Next November 25th, Minsk Arena will host the sixteenth Junior Eurovision Song Contest. It will be the second time that the event takes place in the venue in Belarus’s capital. So far, 14 countries have confirmed participation. Therefore, it is the perfect time to look back at the journeys of all of this year’s participating countries in the contest so far. A country where Junior Eurovision is very popular and has been very successful at the contest is Armenia. Let’s take a look at the country’s Junior Eurovision journey so far.
- Country: Armenia
- Broadcaster: ARMTV
- Debut appearance: 2007
- Number of participations: 12
- Highest finish: 1st (2010)
- Lowest finish: 8th(2008)
Armenia made its Junior Eurovision debut back in 2007 when the contest was held in Rotterdam. Aremik was the first to wave the Armenian flag at the contest with the song “Erazanq”. Unlike last week’s featured country, FYR Macedonia, that made a rather underwhelming start, Armenia’s debut was very successful. In fact, Aremik finished second with 136, only a single point behind that year’s winner Belarus, narrowly missing out on a triumphant debut.
After debuting in 2007, Armenia hasn’t missed out on a single contest and has enjoyed excellent results every year. They won the contest once in 2010 with Vladimir Arzumanyan and his catchy entry “Mama”. If in 2007 they lost by 1 point, that year they won by 1 point, narrowly beating Russia. Although they only won once, Armenia is undoubtedly one of the most successful Junior Eurovision countries. In fact, they never missed out on a top 10 and their worst result is the 8th place achieved in 2008 by Monica Manucharova. Armenia also placed in the top 3 multiple times. Besides its victory in 2010, it finished second four times (2007, 2009, 2015 and 2016) and third twice (2012 and 2014). Armenia also hosted the contest in 2011 in the capital city of Yerevan, it was the first time that the previous year’s winner hosted the contest.
In 2017, MISHA placed 6th with his entry “Boomerang” with a total of 148 points. There were some rumors that Armenia was perhaps considering a withdrawal this year. In fact, Gohar Gasparyan, the country’s head of delegation, was extremely critical of the way the EBU handled the online voting last year with the system not being able to handle all the voters and giving many a blank screen. While many interpreted her remarks as a hint for withdrawal, the country later confirmed it will indeed take part to this year’s edition of the show.
ARMTV not only confirmed participation for Minsk but also made some exciting changes to the selection method. After using Junior Eurosong between 2008 and 2014 and then internally selecting their entrants from 2015 to 2017, Armenia will now use a national final called Depi Mankakan Evratesil. It is a show with a format similar to their selection for Eurovision. Those interested in participating had until June 30 to submit their entries. More news on Depi Mankakan Evratesil should be available soon so make sure you keep checking ESCXTRA for more updates.
As I said last week, I am a very new Junior Eurovision follower but I always listened to the winning song since 2010. Their winning entry also happens to also be my favorite Armenian Junior Eurovision entry. Armenia is one of my favorite Eurovision countries, but I can’t quite say the same for Junior Eurovision, as “Mama” is the only song I really like. Mind you, I don’t dislike any of their entries either but they are all middle of the ground and “Mama” is the only one I see myself listening to a few times (yes, I have already done that).
To me, Vladimir was totally a worthy winner. I may be Italian and totally mommy’s little boy, but I love how he is so charismatic (that wink!) and engaging on stage and the background dancers don’t do anything exceptional but they make the performance feel very complete. Also I wanna jump in and sing along even if I have zero understanding of Armenian (though I very much wish I did).