Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 - Part Two - The Results!

 Bonsoir! And welcome back. This is part two of #JESC2021, where we discuss the interval performances, the voting sequence and of course, most importantly, I will give you my votes too! We saw all the performances in the first part, and we will kick off right after the end of Portugal's performance. So without further ado, let's get started!

Our hosts are back on stage, although a little late I suspect by the pace they are setting. Élodie, Olivier & Carla are back. Élodie again proving she is fluent in French. But happily, we announce that the voting is now open! Now's your chance to vote for your favourites...oh, no you can't. I keep forgetting we are several years in the future. Anyway, here is our first recap of the evening, who gets your vote? Let me know in the comments.

We now welcome last years winner Valentina, with a christmas version of "J'imagine". I mean it's a fun twist, but maybe not something I would look forward to in future contests. It's a catchy song and is well performed, last year I gave it 7 points. Yeah, the jingling bells in the background are annoying me now. 

We get our second recap, and time is running out to decide your favourites. I've struggling with my top 6, I just can't decide the order they go in. That's unusual for me, to struggling with the top 6, but I feel the standard of songs this year were really really high. No matter what order I put them in, it seems wrong. Come back to me at the end and hopefully I would have decided!

Olivier says he has a wonderful surprise for us all, but now it's another christmas gift. Oh dear. But we will get to see all of the contestants this year performing an original composition. It's interesting. We get some good verse lines from some, iffy ones from others, and the song sounds like something I've heard before, but I can't put my finger on why. But it's high energy, and the audience seem to enjoy it. I think this would be such a fun concept to do in the main contest. Imagine Netta & Eleni Foureira from 2018 performing together. Or Serebro, Verka and Marija Šerifović from 2007. Or even more interesting perhaps, Carola and Lordi from 2006. What an experience that would have been. Anway, the performance on-stage has finished and everyone is speaking French again when I come out of my Eurovision dream performances.

But voting is about to close. And Élodie, Olivier & Carla give us a rather frenetic countdown to close the voting. We now get Carla chatting to both Serbia and Portugal in the Green room. One of the Serbian girls grabs the microphone from Portugal, and tells us what they think of Paris, while the other tells us they like French fashion. I don't think that is a believable thing to say while wearing what your wearing. Portugal's chappie speaks in French to the audiences delight. I can only assume he is saying something nice about France. I might learn some French just to be spiteful if they ever host again. Carla then chats to Macedonia, who express they feel more confident performing as a country. The young lady in the green suit says Macedonia, skipping the North bit, which makes me like them even more. Glad they know the actual name of their country!

Fresh from two Eurovision successes and winning an award for the smoothest armpits I've ever seen, Is Barbara Pravi. Not only was she a runner up at the adult contest in 2021 with "Voila", she also wrote Valentina's winning entry in JESC2020. She came very close to European musical domination! She gives us an emotionally charged performance of Voila, and proves what a professional she is. She has a fantastic voice, and I'm sure we will hear from her again. She commands your attention on a bare stage, and she's all I can focus on. This time we don't have the tight fitting camerawork we had on the Eurovision stage, instead we get an outline of her on the backing screens, almost like a shadow, which gives the performances an ethereal quality. I really enjoy it, and can we just give Barbara a crown for something? I think she deserves it!

Olivier has competition for this years daddy, as we now chat with Martin Österdahl. He explains we have received votes from 199 countries across the world in the televote which is fantastic news. He says we have a valid vote, and we are good to go. Now here is where the tension really starts. Olivier is joined by Élodie, who has changed into this red asymmetric dress. It doesn't look quite right, I'm not sure if its because her hair is parted on the same side, or the material. Hmmm. But anyway, let's have a look at the jury votes. All 19 countries will share their jury votes, which make up 50% of the votes. Then, the televote points will be given out. For example, if you got 10% of the overall televote from viewers, then you get 10% of the televote points. Simple. I'll let Élodie explain it in French for me. Except she doesn't, and just goes straight to the Jury votes from Germany. Nevermind! Based on the performances tonight, I think the fight for victory will be between Ukraine, Armenia and France.

As always, I won't explain every single vote that comes in, we would be here forever if I did. But highlights from the Jury votes are the first 12 points going to Poland, Georgia struggling with the envelope, please don't rip the results up! We had envelope issues before, why have we not learned and sealed them with velcro? The Irish kid being the most Irish sounding kid I've ever heard, Russia & Kazakhstan swapping douze points with each other. The Albanian spokesperson looking the smartest dressed so far, Angelina who represented France at the JESC 2018 and came second is France's spokesperson, gives Georgia 12 points. Azerbaijan and Armenia fail to give each other any points again, but that's hardly a surprise, although interesting considering they are both in the top 4. Hosts France pick up a twelve from the Netherlands, as well as from Serbia, who give Macedonia a measly 3 points. Talk about neighbourly love! France finishes the Jury vote in the lead by 4 points. It's very tight, and absolutely anything could happen when the televote is revealed. Also, big shout out to the Casusaus countries, Armenia, Azerbaijan & Georgia, who are all sat in places 3, 4 & 5 which is very impressive.

But we now move to the most important part of the show, the results of the televote. We start at the bottom of the leaderboard and work our way up. The televote score is worked out differently to the main contest, there's usually less space between the countries, and it can become a bit of a free for all at times.

Currently Ireland is in last place, so we start with them, and they score 39 from the televote. Not unexpected. Portugal surprises me with 92 points, didn't see that coming. Serbia, with its staging based on The Shining scores 62 points, more than I think they should have gotten. Spain scores low, and it looks like they may not be in the top 10, for the first time ever. Macedonia pick up 59 points, less than I thought they would which is a shame. Olivier keeps giving us these little inspiration quotes every couple of results, which is dragging out the process and coming across as a little bit patronising. You stole our hearts, but Europe didn't vote for you. Little bit unnecessary don't you think? Ukraine scores 63 points and takes the lead. But not for long. Five countries left, Georgia get 59 and take the lead, but again, not by much. Neighbours Azerbaijan get 42 and move into a temporary second place. Other neighbour Armenia receives 109 points, shooting up into first with 224. Now that is a score that's going to be hard to beat. JESC heavyweights Poland are next, and they recieve 102 points, moving into second, just 6 points behind Armenia. All that's left, is to find out France's televote score. I think they will do it, they need 105 points from the online vote. Looks like we are heading for another win on home turf! And France gets...67 points. What????? I did not expect that at all. That's very low for a song that I thought could win the online vote. But there we go. 

Now, it's time to congratulate Malena and Armenia for winning the 2021 Junior Eurovision Song Contest! This is Armenia's second win in the contest, so very well done indeed. It is a catchy song, well performed and staged, and a worthy winner. There's time for the trophy to be handed over by last years winner Valentina. And there we go, it's up to an emotional Malena to perform the winning song again. This is "Qami Qami". The emotion is so raw and powerful she struggles to perform at times, but that's ok. We put these kids through so much in the contest, and yet they all perform fantastically. So we will be heading to Armenia next year, possibly the capital Yerevan. (I've been to the second city Gyumri, I doubt it will be there). We finish the show with all the contestants having a great big group hug as the confetti rains down upon them. 

I have to say, this was a fantastic show. France did a brilliant job hosting, the stage was fantastic, our hosts were really good. There was slight issues with the envelopes (will we ever learn?) and there needed to be a better balance of language through the show. But overall, well done to France Télévisions, this was our first proper post covid show, and it was terrific.

Results wise, a really strong year for the Caucasus countries, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. This was also Azerbaijan's best position to date. Commiserations to Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands, all getting their lowest places to date, and for The Netherlands, the first time they have ever placed last. France continue to remain in the top 10 of every contest they take part in, and we see Kazakhstan in 8th place, respectable, but for them, their lowest.

I thought Ukraine would have been ranked higher, along with Bulgaria. But who am I to complain about the results? And talking about results, I bet you would like to know my own results. So here we go!

1 point is for Azerbaijan

2 points are for Spain

3 points are for Poland

4 points are for Russia

5 points are for Bulgaria

6 points are for Ukraine

(from here I really struggled to rank them, such was the quality of the entries!)

7 points are for winners Armenia

8 Points are for Macedonia

10 points are for France

And finally, my douze points are for...Georgia!

So lets take a look and see what changes we have to the leaderboard!

Thankyou to Google Docs for this, but as you can see, only one minor change, with Macedonia and Kazakhstan swapping places and Armenia's lead increasing to 10 points. With that, we've come to the end of the contest. So merci for reading this post, and I look forward to next year's contest in Armenia!