15 December 2025
An enchanting performance by Lou Deleuze saw France win the 2025 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Tbilisi, Georgia. It’s their fourth win in just six years. Performing Ce Monde, Lou proved to be the most distinctive entry of the night, to finish ahead of Ukraine (Sofiia Nersesian performing Motanka) and the host country, Georgia (Anita Abgariani – Shine Like A Star).
France’s fourth win equals the record with Georgia of most wins. Arguably France’s record is superior or, at least, more impressive given the speed of accumulating them and that most of Georgia’s winners were trash. There was the stupid bzz bzz bee song in 2008 and the two horrible ballads in 2016 and 2024. Candy Music, by Candy, in 2016, was fine. Whereas France, c’est bon for all four! From their five other appearances, France has never finished below sixth by delivering, on one occasion each, second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth place finishes. That’s par excellence.
France won JESC 2025 relatively easily after winning the jury vote ahead of Georgia, 152 points 121. They only need 26 points from the public to win the contest, which was the biggest anti-climatic Eurovision finale ever. While the jury effectively decided the winner, this wasn’t like last year or senior Eurovision of 2023 and 2024 where the jury smashed the overwhelming favourite of the public. The public online vote was quite compressed and never pushed any country to a significant lead at the top of the table. Ukraine only accrued 98 points to nudge to its small lead. France was the public’s close second choice with 96 points, then San Marino on 87 points. The lowest public score was relatively high at 38 points for Malta. No doubt that France and Ukraine benefitted from an obvious mood against the many ballads in this year’s contest. Ukraine really wasn’t that great, and only finished with 79 points from the jury. The only big margin at the top of the table was actually France’s 71 points. Two points separated the next three places of Ukraine (177 points), Georgia (176) and Armenia (175).
Review & Score
01 Malta – Eliza Borg – I Believe (6)
02 Azerbaijan – Yagmur – Miau Miau (7)
03 Croatia – Marino Vrgoc – Snovi (7)
04 San Marino – Martina Crv – Beyond The Stars (8)
05 Armenia – Albert – Brave Heart (0)
06 Ukraine – Sofia Nersesian – Motanka (6)
07 Ireland – Lottie O’Driscoll Murray – Ruin (8)
08 Netherlands – Meadow – Freeze (8)
09 Poland – Marianna Klos – Brightest Light (8)
10 North Macedonia – Nela Mancheska – Miracle (8)
11 Montenegro – Asja Dzogovic – I Tuzna i Srecna Prica (7)
12 Italy – Leonardo Giovannangeli – Rockstar (2)
13 Portugal – Ines Goncalves – Para Onde Vai O Amor? (7)
14 Spain – Gonzalo Pinillos – Erase Una Vez (Once Upon a Time) (8)
15 Georgia – Anita Abgariani – Shine Like A Star (9)
16 Cyprus – Rafaella & Christos – Away (4)
17 France – Lou Deleuze – Ce Monde (7)
18 Albania – Kroni Pula – Fruta Perime (5)
Malta was a solid ballad that was performed well enough. Not much more. Flat vocals held back Azerbaijan. Catchy vibe otherwise. Very nice song from Croatia, even if we’ve heard it all before. This was their first appearance in 11 years after finishing last in 2004. A relatively poor result of 14th this year, so who knows if they will be back. Armenia was almost a direct copy of last year’s winner. So whiny and annoying. Hated it.
Montenegro was one that presented much better than the preview video. Excellent vocals and brilliant staging. It delivered the song’s message about orphaned children with aplomb. Italy was drivel. Portugal disappointed a little. Nothing much wrong other than feeling too familiar and not standing out during this section of strong entries. Cyprus tried their best with an uninspiring song. I tuned out after of Albania after a minute. I was hearing a lot of “booger” throughout. Perhaps do a booger booger duet with Ukraine.
My Favourites
08 France – Lou Deleuze – Ce Monde (7)
Lou needed a stronger voice and overall presence for me to really vibe with Ce Monde (translates to This World). Otherwise, she performed well and kept me engaged. As the leading countries began to emerge during the voting, I firmly got behind France for the win and was rapt that they achieved it. The fear was one of the annoying ballads, especially that from Armenia, which was scoring well at the start of the jury vote sequence.
07 Spain – Gonzalo Pinillos – Erase Una Vez (Once Upon a Time) (8)
An entertaining and energetic performance of a catchy song about reading. What next, a song arithmetic? Actually, these sorts of song themes should be more common at JESC, not singing about crap like climate change.
06 Ireland – Lottie O’Driscoll Murray – Ruin (8)
Excellent song and a strong performance from one of the few performers with a somewhat mature voice.
05 Poland – Marianna Klos – Brightest Light (8)
Excellent vocal performance, quality song, and presentation, even if lacking originality
04 North Macedonia – Nela Mancheska – Miracle (8)
A massive improvement from the preview video, and it’s almost entirely thanks to a phenomenal vocal display and captivating performance from Nela.
03 Netherlands – Meadow – Freeze (8)
Accomplished performance, quality vocals, catchy song. This was one that I really enjoyed.
02 San Marino – Martina Crv – Beyond The Stars (8)
For my favourite song heading into JESC, Martina was a little disappointing. She needed to stay seated longer instead of getting up and dancing around. You’re a girl with a guitar, girl! Otherwise, an adorable song and got well rewarded with third place from the public.
01 Georgia – Anita Abgariani – Shine Like A Star (9)
Phenomenal vocals and amazing stage performance. The only entry that got me glued to the screen and wanting me to it watch again. I did say in the preview that Anita was more a mini diva than a whiny annoyance. I was wrong. She’s a diva, and a star!
Despite the initial fear of an underwhelming JESC due to the many ballads, the standard was quite high due to some accomplished performances of weaker entries, notably from Georgia and North Macedonia, and even Montenegro, while my favourites like Ireland, Poland, Netherlands, San Marino and France, all essentially maintained their status. That results in 6.4 as an average score for this Junior Eurovision, even if the trend is declining. It was 6.9 in 2022, 6.8 in 2023, and 6.6 last year. Anything above 6 is good, while very few shows reach 7. The small, quality field that we saw in the Covid year of 2020 is the one glaring exception. It holds the record at 7.3.
Mr Eurovision Australia 