First part answer is Lissandro for France with "Oh Mamam!"...
You'll find out the Slovenian part later on and that's not a joke!
Sorry about the pun - I'm sure that I won't be the only person to make a play on words with the artists from Slovenia! They would have normally been the lead during this week's show but JESC 2022 overtook everything and France continue to challenge Armenia and Poland for the title of 'current junior powerhouse' with a second win in three Contests. Back to France for 2023 but more about that after you hear this week's LET ME BE THE ONE...
And the JESC and Vidbir heavy playlist?
"Oh Maman!" - Lissandro
"Can't Feel Anything" - Maléna
"Umazane misli" - Joker Out
"I'm Not Alone - Moisei
"Ой, тужу" - OY Sound System
"Alive" - DEMCHUK
"WHEN GOD SHUT THE DOOR" - Jerry Heil
"Колискова" - KRUT'
"Я вдома" - Tember Blanche
"Heart Of Steel" - TVORCHI
"Divlji Vjetre" - Damir Kedžo
"Love In Rewind" - Dino Merlin
"Contigo" - Mirela
"I'm Loving Me" - Rachel Goode
"A Million Years" - Mariette
"Deep Blue Doubt" - Sam Ryder
"OLÈ" - Enisa
"Take Me As I Am" - Tornike Kipiani
"Natati La Khayay" - Kaveret
"Adrenalina" - Senhit ft Flo Rida
"Se mi vuoi" - Diodato
"Monsters" - Bedwetters
"Lighthouse" - Sissi
My thoughts on JESC 2022?
- Armenia? Great hosts, superb arena, the nation did everything they could to make this a success, the perfect week for the 20th Anniversary.
- Interval acts? Maléna was always going to be the focus during the intervals and her reward was to complete the "Winners of JESC" performance and to sing her new release. Armenia deserved to allow Rosa Linn to perform here and show that she might have been 20th in Turin but "SNAP" will probably become the most streamed Eurovision song ever by the time we get to Liverpool. The "Winners of JESC" was wonderful, returning older artists showing that there is a life after JESC, with Destiny and Viki taking the plaudits for confidence. Nice to have the choir filling in for those unable or not allowed to attend.
- The Contest itself? Some nerves crept into the voices of several acts and in the end, the star performer took the trophy. Lissandro had the stagecraft of a singer twice his age and in the end deservedly took the crown - bags of energy, perfectly acted, not the best voice but that wasn't what the crowd, jurors and televote wanted. Overall, considering studio and stage version, I had him as my #1:
- The Brits? Notice I have that as a plural because strictly speaking we had THREE singers who are from the UK or were born here. All of them did brilliantly in my opinion - Sophie for Ireland is from Northern Ireland and gave her adopted nation 4th, far ahead of their previous best of 10th, and Nicolas for Portugal was in the UK until three years ago and his rock turn hit the spot with his new nation's best ever finish of 8th. As for Freya for the UK - given that she had suffered with a bad throat for the entire rehearsal and live show period, finishing 5th overall AND being top of the televote on the night was a superb achievement! Well done to the whole team, especially her dancers who had to add 'backing singer' to their CV in 24 hours before the Final! What might have been if she was fully fit - Jury points were the key this year, given that we had a 'Melodifestivalen' televote with only 47 points between top and bottom.
- The UK commentators? Lauren and HRVY were great - they used their researched notes, they were fun and they were upbeat. Sure, there were times that they could have muted a bit more but that is personal preference - if you want no commentary then the YouTube footage is for you!
- Songs that have stuck in my head? The chorus of "BLA BLA BLA", Chantel's Italian entry, plus the music box refrain from Katarina's "Svet Bez Granica". I hope that Katarina gets another opportunity to participate at a huge event like this again, as it was a real shame she was ill for the televised Final.
Here is the winning performance from Lissandro...
And the final scores - the juries did decide who the winner was this year:
So that is it for JESC 2022. I have to say that I am pleased with being able to keep up with Junior Eurovision this year - given that before I started the radio show, I never really mentioned JESC in my blog and wasn't prepared to give it a go, so keeping an eye on what was happening country to country without being obsessed is a good place to be. Playing all the JESC Final songs is now going to be a permanent fixture of the show and hopefully you'll all feel that the balance is right. Georgia or Netherlands should be kicking the process off yet again in 2023...
Now onto matters Eurovision and Slovenia announced who their artist for Liverpool would be just before the JESC Jury Final. Joker Out are the band's name, they are a big deal in Slovenia, so much so that RTVSLO have decided not to have EMA this year. Always nice to have an introductory video - have a watch:
Joker Out are Bojan, Jure, Kris, Jan and Martin. They have been together since 2016, are regular festival attendees in Slovenia and have won several music awards. They describe their style of music as "shagadelic rock 'n' roll" - will that be what we get when they reveal their entry on February 4th? We know it will be in Slovene for sure and I gave you a taste of their sound with one of their most streamed back catalogue tracks, "Umazane misli". If they sound like that in Liverpool, I feel that Slovenia will be back in the Final for the first time since 2019, when zalagasper gave us "Sebi". So Joker Out are the fourth artists for Eurovision 2023 - an indie rock band to go with the Israeli female pop soloist, the Cypriot male clubland singer and the Dutch duo who we really have little clue about what we will get in Liverpool. A diverse mix already...
Now by the time you read this, Vidbir 2023 will be finished and we will know who is representing the 2022 winners in their displaced Eurovision. I am delighted to have been able to play all of the entries on the show - a great start to the National Final season! I will go into more detail next week when I chat about the winner of Ukraine's National Final (and also the hastily convened LMBTO Favourite poll to go with it) but up to the live show, here were my preferences from the Vidbir 10:
Remember that Ukraine will effectively be sending the host entry and so I was looking at the Ukrainian jurors and public to send something that really shows off their culture and passion. KRUT' was my favourite of the ten and we have a link with the LMBTO Eurovision Facebook group - Iana Kovalova, who was on the long list for Vidbir 2023, was asked by OGAE Ukraine if she could help them with a couple of interviews, one of which was with KRUT':
Pity there were no subtitles but Maryna Krut always has come across as a talented musician, beautiful vocalist and passionate advocate for her nation. I'll chat next week about who made it to Liverpool...
Onto the LMBTO Nation Favourite poll, this time for Bosnia & Herzegovina. It was closer than some nations polls but Dino Merlin took an early lead and kept it right to the end. "Love In Rewind" is the highest finisher at Eurovision for this nation and that was repeated by this poll. As I said on the show, this was the last LMBTO Nation's Favourite poll for the moment - I have decided to keep this series as a 'close season' one, when we do not have National Finals, promo parties and Eurovision itself to worry about! June 2023 will be when the next one of these happens, probably starting again with a 'Best Of' from the first 18 nations polled (including Morocco). A poll for each National Final that we have coming up will be the way to go...
Some fan favourites were on the playlist this week, at least as far as National Finals were concerned - first was Mirela with "Contigo" for Clare:
And Mariette with "A Million Years" for Andrew. Hope you all enjoyed listening to those choices.
And finally a nod to Sam Ryder with the release of his eagerly awaited debut album. I have the original bundle of CD/Cassette/signed tour dates and that in some small way will have helped Sam get the #1 spot in the UK charts! Well done and I am sure that you will hear more of him on the show...
Stefania's "SUPERG!RL" was Alan's favourite Eurovision entry...
That will be my tribute to him on show 228.