AVROTROS will air today the first out of the three shows aimed to select the Dutch entrant for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017. A professional jury panel will select the overall winner of Junior Songfestival 2017, so the audience will have no decision power this year.
The Dutch broadcaster has decided to go back to the televised shows for 2017. However, This year’s Junior Songfestival will be different from previous editions as, apparently, it will be aimed to select the singer and the winner will be selected by 100% jury decision. Moreover, the shows seem to have been recorded a few days ago, so the winner might have already been chosen.
Since the finalists were selected, they have been working on preparations for the national selection shows as well as recording special video reports.
Today’s show will feature three semifinalists, who will perform cover songs:
- Montana – Hold My Hand (Jess Glynne)
- DREAMZ – Chained To The Rhythm (Katy Perry)
- Sezina – Symphony (Clean Bandit & Zara Larsson)
How the contest will work:
At the semi-finals, all candidates will be judged by a professional jury panel, which will be made up of Kim-Lian van der Meij, Tim Douwsma and Sharon Doorson. One act will go through to the final of Junior Songfestival 2017 from each semi-final. However, the non-qualifiers from both semifinals will still have the chance to be in the final as a special wild-card will be given to one of them. The wild-card decision will be in the hands of a special panel made up of former participants Ralf Mackenbach (JSF 2009), Mylène & Rosanne (JSF 2013) and Kisses (JSF 2016).
The first semi-final of Junior Songfestival 2017 will be hosted by TV presenter and singer Romy Monteiro, who is reported to be the Dutch representative for Eurovision 2018. The show will be aired at 19:25 CET on AVROTROS/NPO Zapp (only in The Netherlands) and it will be followed by a summary and video performances on YouTube.