It is not long now until Jordan Anthony hits the stage in Poland as the fifth Junior Eurovision representative from Australia. Continuing on with Aussievision’s JESC coverage, today we look back over the short but successful history Australia has had in Junior Eurovision.
Before being considered for JESC, Australia firstly participated in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2015. The EBU, via special invitation, allowed Australia to compete in Vienna, Austria, straight into the Grand Final, in celebration of 60 years of Eurovision. Australia’s participation was a one off, but due to Guy Sebastian’s 5th place finish with “Tonight Again” Australia was invited the following year. Due to Australia’s participation in ESC, an invitation was extended for Australia to debut in the 2015 Junior Eurovision Song Contest held in Sofia, Bulgaria.
Impressively from 2015 to 2018 Australia has managed to remain in the top 10 and improve every year apart from 2018 where Jael Wena successfully maintained Australia’s high position of 3rd place first achieved by Isabella Clarke in 2017.
Let's look at Australia's amazing Junior Eurovision entries:
Bella Paige - My Girls (8th place - 2015)
Our first Junior Eurovision performer, Bella Paige, from Melbourne, sung her powerful ballad “My Girls” in Sofia, Bulgaria. It was written by the lovely Delta Goodrem together with Vince Pizzinga and Mitch Allan. The song itself went on a bit of a journey. It was originally penned for Delta’s fifth album “Wings of the Wild”, but was instead offered to Anja Nissen as her winning song for The Voice Australia 2014, but it was later rejected by her mentor, will.i.am. Paige made it her own on the JESC stage in an impressive start for Australia she smashed it into the top 10!
Before JESC, Paige took part in The Voice Kids Australia in 2014 reaching the finals. She was the first child to audition and she made it all the way to the Grand Final, finishing up as the runner-up. In 2018 she entered The Voice Australia and again came runner-up, later releasing her latest single “Changing”.
Alexa Curtis - We Are (5th place - 2016)
Brisbane girl, Alexa Curtis, sung the motivational song “We Are” at the Junior Eurovision Contest in Valletta, Malta. She managed a top 5 finish with 12 points from the Georgian adult jury and 12 points from the Dutch and Irish kid juries.
Curtis was the first winner of The Voice Kids Australia in 2014 and was in the same grand final as Bella Paige. In 2014 she also had the privilege to duet with Anja Nissen, at the Schools Spectacular. She has since sung the opening theme song to six episodes of The Powerpuff Girls on Cartoon Network Australia, had a few performances on television, and was a featured artist at the Redlands Carols in Queensland.
Isabella Clarke - Speak Up (3rd place - 2017)
Isabella Clarke’s super catchy song “Speak Up” together with her sleeveless shiny jumpsuit and enthusiastic dancing caught the online public and juries attention where she earned a top 3 finish, the best result for Australia in Junior Eurovision. She got a 3rd place position in both the jury and online voting and secured 12 points from the Netherlands.
Outside of Junior Eurovision the Victorian singer has taken part in the Victorian State Schools Spectacular in Australia for several years.
Jael Wena - Champion (3rd place - 2018)
At just 12 years old, Jael Wena managed to equal Australia’s success from the previous year with a powerful upbeat ballad “Champion” in Minsk, Belarus. She impressively won the jury voting scoring 12 points from six countries which include, Belarus, Italy, Portugal, Ukraine, Wales and The Netherlands. She came in at 9th position in the online public voting.
This year she competed in Australia’s Got Talent where she reached Semi Final 4.
Jordan Anthony - We Will Rise (2019)
This year 14-year-old Perth boy, Jordan Anthony becomes the first boy to represent Australia at Junior Eurovision. He will be singing the inspirational ballad “We Will Rise” at the Gliwice Arena in Gliwice, Poland.
He is familiar to those in Australia who followed The Voice Australia Season 8 this year. Where he impressed everyone with his powerful voice with his rendition of Pink’s song “What About Us” which locked him in with The Voice coach Delta Goodrem. At 14 years old he was the youngest competitor on The Voice. He finished at a very impressive fourth place in the competition. He has already released his first album ‘One World’ from money he collected busking in Perth and through a Kickstarter campaign.
Jordan Anthony came in at 4th place in our Aussievision jury of all the 2019 Junior Eurovision songs, you can find his article here.
We can’t wait for Jordan’s performance! We wish him the best of luck!
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