Yesterday morning, it was announced that Georgia would host the 2017 Junior Eurovision Song Contest! Once again, the contest will take place in November. The decision comes as it has been revealed that the EBU gave first option to host to Georgia’s national broadcaster GPB following their victory in Valletta three months ago. In Valletta, Mariam Mamadashvili was victorious scoring 239 points with her song Mzeo.
Three time winners
Following their victory in Malta, Georgia became the most successful country in Junior Eurovision history. Their three victories in the contest is unmatched. Belarus and Malta are the only other countries to have won more than one Junior Eurovision Song Contest, scoring two victories each. It wasn’t until 2012 when the winning country was given first option to host the following year’s contest. Prior to 2012, the EBU selected the host city. As Georgia’s two previous victories were in 2008 and 2011, the country had missed out on being given first option to host after their previous successes. Thankfully, Georgia have now been given the opportunity to host and deservedly so! Prior to this announcement, escXtra discussed why Georgia should be chosen to host and you can read that here.
It is perhaps likely that the chosen venue for the contest will be the Philharmonic Concert Hall in Tbilisi which hosted the Georgian national final for the 2017 adult contest last month. Georgia’s largest ever televised national final received praise for its speed and production value. The Concert Hall is of similar size to Valletta’s Mediterranean Conference Centre that hosted the 2016 contest and is perhaps an ideal location for Georgia to choose.
“An invaluable platform for young talent”
In yesterday’s press release, Jon Ola Sand (the EBU’s Head of Live Events) gave the following statement regarding the news that Georgia would host the 2017 contest:
“The EBU are delighted to announce that GPB will be the host broadcaster of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017. As Georgia has won the JESC the most times we are pleased that we can finally bring Europe’s favourite youth show to a new country that has shown such dedication to the Contest. Last year’s competition showed that JESC is an invaluable platform for public service broadcasters to support their young talent, and we have full confidence that GPB will host another great show this November”
A flurry of interest for 2017
Already, six countries have announced their provisional interest in participating at the 2017 Junior Eurovision Song Contest. These countries are as follows:
- Belarus
- Cyprus
- Georgia
- Ireland
- Russia
- The Netherlands
In particular, The Netherlands have already announced they will be forming another group for the 2017 contest. This will be done in the same way that Kisses was formed last year who went on to finish on the top half of the leaderboard. The girl group finished in 8th place with Kisses & Dancin’. In addition, Ireland‘s Junior Eurovision broadcaster TG4 have already launched their search for their 2017 representative. They will use the same selection process as in 2015 and 2016. Ultimately, 32 contestants will be selected for their televised multi-show competition to be aired in Autumn 2017.
Are you happy that Georgia has been given the honour of hosting the 2017 Junior Eurovision Song Contest? Are you hoping your country will participate in the contest? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below and via our Facebook and Twitter pages @escXtra!
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