ESCXTRA reviews Junior Eurovision 2017: Which songs are our favourites?

The moment we’ve been waiting for is nearly here. Next week sees the 2017 Junior Eurovision Song Contest take place in the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi. The celebrations kick off tomorrow with the opening ceremony, with rehearsals beginning on Tuesday. So what better time than now for us to have a quick review of this year’s contest?

My thoughts

As I explained in my previous editorial about my relationship with the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, I firmly believe the contest took a massive step up in quality, both song-wise and production-wise, in 2014 and hasn’t looked back since. While I don’t think this year is quite as strong as 2015, the strongest year for me, it definitely continues a run of strong Junior Eurovision years.
My favourite entry this year is Wings from Russia, very very closely followed by Australia’s Speak Up. Other outstanding entries for me this year include F.Y.R. Macedonia’s Dancing Through Life, Ireland’s Suile Glasa, I Am The One from Belarus and Love Me from The Netherlands.
That said, I would happily listen to all of this year’s entries. The talent of all Junior Eurovision singers never ceases to amaze me and I can’t wait to see them all perform on stage at Tbilisi’s Olympic Palace. Who will win? Junior Eurovision is notoriously hard to predict. My instinct says Australia has the perfect blend of youthful energy and strong vocals and is likely to appeal to both online voters and juries. However, if the make-up of the online vote and jury vote is weighted towards adults then Russia’s mature, powerful track could take it.

Here’s the opinions of a few more ESCXTRA team members, let us know who you agree and disagree with!

Dominik

I’m always amazed by the quality of the JESC songs. I think this year is very strong with many good songs and many songs that have a chance to make the top 3. The professionalism and seeing the talent of everyone inspires me! Coming to my top 3, I’d say Russia is my #1. They always deliver in both JESC and ESC, a brilliant song. For my #2, I have Belarus who have another very strong entry. My #3 entry is Ireland. They always send magical entries and I’m totally falling for this. Good luck to everyone. I hope they all enjoy it and have a perfect time!

Jack

I personally think this years field of songs is very strong. There are many entries that I really like. Belarus, Italy, Malta, Armenia, Georgia, Macedonia and Cyprus are all awesome but I think the winner will be (and should be) Russia! I’m really excited to watch this year’s edition!

Luke

Junior Eurovision seems to be going downhill each year now; 2014 was amazing, 2015 was great, 2016 was good, 2017 is….ok. Honestly once the contest is over, I can’t see myself listening to a single one of these songs again. Of course, everyone has put a lot of effort into their songs and their effort is respectable and I’m looking forward to the show, but I just wish the music was more enjoyable. For me, the only entries I enjoy are Australia and Ireland, with Australia being an obvious winner out of all of them. The others are just…..okay, for me.

Nick

I’ve taken a quick look at this year’s selection of songs and it’s fair to say there is a large variety on offer. The countries really getting the new JESC, to me, are Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. My personal choice for victory would be either Russia or Belarus – two girls with phenomenal voices. In a jury contest, I feel those will rightfully be the frontrunners.

Tom

On the first view of a recap of the entries, Belarus stands out for me. With 2018 already set to be in Minsk it would be very fitting for them to win this. For me, Russia, Poland, Macedonia and Australia all have strong songs as well. JESC has never appealed to me but I’m impressed – I can see potential future ESC acts!

All of us at ESCXTRA wish all 16 performers the best of wishes for their time in Tbilisi next week, we can’t wait to see all of this young talent to be unleashed upon Europe’s viewers!