16 participating countries and new rules for JESC!

Exciting news everyone!

As we all know already, Junior Eurovision will take place in Tblisi, Georgia on Sunday 26 November. This will be the 15th Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Today the EBU annonced a change of venue, the list of participating countries and an exciting new voting method.  
We now have a full list of the 16 competing countries in this years Junior Eurovision Song!

Participating countries

The biggest surprises on the list of participating countries are Portugal and Bulgaria. Portugal for being back after not taking part since 2007, Bulgaria for not taking part this year.
That’s right! You read correctly! Portugal returns for this years JESC!! Do you think they will be able to do what no one else has done before and take out BOTH competitions in the one year?!
Albania (RTSH)
Armenia (AMPTV)
Australia (ABC)
Belarus (BTRC)
Cyprus (CyBC)
FYR Macedonia (MKRTV)
Georgia (GPB)
Ireland (TG4)
Italy (RAI)
Malta (PBS)
Poland (TVP)
Portugal (RTP)
Russia (RTR)
Serbia (RTS)
The Netherlands (AVROTROS)
Ukraine (UA:PBC)

Change of venue

Originally the 2017 Junior Eurovision Song Contest was set to take place in the Sports Palace. This has now been changed, and ta new venue has been announced. JESC will instead take place at the modern 4,000-seat Olympic Palace.

RULE CHANGES

Another step in the road to creating the perfect format for the junior Eurovision Song Contest is a change in the voting rules.
Online voting will be open for the first time ever and will be open between Friday the 24th of November to Sunday the 26th of November. Anyone wanting to vote will have to watch a recap of all 16 songs before they are allowed to vote. Later in the week longer 1 minute clips made from rehearsals will be available for people to watch.
During the live show voting will also open after the performances and be open for 15 minutes after the show. These two votes will then be combined to account for 50% of the voting outcome, the others coming from the national juries.
This is a fantastic response to last years rule change which saw public voting taken out and is definitely the way forward for the Junior competition.
The Executive Supervisor of JESC and head of Live events for the EBU Jon Ola Sand has said, “We are thrilled to be celebrating 15 editions of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Throughout the Contest’s history we have seen some incredibly talented children perform, some of whom are now successful artists in their own right. The new voting system is an exciting new addition that will allow millions of viewers to take part in the show once again”.
More information regarding the voting will come out in the coming days but it sure will add up to even more excitement for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017!