The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010 was the eighth edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest and took place in Minsk, Belarus. It was held on 20 November 2010.[3] The contest was won by Vladimir Arzumanyan from Armenia with the song "Mama." This gave Armenia its first Junior Eurovision victory and its first victory in any Eurovision contest.
Under construction through 2009, the 15,000-spectator Minsk-Arena hosted the event. Belarus has twice previously won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which is, according to EBU Executive Supervisor Svante Stockselius, "one of Belarus' most popular television shows."[3]
Participating countries
Cover art of the official album
Despite originally estimating the number of participants to be between 20 and 25,[4] on 28 July 2010 it was announced 14 countries would compete in the contest, with Moldova making its début and Latvia and Lithuania returning. Cyprus and Romania withdrew from the contest.[6]
Sweden returned to the contest through Sveriges Television (SVT) after TV4 withdrew.[6] The EBU's coordinator of the contest, Svante Stockselius, labelled SVT's return to the contest as a big achievement in terms of negotiations with possible participants and expressed hope that other Scandinavian broadcasters may also return to the show.[7][better source needed] Also, a special documentary "Kids of Eurovision" was filmed by BTRC about them.[8]
Prior to the event, a digital compilation album featuring all the songs from the 2010 contest, along with karaoke versions, was put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by Universal Music Group on 19 November 2010.[9]
Participants of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2010[6][10]
The theme art for the contest was revealed on 8 April 2010, consisting of multi-coloured circles, symbolising "different people, cultures and countries," that form the shape of wings, that symbolise "freedom, ease of flying, creative inspiration and rising above."[12]
On 8 September, the mascots of the show were presented, being a bear and a wisent.[13]
The stage, designed by Swedish stage designer Ulf Mårtensson, was unveiled on 15 July 2010, featuring five constructions in the shapes of wings. The hosts were also involved with each performance on their own dedicated section of the stage.[14]
Theme art was also incorporated in the promotional billboards and posters featuring 11 "faces of Junior Eurovision" selected through casting procedure. Results of castings were revealed on 20 July 2010 and the 11 chosen ones were Belarus TV personalities Denis Kourian, Olga Barabanschikova, Irina Kazantseva, Andrey Bibikov, former JESC entrants Alexey Zhigalkovich, Ksenia Sitnik, Yuriy Demidovich, Alina Molosh, Daria Nadina as well as non-professionals Yulia Brazhinskaya and Ilya Ilmursky.[15]
The event took place on 20 November 2010 at 21:15 MSK (20:15 CET).[3][17] Fourteen countries participated, with the running order published on 14 October 2010.[18] All the countries competing were eligible to vote with the jury and televote. Armenia won with 120 points, with Russia, Serbia, Georgia, and Belarus completing the top five.[19] Latvia, Sweden, Macedonia, Malta, and Ukraine occupied the bottom five positions.[20]
Each country gave their votes through a 50% jury and 50% televoting system, which decided their top ten songs using the points 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1.
Below is a summary of all 12 points received. All countries were given 12 points at the start of voting to ensure that no country finished with nul points.
The order in which votes were cast during the 2010 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.
Each national broadcaster also sent a commentator to the contest, in order to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language. Details of the commentators and the broadcasting station for which they represented are also included in the table below.
Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
^The rules stated that the participants must sing in one of their national languages, however they were permitted to have up to 25% in a different language, as seen in some entries.
Moldova
Latvia
Lithuania
Cyprus
Romania
Armenia
