Armenia are one of the 17 competing entries at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Madrid, Spain this coming Saturday. Their artist Leo will perform “Cosmic Love” in slot number 4 during the show.
Rotterdam 2007
After two appearances in the adult version, Armenia ventured into the Junior contest for the first time in 2007. AMPTV, the Armenian broadcaster opted for an internal selection for their debut, “Erazanq” performed by Arevik.
In Rotterdam, Armenia made their mark immediately as a future powerhouse, finishing in second place on their first attempt and just a single point behind the winner, Belarus.
Limassol 2008
With their great success at their debut, Armenia expanded to a national selection, this time lasting multiple weeks. Eventually, the selection was won by Monica with the song “Im ergi hnchyune“.
At the contest in Cyprus, Monica couldn’t quite match Arevik’s success the previous year but still managed a respectable 8th of 15 countries.
Kyiv 2009
The following year, Armenia returned to the contest for a third time. They still opted for a national final. However, it was reduced to a singular show where Luara Hayrapetyan won the right to represent the country with the song “Barcelona”.
Armenia further cemented themselves as big players in the contest, once again finishing in second place tied with Russia, only 5 points behind the winner and scooping Cyprus, Georgia and Russia’s 12 points in the process.
Minsk 2010
In 2010, following a once again expanded selection process, Armenia hit another milestone in their Junior Eurovision journey, securing their first win with Vladimir Arzumanyan and the entry “Mama”.
In the Belarussian capital, a single point secured Armenia the win over closest rivals Russia.
Yerevan 2011
Following Armenia’s first victory at the contest in 2010, Armenia took the opportunity to host the contest for the first time. It is rumoured at the time that the EBU had also received offers from other countries, including Sweden, to host the contest. However, Armenia had the most compelling submission due to both their win the previous year and the popularity of the contest within the country. The contest was held in the Armenian capital of Yerevan in the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex.
A national final concluded with singer Dalita winning the contest with the aptly titled “Welcome to Armenia”. It was the first time that Armenia sang in both Armenian and English, managing to secure a good result once again finishing in 5th place. Meanwhile, their neighbours Georgia secured their first win.
Amsterdam 2012
For their sixth entry to the contest, Armenia chose a group named Compass Band through a national final.
The group went to the Dutch capital for 2012 with the entry “Sweetie Baby”. For the fourth time in six attempts, Armenia successfully cracked the top 3 when Compass Band finished in 3rd place behind only Georgia and the winners Ukraine.
Kyiv 2013
Monica Avanesyan was the lucky seventh artist that won the right to represent Armenia through a national selection. “Choco Factory” was the selected song for the country in Kyiv.
This was actually Armenia’s second lowest placing to date at the contest despite Monica still achieving sixth place and being in the top half of the participants.
Marsa 2014
Armenia returned truer to form the following year in Malta. Betty represented them with the song “People of the Sun” after winning the selection process.
Once more Armenia found themselves on the podium at the contest, ending in third place. In the process, Betty manage to pick up the 12 points from Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Malta, Russia and Ukraine.
Sofia 2015
For the first time since their debut eight years earlier, Armenia changed tactic and instead went down an internal selection route in 2015. Armenian broadcaster AMPTV chose the entry “Love” performed by Mika. This was the first time since their win five years prior that a male represented Armenia.
In Bulgaria, although Mika was pipped to the post by Malta, he did manage to secure Armenia their highest score to date before the voting system was changed the following year.
Valletta 2016
Fresh from another very successful year, Armenia remained with internal selections. For the first time, the country selected a duet to represent them, Anahit and Mary with the entry “Tarber”.
In Malta, Armenia were once again successful, managing to secure the 12 points from the Serbian adult jury as well as the Belarussian and Bulgarian kids jury. For the second year in a row Armenia were the runners-up, this time behind neighbouring Georgia again.
Tbilisi 2017
In neighbouring Georgia in 2017, for a third year in a row the Armenian broadcaster selected their artist internally. This time, they opted for the song “Boomerang” performed by Misha.
Despite being low for the high standards of Armenia at the contest, Misha did manage to collect a set of 12 points from Cyprus, cementing a position in the top half in eventual 6th place.
Minsk 2018
Armenia switched tactic once more in 2018, returning to a national final, titled Depi Mankakan Evratesil, a spin off to the same format the country were using at the time for the adult contest.
The selection had a total of 24 young artists competing over two semi finals where eventually L.E.V.O.N. won the right to represent them in the final with the self titled song “L.E.V.O.N.”. In Minsk, surprisingly the jury sunk the country to 9th place overall. Although it was still a successful top 10 finish, at the time it was once more Armenia’s lowest placing.
Gliwice 2019
Undeterred by the slightly lower placing previous year, Armenia stuck with their national final for the contest in Poland in 2019. This time the selection was held over a single night where despite opening the show, Karina Ignatyan’s song “Colours of Your Dreams” managed to win the ticket to Gliwice.
On this occasion it was actually the jury who swung more in Armenia’s favour than the online vote and eventually Karina finished the night in 9th place, the exact position Armenia had finished the year before.
Warsaw 2020
Although a smaller number of countries confirmed for the contest in 2020 due to the ongoing pandemic, Armenia were announced to be one of the 13 countries competing in the contest.
Sadly prior to the contest, Armenia had to make the decision to withdraw from the contest due to the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh war. Later AMPTV announced they had selected Maléna to represent them at the contest with the song “Why”. This marks the only time since their debut in 2007 that Armenia were absent from the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
Paris 2021
Armenia immediately returned true to form the following year in the French capital. Determined to come back fighting, Maléna, who was internally selected the year before, was invited to return, this time with the song “Qami Qami”.
Maléna did exceptionally well at the contest with the jury, finishing in third place but with a margin of only 5 points from France who topped the vote. However, it was the results of the online vote which bettered the situation. Topping the online vote meant that overall Maléna had secured Armenia a second victory at the contest, 11 years on from their first.
Yerevan 2022
Once again following Maléna’s victory in Paris, for 2022 Armenia were offered first refusal to host the contest by the EBU. They accepted the offer and the Junior Eurovision Song Contest returned to Yerevan and once more was held in Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex. This marked the third time Junior Eurovision had been held in the same city twice after Kyiv and Minsk, but also marked only the second occasion after Minsk Arena where exact same venue was used.
Once more Armenia remained with an internal selection for their artist, opting with Nare and the song “Dance!”. To no surprise Armenia did very well on home soil, even getting 12 points from France, Kazakhstan, North Macedonia and Spain. Eventually Armenia finished 2nd behind France.
Nice 2023
Armenia were present once more in Nice last year, this time opting for young girl band Yan Girls with the song “Do It My Way”. Still determined to succeed at the contest, Armenia brought back the same song writing team that secured them their second win in 2021.
In Nice, Yan Girls scooped up a 12 from Germany, Malta, North Macedonia and United Kingdom and eventually finishing in third place. For the third year in a row they had secured a podium position.
Junior Eurovision 2024
The 2024 edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Madrid, following Spain’s second-place finish at the 2023 contest. The final will take place at the Caja Mágica on November 16, bringing the contest back to a Saturday for the first time since 2015. The winner, France, declined the hosting responsibility after hosting the 2023 edition in Nice.
The seventeen countries and the singers and songs representing them are:
Italy: Simone Grande – “Pigiama Party”- Estonia: Annabelle – “Tänavad”
- Albania: Nikol Çabeli – “Vallëzoj”
- Armenia: Leo – “Cosmic Friend”
- Cyprus: Maria Pissarides – “Crystal Waters”
- France: Titouan – “Comme ci, comme ça”
- North Macedonia: Ana and Aleksej – “Marathon”
- Poland: Dominik Arim – “All Together”
- Georgia: Andria Putkaradze – “To My Mom”
- Spain: Chloe DelaRosa – “Como la Lola”
- Germany: Bjarne – “Save the Best For Us”
- Netherlands: Stay Tuned – “Music”
- San Marino: Idols SM – “Come noi”
- Ukraine: Artem Kotenko – “Hear Me Now”
- Portugal: Victoria Nicole – “Esperança”
- Ireland – Enya Cox Dempsey – “Le Chéile”
- Malta: Ramires Sciberras – “Stilla ċkejkna”
Italy: Simone Grande – “Pigiama Party”
Estonia: Annabelle – “Tänavad”
Albania: Nikol Çabeli – “Vallëzoj”
Armenia: Leo – “Cosmic Friend”
Cyprus: Maria Pissarides – “Crystal Waters”
France: Titouan – “Comme ci, comme ça”
North Macedonia: Ana and Aleksej – “Marathon”
Poland: Dominik Arim – “All Together”
Georgia: Andria Putkaradze – “To My Mom”
Spain: Chloe DelaRosa – “Como la Lola”
Germany: Bjarne – “Save the Best For Us”
Netherlands: Stay Tuned – “Music”
San Marino: Idols SM – “Come noi”
Ukraine: Artem Kotenko – “Hear Me Now”
Portugal: Victoria Nicole – “Esperança”
Ireland – Enya Cox Dempsey – “Le Chéile”
Malta: Ramires Sciberras – “Stilla ċkejkna”Image Source: AMPTV
