The Kids Are Alright 2011

Avid contest fanatics know that next to the Eurovision Song Contest for the grups there's a version for the kids. The Junior Eurovision Song Contest is going into its 9th edition this year in Yerevan, Armenia.

Loads of fun to be had for the kids.
The kids of 13 countries will sing their pretty little hearts out for their homeland on the 3rd of December.

To celebrate, here's some kids covering some of your favorite Israeli Eurocovers.
The kids on the right are Ensemble Theila, a group of kids doing song and dance through their school (St. Petersburg School № 274 Yerushalayim, Russia).
The happy bunch made an album My Little Land (private issue) covering the classics from Israel, including some Eurovision songs. Some surprising choices and some obvious ones.

The Eurovision songs are:
A Ba Ni Bi, Israels first winner from 1978 (Izhar Cohen and the Alpha Beta).
Hallelujah, the follow up and a home win for Milk and Honey in 1979.
Kan, Duo Datzes #3 from the 1991 contest and still the best example of a classic Israel entry, choreography and all. Love.

Ze Rak Sport (The Theila's call it Rak Sport). This is a bit of a surprise, as I have never before come accross a coverversion of this 1992 entry. Ze Rak Sport was a sunny and poppy ode to the Olympics to be held in Barcelona, Spain that year. Dafna Dekel and her handsome conga boys reached 6th place at the Stockholm contest. The English version of the song was titled Viva Sport.
Amen, Liora's 1995 effort to make a new Hallelujah didn't quite achieve that, but still ended 8th.

Israel has never participated in the Junior, but they sent a 12 y.o. to the grown up contest back in 1989.
Russia has been doing Junior since 2005. They won in 2006 and ended 2nd in 2009 and 2010.


Special thanks to StPeters78

A few years back Eurocovers featured some more kids stuff to celebrate the JESC: The Kids Are Alright 2007.
Part 1: The Girls - Marisol, Tatiana, Teresa Strobl
Part 2: The Boys - Robertino, Demis, Hákon Guðni Hjartarson
Part 3: The Angels - Little Angels of Korea, Les Petits Chanteurs A La Croix Du Boix, Les Petits Chanteurs D'Aix En Provence 
Another wonderful kid is Jacques Aylestock in this Eurocovers post.

The 2011 Junior Eurovision CD (2CD with original an karaoke versions) will be available through BeaRecords. They also stock a host of other Junior ESC CDs and cdsingles of past contests.