do like this very basic draw of opener/closer/host and it would give the Eurovision producers almost total scope to select their ‘perfect’ running order. I have suggested to many the ‘producer draw, random drawn opener’ model over the years but I get the feeling that it might make production more problematic as in timings for complex props (Maps, Embers, Voy a Quedarme) and breaks. The JESC model allows for a bit of random interest and lets the producers play around with all of these variables that none of us really take in until the show itself. It also eliminates the annoying 1st and 2nd half draws after each public SF where all the singers ask “Is that good?”