More important news has emerged from today’s Junior Eurovision Heads of Delegation meeting in Malta.
The most interesting is that the voting system will revert to the format used prior to 2013 where both juries and televoting rank a top 10 rather than a top 15.
This may seem minor in the context of Junior Eurovision where there are not that many songs, but at Eurovision itself this year there was quite a lot of controversy when jurors in the UK and Ireland voted Poland last, only to have Poland win the televote, but unable to gain a single vote. This change may signal the return to this system in Eurovision itself.
A request has been made by PBS that the running order will revert to being producer picked rather than the random draw that was used last year. Only Malta, and the first and last performers will be drawn randomly while the other 13 performers will draw either “first half” or “second half” ballots before the producer of the show allocates them their running order position.
The rehearsal schedule has already been preset to allow activities for the kids to be planned in advance. Therefore the rehearsal schedule will for the first time have no correlation to which order the kids will perform in.
Finally it was also announced today that all songs and performers have officially been submitted to the EBU. The seven countries who have yet to reveal their songs are not obliged to do so immediately and have been given the chance to reveal their songs nationally first.
Changes that come to the Eurovision Song Contest itself are often tested in Junior Eurovision itself, so it is usually worthwhile to keep an eye out on what new innovations emerge or indeed are removed from the contest.
