Earlier in this countdown series we talked about Ralf Mackenbach. Now it’s time to check up on Vladimir Arzumanyan, the JESC 2010 winner from Armenia!
Minsk 2010: throwback
The eighth edition of the contest take place in Minsk, the capital city of Belarus. The contest had 14 participants, this was one more than the previous year. The Baltic nations of Latvia and Lithuania both returned in this edition of the contest, while Moldova made their debut. Unfortunately, both Cyprus and Romania withdrew from the contest.
In contrast to the adult edition of the contest, before 2013 the EBU selected the host country of JESC by means of bidding. Belarus won the right to host the 2010 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, beating bids from both Russia and Malta. Belarus was at the time the most successful JESC participant, having previously won the contest in both 2005 and 2007. According to the then EBU executive supervisor Svante Stockselius, the contest was ‘one of Belarus’ most popular television shows’.
The winner of the contest was 12 year old Vladimir Arzumanyan from Armenia. It was the first, and so far only, time Armenia won the contest. But how did Vladimir get to the contest in the first place?
Vlad’s JESC Journey
Singing since the age of three, Vladimir Arzumanyan (who also went by the stage name of ‘VOV-1’), brushed with success in music festivals before the JESC. One such festival was the Junior edition of the New Wave Song Festival, where Vladimir placed third earlier in 2010.
After his success in New Wave, Vladimir participated at the national final to select the representative for Armenia at the 2010 Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Here he beat nine other contestants with his song ‘Mama’. The song was composed by DerHova, who had previously composed Sirusho’s ‘Qele Qele’ the 2008 Armenian entry at the Eurovision Song Contest. The song had to be altered for JESC, as it contained extracts of Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’.
Life after the Junior Eurovision
Vladimir credited his victory to his teacher and his silver cross amulet. While his song was inspired by him falling in love with a particular girl, he later stated he had ‘fallen out of love’ with her. As his song ‘Mama’ won with a grand total of 120 points, it is safe to say that a certain percentage of Europe’s young girls fell in love with Vlad enough to vote for him!
Vladimir finally made a return to the Eurovision world 10 years later, when he entered the Armenian national final ‘Depi Evratesil’. Here his song ‘What’s Going On Mama’ placed third. He did however, win the Televoting. If he had won, he would have been the third JESC winner to enter the Eurovision after 2006 winners The Tolmachevy Sisters and 2015 winner Destiny Chukunyere.
Have you watched Vladimir’s performance in 2010? Comment below or share your opinion with @escxtra on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
