Junior Eurovision Australia

Junior Eurovision: Australia makes it 17, final line-up published!

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest is going beyond the borders as well as his big brother did in May when we all saw Down Under entering the contest, after broadcasting for 30 years. And not only sending an act was the most relevant but the right to vote, we must say (unfortunately, this will not happen this time).

Now, the EBU proposed themselves to follow the same way for the Junior contest and a few weeks ago, we learnt that negotiations were in full swing. Today, the news have been confirmed and SBS will be joining the other 16 TV stations who already said ”YES” for Sofia.

Australia’s been airing the contest since its beginning, in 2003.

The official list of participants is as follows:

  • Albania (RTSH)
  • Armenia (ARMTV)
  • Australia (SBS) – NO TELEVOTING / 100% JURY
  • Belarus (BTRC)
  • Bulgaria (BNT) – host broadcaster
  • Georgia (GPB)
  • Ireland (TG4)
  • Italy (RAI)
  • FYR Macedonia (MRT)
  • Malta (PBS)
  • Montenegro (RTCG)
  • Russia (RTR)
  • San Marino (SMRTV)
  • Serbia (RTS)
  • Slovenia (RTVSLO)
  • The Netherlands (AVROTROS)
  • Ukraine (NTU)

Contest supervisor Vladislav Yakovlev says he’s looking forward to welcoming millions of television viewers and fans from around the world joining the event online. “Host broadcaster BNT have been outstanding in their enthusiasm and preparation for the event,” Mr Yakovlev said.

“With #discover as the slogan for this year’s contest, we are also thrilled to welcome newcomers Ireland and Australia. Australia is continuing its journey after the tremendous success of Guy Sebastian at the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna earlier this year and is now supporting the future talent of their country. Junior Eurovision has always strived for inclusion and collaboration – having Australia as part of our event shows their commitment to celebrating young and future singing talent and we welcome them to our enthusiastic and growing international group of performers, delegates, media and team members.”

We have also been aware of the intentions which put MTVA from Hungary in the borderline to send in an act to Sofia, as the were witnessing the contest in Malta last year, but ”due to major restructuring at MTVA, our colleagues there simply did not have the production capacity to choose an entrant and take part this year,” added Vladislav Yakovlev. He is hoping to welcome them next year.

As for Cyprus, Sweden or Croatia, which were in the line-up last year, Vlad understands that ”some are not able to secure budget for this project every year”, and he hopes to have them back in the future.

THE ACT REPRESENTING AUSTRALIA

The little star and the song which will be performing on that very stage in Sofia is set to be revealed this Friday.

SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid said: ”Eurovision is a landmark program for SBS and we’re so proud to be part of an event which brings people together to celebrate creativity and diversity through music. We’re delighted to have secured another opportunity to showcase Australia’s amazing vocal and song-writing talent to the world, this time through an incredibly talented young artist. We look forward to giving Australian audiences a surprise second dose of Eurovision fun this year.”

SBS will broadcast the Junior Eurovision Song Contest at 19.30 Saturday 28 November on SBS. Eurovision fans can also tune in to SBS’s LIVE coverage of the contest from Sofia, Bulgaria, at 04.30 Sunday 22 November on SBS – however televoting will not be used. The votes of Australia for this year will be decided 100% by the jury.

On Friday the Junior Eurovision Head of Delegation meeting will take place in Sofia, during which the stage design and postcard concepts, among others, will be formally presented. The countries who went on for an internal selection will reveal their entres in due time as it is only a month and a half ahead.

Are you excited on this news today? Junior Eurovision takes place the 21st of November in Sofia’s Arena Armeec. Stay tuned!

Junior Eurovision

28 thoughts on “Junior Eurovision: Australia makes it 17, final line-up published!

  1. What has happened to Spain?
    20 July 15 was announcement by TVE to say they are back in JESC but they are not on the list of 17 taking part in Sofia

    1. Hello, there wasn’t any announcement…. They were interested, but the finally decided not to take part 😉

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