Earlier today, Armenia withdrew from Junior Eurovision 2020 due to the introduction of martial law in the region. The head of the Armenian delegation, David Tserunyan, has since revealed that national broadcaster ARMTV had intended to send Maléna Fox as their representative to the contest this year.
A song had also been selected and recorded by Maléna. However, the 13-year-old singer will no longer get the chance to perform the song at the contest.
Until now, the Armenian delegation had not publicly revealed anything about their planned participation at Junior Eurovision 2020. However, in a post on Instagram, Tserunyan disclosed that many things had been happening behind the scenes over the last few months:
“Dear friends and Eurovision fans, it is with great sadness that we announce our withdrawal from JESC 2020. Our team has been working tirelessly for months, to make our participation possible even during Covid19 and this unprecedented aggression in our region. But the war in Artsakh enters into a severe stage. […]
Back in July, we have internally chosen Maléna to represent our country. A 13 year old girl, who is immensely talented, kind and passionate for music and her country. I’m proud to say that she was a big part of this decision and we all feel grateful to have such an incredible generation of young Armenians.
Make no mistake, we will come back, stronger than ever.”
Tserunyan’s post indicates that the Armenian team had been putting together plans to participate at Junior Eurovision 2020 since at least July this year, which is when they internally selected Maléna.
As with all other countries taking part, precautions around Covid-19 were being put in place so that Maléna could perform at the contest remotely. However, the introduction of martial law during the current conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) was a step that the delegation were seemingly unable to overcome.
Posting on her own Instagram page, Maléna confirmed that she had a song ready to perform at Junior Eurovision. Although she won’t be able to sing it at the contest this year, Maléna and her team still plan on releasing the track for people to listen to in the near future:
“Considering the message of the song, our team and me have decided to release the song in the nearest future. Stay tuned, subscribe to my youtube channel for upcoming news.”
Maléna Fox is a 13-year-old singer from Armenia. Since the start of 2020, she has been working with the small Yerevan-based record label TKN.
TKN was founded by record producer tokionine. He previously produced “Walking Out”, Armenia’s Eurovision 2019 entry performed by Srbuk.
On her YouTube channel, Maléna has so far released two cover videos. One is of “Broken Clocks”, originally sung by American singer SZA. The other is a stripped-back mashup of a number of hit R’n’B songs, including Drake’s “Hotline Bling” and The Weeknd’s “Heartless”.
These cover videos show that Maléna appears to favour R’n’B songs as an artist. This gives us a small insight into what her Junior Eurovision 2020 entry may have been like.
Nevertheless, since Maléna has stated her intention to release her selected entry at some point, we should find out in the near future exactly what style of song she was planning to perform at the contest.
Are you sad that Maléna Fox won’t be able to represent Armenia at Junior Eurovision 2020? Are you excited to hear what her selected entry would have been? Let us know in the comments below!