Malta to host Eurovision Young Dancers 2017!

The next Eurovision Young Dancers competition, which takes place every two years, will be held in the Valleta’s Mediterranean Conference Centre!

At the Steering Group meeting, which took place during the 2015 competition, the Maltese broadcaster PBS presented their intentions to host the next edition impressing everyone with their proposal. Because of that, they have been selected to host the next edition of the European dance contest to take place in 2017. Valleta was also chosen as European Capital of Culture 2018.

PBS held a press conference this morning in Malta to officially announce the news to local media. “This is great news that will raise the profile of the country in the field of arts,” said Minister of Justice, Local Government and Culture Owen Bonnici. “I am convinced that this event will leave an important legacy in the arts as the Junior Eurovision Song Contest did for music”. The Minister was joined at the press conference by Dr. Tonio Portughese, Chairman of PBS, and Anton Attard, CEO of the Maltese broadcaster.

Executive Supervisor of the competition, Vladislav Yakovlev, added “We saw what an amazing job and show PBS made with the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in November last year. Eurovision Young Dancers is a slightly different style of show, however I am confident that PBS will deliver an equally impressive event and I look forward to working with them over the next 23 months”.

The Eurovision Young Dancers competition was first staged in Reggio Emilia, Italy, in 1985. It is staged every two years, although took a break from 2005-2011 for the Eurovision Dance Contest. Spain has won the competition the most times, five, whilst Sweden, Belgium, and Switzerland have all come second twice.

This year, the competition took place in Pilsen (Czech Republic) with Poland winning the competition represented by Viktoria Nowak.

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