Junior Eurovision 2022: Freya Skye rests her voice before Sunday’s show

Glittering lights, giant signs and plenty of posters, as I arrived in Yerevan you could tell Junior Eurovision is a big deal and the city is full excitement.

It’s been held in Yerevan, which is the capital city of Armenia. The country of Armenia is quite small, with a population of about three million and it’s found right where Europe meets Asia.

Junior Eurovision is a song contest, where singers from 16 different countries will battle it out to be crowned the winner.

I’m following Freya around this week, who is representing the UK, to find out more about what it’s like to take part.

When I arrived at the venue, the Karen Demirchyan complex, I thought what an incredible building, it has a unique design and it’s very grand. The architecture is quite different to the style we have back in the UK, and once you’re inside it’s huge and complex to navigate round.

After security checks with all our filming equipment we made it through to the bubble – an area where the young people can hang out between rehearsals, watch each other on a big screen and make friends.

It might be a competition, with only one winner, but I’ve seen the contestants chatting to each other and there was even a dance off taking place. The bubble is such a fun place to be, loads of people dancing, practising and just enjoying themselves.

I was lucky to catch a glimpse of Freya’s dance rehearsal, and her assistant chorographer Jorge said he was really pleased with Freya and the dancers.

Kristen-Leigh, Meesha, India and Soraiyah are all part of team UK and will be dancing with Freya for the performance. Freya says they’ve all become really good friends, and they’re always playing games or filming tiktoks when they’re relaxing.

It’s not all fun and games though, because whilst they’re away the five girls have still got to do school work, so have scheduled tutoring sessions in between rehearsals.

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What’s the competition in Armenia like? Nina has been finding out!

The week started with the opening ceremony, where, after walking the red carpet to hundreds of people in Republic Square, Freya found out she’ll be performing 12th out of the 16 contestants.

It’s been a busy week for Freya and today everybody has had a sign of what a challenge this competition is. Freya’s team told us that she’s been feeling under the weather. She’s been resting her voice today on doctor’s advice, but we’re told she’s looking forward to the live show on Sunday.

Everyone is wishing her the best before the show on Sunday.

Earlier this week I joined Freya when she went to meet the UK ambassador. John Gallagher represents Britain and he wanted to show that the UK is behind Freya.

John Gallagher had even arranged a surprise visit from Malena, who represented Armenia last year, which is why it’s being held here, and she got to have a chat with Freya.

Freya asked how Malena felt before her performance, “I was very nervous, I will give you some advice, don’t pay attention to the people, pay attention but think they are not there.” Great tips, basically try and pretend the crowd isn’t there.

Malena then gave advice for all of the contestants: “I want them to make a lot of friends, because that’s probably the most valuable thing you can take from the competition, just have fun and don’t think about competing with each other.”

I then chatted with Malena, about how it feels that it’s being held in Yerevan, because of her. She said “It’s so crazy for me because there is no big event in my country usually, and thinking about me and the team who brought this huge event to my hometown is very insane, I can’t find the word for that.”

The people in Yerevan are really excited to be hosting the show this year, they have even decorated the city earlier than normal especially for the event.

It’s nearly time for the contestants to take to the stage and we wish the best of luck to Freya.