Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 "Fun In The Sun"
Final date	22 November 2008
Presenter(s)	Alex Michael Sophia Paraskeva
Director	Klitos Klitou
Host broadcaster	CyBC
Venue	Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Centre, Limassol, Cyprus
Winning song	Georgia "Bzz.."
Voting system
Citizens of each participating country vote by telephone and SMS message, which counts for 50%. Each country's 10 favourites are awarded 1 to 8, 10 and 12 points based on the number of votes. Results 1-5 are automatically displayed on-screen, then each country announces 6-8, 10 and 12 points. A jury in each country also has a 50% say in the outcome.[1]
Number of entries	15
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	None
Withdrawing countries	Portugal  Sweden
Nul points	All countries get 12 points from start
Opening act
Dance act featuring Yiorgos Ioannides and Mariam Venizelou.
Interval act
Dima Bilan, Evridiki & Dimitris Korgialas, all JESC 2008 participants singing "Hand in Hand"
Junior Eurovision Song Contest
◄2007        2009►

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the sixth Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which is the world's largest song contest for children.^[2] It was held at the "Spyros Kyprianou" Athletic Centre in Lemesos, Cyprus and hosted by Alex Michael and Sophia Paraskeva. It was won by the Georgian trio Bzikebi, with the song "Bzz..". This is the first song to win any Eurovision Song Contest in an imaginary language. Ukraine took 2nd place and Lithuania finished 3rd.^[3]

The theme of the event was "Fun in the Sun",^[4] despite the fact that there were thunderstorms in Lemesos the day of the contest. The stage, which was designed by George Papadopoulos [1] was nominated for the prestigious international "Live Design Excellence Awards". [2] The design is an abstract composition and consists of a round stage representing the island of Cyprus, real water along the front of the stage, two jetties, the waves breaking and moving away from the island and five sailing boats with oars.

For the contest, various changes to the rules were made. One was that adults could assist children to write the songs submitted to their national broadcaster; previously only children could write the songs, with no assistance from adults. Another change was only six people could be on stage during a performance, instead of eight. The most significant change, however, was only half of the vote was decided by the tele-voters. Before the 2008 contest tele-voters completely decided the whole result. The other half of the result was decided by a jury of adults and children.^[5][6]

Format

Junior eurovision took place in the seaside city of Limassol, Cyprus

On 27 May, 2007 the Eurovision Steering Group decided to award CyBC of Cyprus to host the 2008 contest, over TV4 of Sweden and NTU of Ukraine. On 10 September 2008 the hosts were announced as Alex Michael and Sophia Paraskeva; both presenters with Cypriot backgrounds. On 13 October 2008 the draw of the running order took place live on CyBC1. This involved drawing the first and last countries and performers, and then drawing countries into various 'pots' to decide when they would perform. The full running order was announced on 14 October 2008. The stage was constructed between 30 October 2008 and 14 November 2008.

Voting

As in all previous Eurovision Song Contests each country gave their top 10 countries songs points from 1 point for their 10th favourite song up until 8 points for their 3rd favourite song. Then 10 and 12 points were given for the second favorite and favorite respectively. But, the difference between this contest and other past contests is this is the first Eurovision Song Contest that implements a jury vote that counts for half of each countries vote.^[7]

Participating countries

  Participating countries

  Countries which participated in the past but do not this year

Fifteen countries took part in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest: Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Macedonia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine.^[8] Portugal, which had taken part twice since 2006 announced that it was no longer interested in the contest and withdrew along with Sweden, a founding country in 2003, which left because of other broadcasting plans during the time of the event.^[9][10] On the other hand, Israel and Bosnia & Herzegovina announced their intention to participate, but both decided to withdraw before the contest.^[11] Azerbaijan announced its intention to take part also, but withdrew from the contest in early October. According to İctimai Televiziya və Radio Yayımları Şirkəti, the network was unable to select and prepare children for such a high scale event without proper help from other governmental structures and bodies. The broadcaster also confirmed payment of a fine to the EBU due to its late withdrawal.^[12] Poland had also considered participation but decided that it would not take part this year.^[13] The 2008 contest was the first Junior Eurovision Song Contest to have no debuting countries.

Final

Each country decided their votes through a 50% jury and 50% tele-voting system which decided their top ten songs. Ukraine calculated their vote using a jury. Ukrainian broadcaster NTU opted not to broadcast the contest live, but to air it deferred on Sunday, November 23 as Saturday, November 22 is Holodomor Remembrance Day in the country.^[14]

Draw	Country	Language	Artist	Song	English translation	Place	Points
01	Romania	Romanian	Mădălina & Andrada	"Salvaţi planeta!"	Save the planet!	9	58
02	Armenia	Armenian	Monica	"Im Ergi Hnchyune" (Իմ Երգի Հնչյունե)	Melody of my Song	8	59
03	Belarus	Russian[15]	Dasha, Alina & Karyna	"Sertse Belarusi" (Сердце Беларуси)	Heart of Belarus	6	86
04	Russia	Russian	Mihail Puntov	"Spit angel" (Спит ангел)	Sleeping angel	7	73
05	Greece	Greek	Niki Yiannouchu	"Kapoia nychta" (Καποια νύχτα)	Some night	14	19
06	Georgia	Imaginary	Bzikebi	"Bzz.."	—	1	154
07	Belgium	Dutch	Oliver	"Shut Up"	—	11	45
08	Bulgaria	Bulgarian	Krastyana Krasteva	"Edna mechta" (Една мечта)	One dream	15	15
09	Serbia	Serbian	Maja Mazić	"Uvek kad u nebo pogledam" (Увек кaд у небо погледaм)	Whenever I look at the sky	12	37
10	Malta	English	Daniel Testa	"Junior Swing"	—	4	100
11	Netherlands	Dutch	Marissa	"1 dag"	One day	13	27
12	Ukraine	Ukrainian	Victoria Petryk	"Matrosy" (Матроси)	Sailors	2	135
13	Lithuania	Lithuanian	Eglė Jurgaitytė	"Laiminga diena"	Happy day	3	103
14	Macedonia	Macedonian	Bobi Andonov	"Prati mi SMS" (Прати ми СМС)	Send me an SMS	5	93
15	Cyprus	Greek	Elena Mannouri & Charis Savva	"Gioupi gia!" (Γιούπι για)	Whoopee yia!	10	46

International broadcasts

 Australia 

Australia broadcast the contest on 13 May 2009, as a lead up to the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest.^[16]

 Azerbaijan 

Azerbaijan was originally going to participate but withdrew on 15 October 2008. The contest was broadcast on Ictmai TV.

 Bosnia and Herzegovina 

Bosnia and Herzegovina were also set to participate but later withdrew. They broadcast the contest on BHRT.

 Worldwide 

A live broadcast of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest was available worldwide via satellite through European streams such as TVRi, ERT World, ARMTV, RTS Sat and MKTV Sat. The official Eurovision Song Contest website also provided a live stream without commentary via the peer to peer medium Octoshape.

Commentators

•  Belgium - André Vermeulen (VRT), Maureen Louys and Jean-Louis Lahaye (RTBF)
•  Netherlands - Sipke Jan Bousema
•  Ukraine - Pavlo Shylko (DJ Pasha)
•  Russia - Olga Shelest

Score sheet

Bzikebi, Georgia's participants

		Results
	Romania	58		4	2	2	2	2	2	1	5	3	2	4	1	8	8
	Armenia	59	3		5	6	6	8	6	7			3	3
	Belarus	86	5	5		10	4		10	6	7	7	4	5	3	5	3
	Russia	73		10	12		3	5		2	2	6	1	7	8	1	4
	Greece	19															7
	Georgia	154	6	12	8	12	10		12	12	10	8	12	12	12	4	12
	Belgium	45	2	2	1	1		4			3	2	10	2	4	2
	Bulgaria	15														3
	Serbia	37	1	1		3		6	1					1		12
	Malta	100	7	7	4	5	7	7	7	8	1		6	10	7	6	6
	Netherlands	27			3				5			1			5		1
	Ukraine	135	12	8	10	8	8	12	3	10	6	12	7		10	7	10
	Lithuania	103	8		6	7	1	10	8	3	12	10	8	6		10	2
	Macedonia	93	10	6	7	4	5	3	4	5	8	5	5	8	6		5
	Cyprus	46	4	3			12	1		4	4	4			2
The table is ordered by appearance All countries automatically receive 12 points Georgia and Macedonia awarded their points last due to technical problems

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received:

N.	Recipient nation	Voting nation
8	Georgia	Armenia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Lithuania, Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine
3	Ukraine	Georgia, Malta, Romania
1	Lithuania	Serbia
	Russia	Belarus
	Cyprus	Greece
	Serbia	Macedonia

• All countries were given 12 points at the start of voting. This is so no country gets nul points.

Official CD and DVD

The official double CD was released on 10 October 2008. Disc one contains the studio versions of every song and Disc two contains the karaoke versions. It is priced at €19.95 and can be brought from the official Eurovision online store or alternatively by download on the official Junior Eurovision website. You can also download each song at €1.29 each.

In Belgium and Netherlands, Dutch national final compilation CDs have been released, as well as DVDs. In Belgium, the songs in the national final that reached the final stage have also been released separately. The winning song (Shut Up) reached #19 in the Flemish charts.

Like in 2007, an official DVD will not be released, due to poor sales.

References

1. ^ "Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008". EBU. http://junioreurovision.tv. 
2. ^ Quoted from the hosts
3. ^ ""CONGRATULATIONS GEORGIA!"". junioreurovision.tv. http://www.junioreurovision.tv/page/blog?id=1579. 
4. ^ ""Get to know the venue, Spiros Kiprianou, Palais Des Sports"". Oikotimes.com. http://www.oikotimes.com/v2/index.php?file=articles&id=98. 
5. ^ "Changes to Junior Eurovision confirmed". oikotimes.com. http://www.oikotimes.com/v2/index.php?file=articles&id=3585. 
6. ^ "Junior: Minor format changes introduced". http://www.eurovision.tv/page/news?id=1140. 
7. ^ "http://www.junioreurovision.tv/tag/expand/Junior%20Eurovision%20Song%20Contest?id=1140". Junioreurovision.tv. http://www.junioreurovision.tv/tag/expand/Junior%20Eurovision%20Song%20Contest?id=1140. 
8. ^ "Participants of Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008". JuniorEurovision.tv. http://www.junioreurovision.tv/page/thestars. 
9. ^ Details on Portugal withdrawal
10. ^ "Details on Swedish withdrawal". ESCKaz.com. http://esckaz.com/jesc/2008/news1.htm. 
11. ^ "Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 info page". ESCKaz.com. http://esckaz.com/jesc/2008/. 
12. ^ Information on Azerbaijan withdrawal
13. ^ "Details on Poland non participation". oikotimes.com. http://www.oikotimes.com/v2/index.php?file=articles&id=3544. 
14. ^ "Ukraine not broadcasting contest live". ESCKaz.com. http://www.esckaz.com/jesc/2008/. 
15. ^ At the start of the song, the backing vocals are in Belarusian.
16. ^ "SBS Schedule 13 May 2009". SBS. http://www.sbs.com.au/schedule/2009-05-13/SBS%20Sydney. 

External links

• Official Website
• CyBC official site
• ESCKaz JESC pages