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Notes from the Junior Press Centre: Saturday Written by on November 22, 2015 | 2 Comments

The dust has settled on my first live Junior Eurovision experience, and as predicted the ever-enthusiastic Maltese have taken home their second victory in three years thanks to Destiny and her show-stopping performance of Not My SoulIt turned out to be a close-run thing though, with Mika from Armenia nipping at her heels from start to finish, and Slovenia and Belarus pitching a fierce battle for bronze just beneath them.

Having gotten a flavour for the arena show at yesterday’s Jury final, it’s back to the press centre this evening, where the persistent buzz of chatter and speculation falls to a hushed near-silence as delegates and press crowd around the TV screens to take in the result of a week (and in the cases of some delegates, many months) of hard work.

The show itself is a triumph for the Bulgarian broadcaster, with excellent production values, strong hosting from Poli Genova, and no major glitches. Many of the press are heard to say that BNT not only raised the bar for Junior, they also put on a better show than ORF did in Vienna, at least in terms of hosting and time management.

Junior Eurovision 2015 Malta

It was a second victory for Malta thanks to Destiny Chukunyere and ‘Not My Soul’.
Photo: junioreurovision.tv

Most importantly, the kids acquit themselves well and for the most part seem to thoroughly enjoy the experience. While opinion was divided before the show as to who the front runner was, by the time the last song has been performed there’s a universal consensus that it’s most likely going to be Malta’s year. Destiny has gained confidence and momentum with every rehearsal, and as is so often the case with performers of her calibre, the addition of a full audience adds even more fuel to her fire. It’s a spectacular victory and the perfect feelgood cap on the evening.

Personally, I’m pleased to see that all of the top three in the voting feel authentic to the age of the performers, with Slovenia beating out the more fancied Serbian and Belarusian ballads with her Frozen inspired number. There’s still a question mark hanging over whether Junior can establish a soul of its own, or whether it’s just a carbon copy of the adult contest, but the results tonight make me feel confident that there’s still room for the show to carve out its own identity.

Junior Eurovision 2015 Armenia

No hard feelings from the Armenian team, who wound up a close second.
photo: junioreurovision.tv

As the credits roll, we pile into the press hall where the top three are ushered in to wild applause. I’m pleased to note that there’s no evidence whatsoever of sour grapes on the part of the runners up, both of whom are thrilled with their performances and clearly happy for Malta and Destiny. The Maltese delegation aren’t in a position to confirm that they’ll host again next year, but make it fairly obvious that it’s very much on the cards.

It’s well past midnight by the coach pulls up outside the hotel, but the night is far from over as the official after party kicks into high gear. Once again I’m struck by the contrast between the composed performers on the stage and in the press centre and the irrepressible balls of energy charging around the dancefloor tonight. It’s genuinely heartwarming to see how much fun they’re all having, regardless of how they performed just a few hours earlier. Everyone involved has done a fantastic job in taking care of these kids during the week and ensuring that the focus remains on the experience rather than the results. It’s also a reminder that while mindfulness and responsibility is extremely important in putting together an event like this, ultimately most children are made of rubber, and tonight’s disappointment is more often than not tomorrow’s distant memory.

As the night finally draws to a close, most of the ESC Insight team face the unenviable task of packing up and heading to the Airport for early morning flights home. Fortunately, I’ve opted to take a couple of extra days in Sofia to unwind and explore the city. For me, the opportunity to travel around the continent is one of the chief pleasures of being a Eurovision fan, and I’m looking forward to spending some time soaking up even more of the sights, sounds and tastes of Bulgaria before I leave. I might even risk another taxi…

About The Author: John Lucas

A writer and content marketing professional with a passion for getting lost in strange cities and a strange fascination with micro states, John has been with ESC Insight since 2015 and has also had his writing featured in publications including The Guardian, Popjustice and So So Gay. Tweetable @JLucas86.

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2 responses to “Notes from the Junior Press Centre: Saturday”

  1. Eric Graf says:

    “they also put on a better show than ORF did in Vienna, at least in terms of hosting and time management.”

    Looked that way on TV too. I thought the broadcast went on somewhat longer than it reasonably needed to, but that seems to be par for the course when it comes to Eurovision. The production quality was absolutely top-notch, and the pacing in particular was exceptional.

    There *was* a major glitch, though … The official internet streams. They didn’t discover, until a few minutes after the broadcast was underway, that they had no audio feed from the stage. It took them over half an hour to fix it – and when they did, it was mono.

    As an audio guy who has been responsible for live broadcast feeds, both online and off, I found this absolutely mystifying, to say nothing of infuriating. Setting aside the fact that there was apparently no testing or equipment check done before airtime, and no immediate backup plan for if something did go wrong, there still should have been literally dozens of quick solutions to the problem at hand. If nothing else, they could’ve fed the raw network feed into the streams until the problem was resolved. And yet … it took 30 minutes … 5 songs in … 20% of the broadcast … by which time the internet savvy in the audience had found other streams, and everyone else had gone about their business. It’s no fun watching a song contest where you can’t hear the songs.

    Given the other events of the past several weeks, it once again reinforced the impression that there’s a lot of “amateur hour” stuff going on behind the scenes at the EBU – people who either don’t care about their area of responsibility, or are far too unqualified to manage it.

    Obviously the folks watching on TV (or in the auditorium) weren’t affected, and they were the primary audience of concern. In a live broadcast situation, you have to prioritize the fire-extinguishing activities. But I have to wonder how many potential participants in other countries were watching the internet feed, saw and heard the problems, and rethought their future participation. I’m sure they were all thinking the same thing I was … How hard is it to run another audio cable?

    OK, spittle-spewing rant over. Kudos to eurovision.de, whose stream was ready to go from minute 1, glitch-free even on my poky DSL connection, and had superior-quality sound and picture.

  2. Ewan Spence says:

    Erik,

    The web feed issue is one to look at after the event, but everyone online did have alternatives, from Germany’s NDR and Malta’s PBD, to the ESC Insight/RadioSix.com audio stream. I know that on our radio side we had the backup tape running from the previous night’s broadcast in sync to switch over if we did have an interruption (and I think our threshold for switch was 8 seconds) and I would assume that the web team had a similar system. Perhaps there was, as you say, a bigger fire?

    (As to “how hard is it to run another audio cable… to do it properly, for broadcast, quite hard. I know that because I had to run another audio cable!)

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