Embrace is theme for the 2016 Junior Eurovision Song Contest to take place in Valletta on Sunday 20th November. Valletta, the capital city of Malta will embrace four core values i.e. Connectivity, Diversity, Creativity and Respect. In a joint press conference with EBU in Stockholm, the Maltese national broadcaster PBS, announced several changes.
There will be drastic changes, as the tele-voting will no longer exist but a national jury together with a kids’ jury from each country will decide upon the winner of the Junior contest. Another change is that the two hour show will be transmitted live on a Sunday afternoon at 16:00.
The festival will take place in different locations around Valletta. The main venue will be the Mediterranean Conference Centre (national final venue) with the Manoel Theatre and St. George’s Square will be used for different links.
PBS CEO, Anton Attard said that Malta already raised the bar in the production of the 2014 Junior Eurovision and with these changes, the contest will be taken to the next level. EBU’s Executive Supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, Jon Ola Sand stated that the upper age limit for participation has been reduced by one year to 14. At the other end, the age was lowered to 9 years.
Last year’s Junior Eurovision winner Destiny was present at the press conference and invited all journalists and fans to embrace this contest and come to Malta in November. At the end of the press conference, Destiny sang the theme song Embrace, written by herself, Elton Zarb, Matt ‘Muxu’ Mercieca and Gordon Bonello.
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