Jedward have been announced as the third member of the professional jury panel that will make up part of the final outcome for this year’s Junior Eurovision.
The news are followed up by last week’s announcement of the two other members of the jury who Jedward will join: expert show producer Christer Björkman (Sweden) who is behind the Swedish Melodifestivalen and Mads Grimstad from Universal Music (Denmark). Each expert judge or jury member will rate every act with the traditional Eurovision scoring system: 12 points, 10 points and then from 8 to 1. Their votes will be added together, creating the participant’s final score. These votes will be added to the results from two national juries (one made up by kids and other by adults) in every participating country.
It is not the first time this duo will be involved in the contest as they served as judges in this year’s first show of the Irish national selection ”Junior Eurovision Éire” with eventually saw Zena Donelly taking the ticket to Malta for Ireland.
John Bundy, CEO of PBS Malta said, “We as PBS are very pleased that they have accepted our invitation and we are sure that they will be giving a spectacular show together with Poli Genova and the other participants.”
About Jedward!
Jedward originally shot to fame after finishing sixth in The X Factor in 2009. The pair have been high profile ambassadors for the Eurovision Song Contest since they first participated in 2011 with Lipstick, which finished a respectable eighth in Düsseldorf. This was Ireland’s best showing in the Eurovision Song Contest for over a decade. After the contest, the single (already number one in Ireland) swept the charts across Europe including Belgium Sweden and Germany, peaking at number three in Austria and solidifying their European fan base.
The duo returned in 2012 with Waterline, taking Ireland to the Grand Final once again. In 2014 Jedward attended the Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen and now they will join the first ever Junior Eurovision expert panel.
Hosting this year’s contest will be Ben Camille, who also hosted the Maltese national final for Eurovision 2016, and Valerie Vella who hosted that competition in 2002 and presented Malta’s votes in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005. Taryn Mamo Cefai will be the host of the Opening Ceremony at the Manoel Theatre.
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest, hosted by the EBU and PBS Malta, will take place 16:00 – 18:30 CET on the 20th November 2016 from Valletta’s Mediterranean Conference Centre.
