08/08/09 - Happy Birthday to Malin Reitan, she turns 14 today! Malin represented Norway in Junior Eurovision 2005 and came 3rd, Norway's best place ever. She went on to release three albums after JESC, and will release another CD in September.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MALIN

Here are the full results from the Armenian national final.

Here are the results of the jury vote:

1. Luara Hayrapetyan "Barcelona"
2. Razmik Aghajanyan "Erjankutyun"
3. Julie Berberyan & Lika Musheghyan "Menq"
4. "Chermak ampikner" group "Heqiatayin erkinq"
5. Angel Petrosyan "Erjanik mankutyun"
6. "Urakh ghoghanjner" group "Lusin- Arev"
7. "Zangak" group "Dproc te poghoc"

Here are the results of the televote:

1. Luara Hayrapetyan "Barcelona"
2. Razmik Aghajanyan "Erjankutyun"
3. "Urakh ghoghanjner" group "Lusin- Arev"
4. "Chermak ampikner" group "Heqiatayin erkinq"
5. "Zangak" group "Dproc te poghoc"
6. Julie Berberyan & Lika Musheghyan "Menq"
7. Angel Petrosyan "Erjanik mankutyun"

The final results JURY + TELEVOTE are as follows:

1. Luara Hayrapetyan "Barcelona"
2. Razmik Aghajanyan "Erjankutyun"
3. "Chermak ampikner" group "Heqiatayin erkinq"
4. "Urakh ghoghanjner" group "Lusin- Arev"
5. Julie Berberyan & Lika Musheghyan "Menq"
6. This position is shared by "Zangak" group "Dproc te poghoc" and Angel Petrosyan "Erjanik mankutyun"

13/07/2009 - The Netherlands.. where to start. AVRO (the broadcaster) definitely has the best and most involved JESC website, which is FULL of news/pictures/videos/interactive..things. Unfortunately, I can't read a word, being that as far I can see, there is no English version. MOST annoying. But I mean, I DID do one semester of German after all, I'm sure that will suffice. :P

Here is a video diary about the finalists photoshoot.

The 2nd semi final kids met Jason Mraz!

 Click here to read about it

I'm pretty sure if you click here you can send any of the finalists some fan mail

Here's a preview of the 2009 finalists song - Tomorrow is Today

Tess and Lisa, Amy & Shelley give tips to potential JESC singers

The first semi-final on September 19th will feature:

Bram Bos (10, 02/09/98) - Ik wil rocken!
Eva Neggers (14, 17/07/94) - Yes we can!
Isaura Kuyt (11, 16/01/98) - Dit is mijn kans
Raigny Jozephia (14, 27/04/95) - Verliefd
Cheyenne Boermans & Mayleen Schoenmaker (13, 30/06/95, 13, 06/10/95) - Druk

And the following will compete in the second semi on September 26th:

Eva Lugtenberg (12, 18/12/96) - Gevangen in je hart
Arletta Boland (14, 26/11/94) - Laat mij nou maar
Anne Boijmans (13, 12/07/95) - Gewoon geluk
Carlijn Andriessen & Marle Verseef (12, 04/08/96, 13, 25/10/95) - Verboden toegang
Ralph Mackenbach (13, 04/10/95) - Click Clack

12/07/2009 - 11 year old Luara Hayrapetyan has won the Armenian national final for 2009. She will follow in the footsteps of Arevik and Monika Manucharova, hoping to do what Arevik came 1 point away from doing in 2007 - win. Although she will be singing for Armenia, Luara actually lives in Russia, and compteted in the Russian national selection in 2006, coming 2nd. Since then though, she has participated for Armenia, perhaps judging there to be less competition there (seemingly true, although neighbouring Georgia, not the case at all I must say :P). Laura was inspired by the final of the Champions League football played between Barcelona and Manchester United earlier this year.

Her songs are:

2006 - Krasnaya Shapochka
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwP6cZAS8ac

2007 - The Horses from my Dream
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqKQlVZqMV0

2007 - Warm Rain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSrLyxCEA6M

2008 -  Im Ergy
http://rutube.ru/tracks/809647.html

2009 - Barcelona (WINNER)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U8Lco_8foE

Luara is studying in gymnasium N3 in city of Astrakhan, Russia. Since the age of 4, Luara has been studying vocal and attending ballroom dancing classes, at the age of seven entered a musical school, studies in children pop music studio "Vesnushki" of Astrakhangazprom center of culture "Victoria", where she is lead soloist. Since she was five, she has been a participant of various contests and festivals representing Russia and Armenia: In 2004 - I Prize Winner of the International Contest 'Small Asterisks' (Tuapse, All-Russia Children Centre 'Orlenok'); In 2005 - I Prize Winner of the International Festival 'Childhood Without Borders' (Moscow, Russia); In 2006 - Grand Prix Winner of the International Contest 'Small Asterisks' (Tuapse, Russia);

I Prize Winner of the International Contest 'Small Asterisks' (Volgograd, Russia); In 2007, Grand Prix Winner of the All-Russia Contest ' Constellations of Volga ' (Samara, Russia); the I Prize Winner of the VI All-Russia Contest ' XXI Century Voices' (Anapa, Russia);In 2008, Grand Prix Winner of Junior section of prestigeous Slavyanski Bazar in Vitebsk and winner of special prize "Lira" (Belarus); In 2009 qualified for the international final of "New Wave Junior" contest (Moscow, Russia).

Since 2005, she has been the grant holder of the Astrakhan Region Government for the achievements in the field of art and creative activity. (Source of biography - http://www.oikotimes.com, pictures - esckaz.com)

10/07/2009 - Nevena Božović, who sang for Serbia in 2007 and placed third, has won Sunčane Skale, a competition held annually in Montenegro with a new song called 'Ti'. She won the Nove Zvijezde (New Star) category from 20 contestants (seen below). Click here to watch her performance

1. IGOR MITROVIĆ	MAK
2. MAJA MURATOVIĆ	MNE
3. LIDIJA BAČIĆ	CRO
4. GORAN NAUMOVSKI	MAK
5. NASTJA I PATRICIJA	SLO
6. JOVANA MUSTUR	MNE
7. HIGHWAY	SRB
8. DIJANA HODŽIĆ	MNE
9. VALENTINA	CRO
10. ROGER BROTHERS	MAK
11. DAVOR VUČETIĆ	MNE
12. JASMINA DIMITROVSKA	MAK
13. ROBERT	BiH
14. GEMINI	MAK
15. MILICA BRAJOVIĆ	MNE
16. MARKO BOGDANOVIĆ	SRB
17. SARA RADOVIĆ	MNE
18. NEVENA BOŽOVIĆ	SRB
19. JELENA ĐORĐEVIĆ	MNE
20. EMINA ARAPOVIĆ	CRO

  7/7/2009 - Seven jury members have chosen seven songs to go through to the national final for Armenia 2009. Amongst the jury was Armen Gevorgyan, the head of "Arevik", the representatives for jESC 2007. That strikes me as interesting.. Anyway, 15 entries were submitted this year for Armenia.

 The 7 songs to compete at the National Selection live on July 11, 2009 are as follows:

1. Julie Berberyan and Lika Musheghyan "Menq" ("We")
2. Angel Petrosyan "Yerjanik mankutyun" ("Happy childhood")
3. "Chermak Ampikner" group "Heqiatayin yerkinq" ("Fairy-tale sky")
4. Luara Hayrapetyan "Barcelona"
5. "Urakh ghoghanjner" group "Lusin – Arev" ("Moon – Sun")
6. "Zangak" group "Dproc te poghoc" ("School or Street")
7. Razmik Aghajanyan "Yerjankutyun" ("Happiness")

Luara has participated in the national selection before, see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwP6cZAS8ac

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQL02fcDTyc

Andranik Alexanyan to represent Ukraine

Andranik Alexanyan is the artist who is going to represent Ukraine at JESC 2009.

His song "Tri topoli, tri surmy" was the jury's favorite, even though it received 165 votes less than the (televoting) leader Alexander Chernenko.

Click here to watch a small part of Andranik's entry.

Here are the televoting results of the Ukrainian NF:

Lisa Amy & Shelley's new song

Lisa Amy & Shelley, the Dutch representatives of 2007, have released a new song, titled "'T is sommer" and translated as "It's summer". You can watch the video here.

07/06/2009 - Two time winners of Junior Eurovision, the powerhouse of JESC (though not ESC funnily enough), has won the right to host JESC 2010! We can expect probably the best show ever from Belarus I suspect, they are strongly in support of JESC and put a lot of effort into it. A kitsch show here we come! It will be held in the Minsk Arena (being built), and will seat FIFTEEN THOUSAND people, this will be as big as Hasselt! (2008 had about 6000). Alexander Rybak is said to support this decision, and perhaps we can expect an appearance. The preliminary date for next year's Junior Eurovision Song Contest is Saturday, 20th of November, 2010.