When teen songstress Bella Paige was selected by SBS and partner Blink TV to be Australia’s first representative on the Junior Eurovision stage, she was not prepared for the whirlwind of activity that would follow in the lead up to the contest taking place in Sofia, Bulgaria on November 21, 2015.
Describing being selected as an “amazing moment,” the Melbourne schoolgirl suddenly found herself being whizzed up to Sydney in order to shoot her first ever music video with So You Think You Can Dance Australia choreographer Marko Panzic.
The video for Bella’s entry “My Girls”, a song co-written by Delta Goodrem and Mitch Allan (who has also written and produced for artists such as Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez), was shot over two days in early October.
Bella loves singing her song and her stint on The Voice Kids Australia certainly prepared her for the pressures of performing on camera. So it’s no surprise that out of the 17 entries into this year’s Junior Eurovision contest the “My Girls” video is one of the top four videos in terms of views on their official YouTube channel.
Of course, Bella was speechless and let out a nervous giggle when she learnt that her first music video had been viewed nearly 100,000 times.
When asked if she had viewed her other competitor’s videos for their entries, Bella confessed that she had. “They’re all incredible,” she gushed. “I’m honoured to be performing alongside them.” But she could not offer up a potential winner. “They’re all great,” she enthused. Very diplomatic – that’s the right answer Bella!
So who is Australia’s biggest competition for a run at the glittery trophy? So far it appears that there’s a lot of support behind Muscovite and former The Voice Kids Russia finalist Mikhail Smirnov, who’ll represent his native Russia with the song “Mechta”.
Bella will also need to watch out for the voice of Lena Stamenković, which can apparently burst light-bulbs. The young Serbian’s entry “Lenina Pesma” promises to deliver some big note moments on the Bulgarian stage and she’ll rival Bella for the biggest voice.
As for her own performance, Bella promises that it will be “fun, colourful” and that there’ll “definitely (be) glitter involved”. We can’t wait!
Bella Paige follows in the footsteps of Guy Sebastian and Jessica Mauboy and will make Eurovision history as she hits the stage as Australia’s first representative at Junior Eurovision which can be seen LIVE at 5:30am on Sunday November 22 or at 7:30pm on Saturday November 28 on SBS.
Go to www.sbs.com.au/junioreurovision for all Junior Eurovision news, interviews, behind the scenes pics and to follow Bella’s journey in Bulgaria.
