The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2011 was the ninth edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, held on 3 December 2011 at the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex in Yerevan, Armenia, and presented by Gohar Gasparyan and Avet Barseghyan. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster the Public Television Company of Armenia (ARMTV). It was the first time in the history of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest that the contest was hosted the previous year's winning broadcaster, and the first time the Contest was held in Asia, or outside Europe. Swedish company HD Resources assisted with the technical side of the production.

Broadcasters from thirteen countries participated in the contest, with and withdrawing and returning.

The winner was with the song "Candy Music" by the group Candy. and finished in second and third place, respectively. This was Georgia's second victory in the contest following a previous victory in .

Location

During the preparations to the 2010 contest, speculation about the future of the contest began to circulate on internet forums. On 18 October, during a meeting held in Minsk, Belarus, the head of the Armenian delegation, Diana Mnatsakanyan, announced that the upcoming eighth edition of the contest could be the last. However, these rumours were formally denied on 19 November when the then-executive supervisor of the contest, Svante Stockselius, announced that the next edition was scheduled for 2011 and that "We expect this contest to go on for many more years, this is not the last contest". Later, it was reported that the EBU were holding discussions with four potential host broadcasters, although further details were not confirmed and would "cautiously consider" looking for a host broadcaster for the 2012 contest at the same time.

Originally, unlike in the adult contest, the winning country did not receive the automatic rights to host the next contest but were instead awarded following a bidding process with broadcasters from the participating countries. However, rumours suggested that given the lack of interest from other countries, the EBU could invite Armenia as the current winner to host the event. On 18 January 2011, Armenian national broadcaster ARMTV and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) announced that the 2011 contest would take place in the recently renovated main arena of the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex, in Yerevan.

Denying rumours that Armenia was the only one interested in hosting, the chairman of the board of ARMTV, Aleksan Harutyunyan, revealed that Armenia was chosen among two shortlisted candidate countries out of the five which submitted bids. Swedish broadcaster Sveriges Television (SVT) had reportedly submitted a formal offer to host, proposing to hold the contest at the Globen Arena in Stockholm. The local television host and the leader of the project Gohar Gasparyan emphasized that "Although Armenia won Junior Eurovision 2010, Armenia’s victory in the selection was due only to our application and submitted proposals."

Participants

On 15 July, the EBU announced that 12 countries would compete in the upcoming contest. was to compete for the first time, with , and withdrawing. EBU also had been negotiating with but RAI was not able to confirm their participation due to time constraints.

On 15 August, joined the list, returning after a two-year absence from the contest. On 9 September, Latvia reversed its decision to withdraw from the contest and confirmed its participation. On 7 October, San Marino announced that they would not be present in Yerevan as they were not able to find a suitable participant in time for the contest, hoping to send an entry to the 2012 edition. Therefore, a total of 13 countries took part in Armenia.

Prior to the event, a digital compilation album featuring all the songs from the 2011 contest, along with karaoke versions, was put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by Universal Music Group on 25 November 2011.

+Participants of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2011CountryBroadcasterArtistSongLanguageSongwriter(s)AMPTVDalita"Welcome to Armenia"Armenian, EnglishDalita AvanesianBTRCLidiya Zablotskaya"" ()RussianLidiya ZablotskayaVRTFemke""DutchBNTIvan Ivanov"Superhero"BulgarianIvan IvanovGPBCandy"Candy Music"GeorgianLTVAmanda Bašmakova"Moondog"LatvianLRTPaulina Skrabytė""LithuanianMRTDorijan Dlaka"" ()MacedonianDorijan DlakaTRMLerika"No, No"Romanian, EnglishEugen DoibaniAVRORachel"Teenager"DutchVGTRKKatya Ryabova"Romeo and Juliet"RussianEkaterina RyabovaSVTErik Rapp""SwedishNTUKristall"" ()Ukrainian, EnglishKristina Kochegarova

Returning artists Even though the rules of Junior Eurovision at the time did not allow participation of returning artists, the EBU issued special permission for Ekaterina Ryabova, Russian participant in 2009, to compete again in 2011. According to Sietse Bakker, tthe contest's then-executive supervisor, the EBU would drop the rule from 2012 onward. Notably, Ryabova had also attempted to compete again the previous year, in 2010, but was disqualified following the then-existing rule.

Format Presenters On 15 November 2011, it was revealed that Gohar Gasparyan and Avet Barseghyan would be the hosts of the show.

Logo and graphic design In May 2011, ARMTV announced a competition for children to design the official logo of the contest, which was due to be presented on 1 June. However, in the end the logo was designed by professional teams from ARMTV, the EBU and Anton Baranov Studio from Belarus, who had also designed the logo of the previous year's contest. The logo was presented on 15 July 2011. It depicts equalizer bars in the shape of a mountain, hinting at a toy version of the famous Mount Ararat.

The graphics were made by Guðmundur Þór Kárason, from Iceland, who had previously worked on the Icelandic children's show LazyTown and was a photographer for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. The postcards were produced and directed by him alongside Arthur Vardanyan.

Voting rule changes Changes to the voting rules included allowing televoting after all songs had been performed, and not from the beginning of the show as in previous years – returning to the rules active in 2003–2005. Each country's spokesperson also announced all the points from 1 to 12 during their presentation, due to the lower number of participating countries, as done in 2003–2004.

Contest overview The event took place on 3 December 2011 at 21:30 AMT (19:30 CET). Thirteen countries participated, with the running order published on 11 October 2011. All the countries competing were eligible to vote with the jury and televote. Georgia won with 108 points, with the Netherlands and Belarus completing the top three. Ukraine, Macedonia and Latvia occupied the bottom three positions.

The show was opened with a traditional dance performance. The interval included Molly Sanden performing "Spread a Little Light", whilst Sirusho performed a remixed version of "Qélé, Qélé". The previous year's winner, Vladimir Arzumanyan, also took to the stage. Country Artist Song Points Place 1 Katya Ryabova "Romeo and Juliet" 99 4 2 Amanda Bašmakova "Moondog" 31 13 3 Lerika "No, No" 78 6 4 Dalita "Welcome to Armenia" 85 5 5 Ivan Ivanov "Superhero" 60 8 6 Paulina Skrabytė "" 53 10 7 Kristall "" 42 11 8 Dorijan Dlaka "" 31 12 9 Rachel "Teenager" 103 2 10 Lidiya Zablotskaya "" 99 3 11 Erik Rapp "" 57 9 12 Candy "Candy Music" 108 1 13 Femke "" 64 7

Spokespersons

The order in which votes were cast during the 2011 contest along with the spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for their respective country.

Valentin Sadiki Šarlote Lēnmane Ștefan Roșcovan Razmik Arghajanyan Samuil Sarandev-Sancho Dominykas Žvirblis Amanda Koenig Anja Veterova Anna Lagerweij Anna Kovalyova Ina-Jane von Herff Elene Makashvili Jill & Lauren

Detailed voting results

+ Detailed voting results scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="rowgrouop" rowspan="13" Russia 99 10 10 12 10 8 7 7 12 1 10 Latvia 31 2 7 1 8 1 Moldova 78 6 4 6 10 2 7 6 4 8 4 4 5 Armenia 85 8 1 7 5 10 7 5 5 8 10 7 Bulgaria 60 2 2 4 1 3 12 3 6 5 6 4 Lithuania 53 6 6 2 10 4 1 12 Ukraine 42 5 1 5 1 1 1 2 2 2 7 3 Macedonia 31 1 5 2 4 1 3 3 Netherlands 103 7 12 10 7 8 6 5 2 10 10 2 12 Belarus 99 12 7 12 8 4 8 12 3 8 3 8 2 Sweden 57 4 8 3 4 3 5 4 6 8 Georgia 108 10 3 8 12 6 12 6 5 10 12 6 6 Belgium 64 3 5 3 7 3 2 4 12 1 7 5

12 points 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; these 12 points were announced by a spokesperson from Australia.

N. Contestant Nation(s) giving 12 points 3 , , , , 2 , , 1

Broadcasts Each national broadcaster 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 Country Broadcaster(s)Channel(s) Commentator(s) ARMTVArmenia 1 Artak Vardanyan and Marianna Javakhyan BTRCBelarus 1 Denis Kurian VRTEén and Tom De Cock BNTBNT 1 Elena Rosberg and Georgi Kushvaliev GPB1TV Temo Kvirkvelia LTVLTV7 Markus Riva LRTLRT TV MRTMRT 1 Elizabeta Cebova TRMMoldova 1, TV Moldova Internațional Rusalina Rusu AVRONederland 3 Marcel Kuijer VGRTKRussia-1 SVTSVT B Edward af Sillen and NTUPershyi Timur Miroshnychenko

+ Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries CountryBroadcaster(s) Channel(s) Commentator(s) SBS SBS One (26 December 2011 and 9 April 2012) rowspan="2" BHRT BHT1 (delayed)

See also Eurovision Song Contest 2011

Notes

References

External links