Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 - Part Two - The Results

 Bonjour & welcome back to my review of JESC 2023. In part one I reacted to all the songs, and in this post I will be reviewing the rest of the show, including giving my take on the results. I will also be sharing my votes too, will I be able to change the winner? Probably not. Will I be able to change the last place? More likely! But here we go, let's continue with the show!

We start where we left off, the voting lines have opened, and it's time for our first recap of the performances. Have you decided who your favourite was? Let me know in the comments!

Olivier & Laury chat at us for a little bit, before last years winner Lissandro takes the stage.  He performs "Oh maman" fantastically, this kid knows how to perform! Perhaps he is an alumni of the Pauline Quirke Academy of performing arts. Anyway it's a great song, and it's clear why it won last year in Yerevan. Olivier & Laury then chat a little bit more, before we get our second recap. Have you made your minds up yet?

Next up, we get a performance from Amir, who represented France in the main contest in 2016, coming 6th, providing France with a change of fortunes. "Jai cherie" is a fun, uptempo pop song, with a lovely blend of both French & English. The performance is really nicely done, with Amir and the backing dancers all in rainbow colours and moving about energetically. We then change to a new song of his "Il y a". It's a stark contrast, and it's ok. It's not really doing much for me.

Back to Laury & Olivier, who have just swapped sides, and with Ophenya to the other side. We then just get given a countdown without any warning, but that means that's it. There's nothing more anyone can do. Very soon we will have a winner. Laury then re-appears on the stage by a piano with Van Toan, there's a chat in French, and then we get a fun little sing along, I'm sure the first song is Rafaella Carra? But not enough people know it to make it a full sing along, and Laury doesn't seem to be singing much. We then all sing "All I want for christmas" by Mariah Carey, that famous JESC winning song from 1994. That was such a random little segment, that could have been really good, but it felt a little wasted.

We then get a talk about the Non violence foundation, an organisation for the past 20 years had been educating & providing support to people across 5 countries to combat violence. We don't normally get a charity plug during shows like this, so it must be an important charity. If you want to find out more about them, check out the website here @nonviolence.com. 

We then get another performance, this time of "we are the world" with former French JESC entrants, Enzo (2021), Angelina (2018) Lissandro (2022) & Valentina (2020). Obviously Carla from 2019 was busy.  I feel odd not knowing this song, I feel like I've never heard it before.  I've just looked it up, it was the USA version of Band aid. We get the incredible Florence François from the opening act joining in. I'm going to find her music and listen to it, she's amazing. Everyone's holding up peace signs, and it's really quite a lovely performance.

I suppose I should stop complaining about the French aspect of the show. Normally the bare minimum of French is doled out during the show, so with it being in France we're getting a 50/50 mix. Normally when you watch live there's a commentator chatting over the hosts, instead as I'm watching on Youtube there's just adverts and me commentating to myself. Perhaps I should do like a podcast of it. But then people would hear me speak. Perhaps best to stick to just writing the blog post.

We now speak to Mr Matin Österdahl, the EBU executive supervisor.  He confirms there has been televotes from 175 countries which is incredible, and that we have a valid result. He says we are good to go, and it's time to find out the results of JESC 2023.

As always, I won't post every result, I'll just recap the most interesting & important ones. We start with Spain, who gives us a hearty 10 points, that's a good start! The first twelve goes to hosts France! I'm jumping up & down, Ukraine has given us 12 points! France picks up another twelve from Ireland to surge back into the lead. Is it too early to predict another back to back win? Newcomers Estonia give 12 to Spain, followed by 12 to Malta from Armenia. I thought Malta would be doing better with juries. Another twelve to France, and they extend their lead. Spain seems to have just appeared out of nowhere, overtaking us into third place. The UK picks up another twelve from Albania. And our final 12 points from juries is from the Netherlands, and they go to France! Wow, that was a very fast voting segment. At least there's been no envelope problems this year!

We have France in first, with twenty points more than current 2nd place Armenia, with Spain just a point behind. Could France win for a third time? Or will someone else manage to overtake and score the highest? 

Estonia scored the lowest in jury, so we start with them to gain 43 points. Germany scores 74 possibly giving them their best result. The Netherlands get 70, which I was not really surprised for, it seemed like the sort of song kids would love. The Uk gets 58, slightly less than I was expecting or hoping for, which I think rules us out for a win. But it's another fantastic result regardless. We are blasting through the votes, with Spain getting 86 points, setting them further into the lead. Jury runners up Armenia get a lowly 64 points, moving into second. And we are just left with France, they need 66 to win, and they recieve...92! And with that it's a historic win for La France! It's their third win, second consecutive win, and they cement their position as joint most successful country along with Georgia.

It's a fantastic song, and well deserving of victory. And while Zoé makes her way to the stage, I'll just say what a fantastic show this has been. The stage, the graphics & the songs this year have all been fantastic show. Many thanks to France televisions for producing this incredible show. I'm so proud of the Uk and Stand Uniqu3 coming in 4th, maybe next year we will do even better? 

Zoé is handed the trophy from last years winner Lissandro, and all that's left is to hear our winning song again. Take it away Zoé! You can hear the emotion & adrenaline in her voice as she reprises "Cœur".

All that's left me to do is to reveal my votes. So, Bonjour Nice, here are the results from me, and Merci beaucoup pour le trebian show! (or words to that effect!)

1 point is for Malta

2 points are for Albania

3 points are for Poland

4 points are for Macedonia

5 points are for Italy

6 points are for Armenia

7 points are for United Kingdom

8 points are for Ukraine

10 points are for France

and finally, my twelve points go to...Germany!

So how does that affect the leaderboard? Well thanks to Google docs, I can show you! 

The only changes are Germany & Albania swapping places, and France extends their lead to an impressive 37 points. Results wise, it's Ireland's first time getting the wooden spoon, and Georgia also get their joint worse placing. Debutants Estonia come in second last, almost rivalling Germany for the worse placement on debut. More positively, Germany achieved their best placing, and France continued to never place outside the top 6 & Armenia has never placed lower than 9th. I'm interested to see if those records continue next year!