EDITORIAL – The 2014 Junior Eurovision Song Contest detailed results revealed finally after two months. The reason for this delay was not to stress the participants in the aftermath of the contest. Let’s see how the countries voted in the 12th edition of the contest.
THE JURY & TELEVOTING RESULTS
Armenian jury voted with 12 points the Georgian entry while they gave 10 and 8 points to Malta and Italy who were the favourites. Televoting coincided with the jury giving 12 points to neighbour Georgia and 10 points of course to mama Russia. Italy and Bulgaria followed up.
Belarusian jury gave 12 points to Armenia which was a definite outsider and of course an Eastern country 10 points to Malta and 8 points to mama Russia. Armenia, Russia and Malta were the favourite of the public respectively.
Serbia, Italy and Armenia were the three favourites of Bulgarian jury. Serbia is their neighbour after all and the public voted Armenia as the best entry with Italy and Cyprus following up.
Croatia jury voted for Italy, Russia and Bulgaria giving only 6 points to neighbour Serbia. Bulgaria and Italy gained the 12 and 10 points from the public with 8 points to their neighbours Serbs.
Italy, Malta and Russia were the favourite of the Cypriot jury. With no Greece in the picture it’s clear that their jury voted objectively to the favourites of the contest. Bulgaria got only 7 points from them. Bulgaria was the public’s favourite with Italy second and Russia third (Cyprus has many Russians in the island).
Italy (followed by neighbouring Armenia and Belarus) was a surprise top choice for the Georgian jury which clearly showed to everyone that they voted upon performance and not based on region. Armenia, Italy and Bulgaria were the choices of the public while Russia was not high enough in the scores of the tele voting.
The Italian jury voting was indeed a surprise as they voted with 12 points to Serbia followed by Sweden and Cyprus while their public (which was few tele votes) went to Malta, Bulgaria and… San Marino! The Italian vote is indeed interesting as it clearly shows they wanted no big votes to their rival Malta. After all Gaia Cauchi (2013) and Federica Falzon (2014) became known from Italian shows!
Armenia, Montenegro and Belarus were the surprises of the Maltese jury. Maltese jury gave only 7 points to Italy while Armenia, Italy and Bulgaria topped the public voting. Voting for Montenegro from the jury seems somehow hilarious as the act was really bad.
Montenegro’s jury seems to “paid back” the 10 points from the Maltese jury giving them 12 points followed by Italy and Bulgaria (both favourites). Italy, Ukraine and Bulgaria was the choice of the public which seems natural as all three of them were among the best performances that night.
Russia’s jury surprised me the most. Malta, Armenia and Italy were giving the high points and Armenia indeed was a dark horse on the big night. It was one of their best entries after all. Armenia, Malta and Belarus were the favourites of the public giving only 6 points to winner Italy.
San Marino’s jury of course voted for Malta and Italy. That’s the natural thing to do. There is no tele voting in San Marino because it’s a small state and can be easily manipulated in both senior and junior Eurovision events.
Malta, Italy and Russia were the favourites of the Serbian jury. Neighbour Montenegro got only 5 points while there was no jury vote to Croatia! (hmmm interesting). Bulgaria, Russia and Italy were the choices of the public. Russia always gets high points from brother nation Serbia. But it’s clear that Serbia didn’t vote the neighbours but they voted based on performances.
Italy, Bulgaria and Armenia topped the jury voting in Slovenia which didn’t had tele voting. Serbia got 5 points, Montenegro 3 while Croatia didn’t make it to the top ten of the voting.
Swedish jury which has the reputation of the most “clear” jury in Europe voted The Netherlands with 12 points followed by Cyprus and Italy. The Swedish viewers though awarded the highest points to Bulgaria, The Netherlands and Armenia. Interesting how a Nordic country saw the songs that night. Italy got only 5 points from tele voting.
Armenia, Bulgaria and Belarus were the favourites of the Dutch jury. They only gave 6 points back to Sweden which proves there was no interaction between them backstage. Bulgaria, Armenia and Italy were the favourites of the public.
Ukrainian jury voted Italy, Malta and Serbia giving only 3 points to their Russian counterparts. Well we all can understand why! asides Armenia and Bulgaria the ukrainian public though gave 8 points to Russia! which makes it very interesting proving the ties between the two countries which are more than those that separates these two brother nations. Conclusion for Ukraine? They weren’t afraid to vote for a good song despite the political situation. Well done!
EDITOR’S VIEW
I have to make some points here: First I am not fanned of the idea of winning a Eurovision event because of the juries. Why? Because you invite people to pay for their votes and then you tell them that between thousands of votes, the vote of few persons changed the winner. Second I have to admit the 2014 JESC edition was the least diaspora voting I ever saw. All countries voted the favourites and the best performances and not their neighbour countries. This shows that EBU’s policy on good voting monitoring and people’s mentality towards best songs over neighbour songs seems to change in favour of the first choice. I am pleased with the results but I do believe TELEVOTING results should prevail in case of a difference with the jury. After all we are invited to vote and the blame for the winner should be ours!
