What’s in for November ?

November has started : happy Halloween and “happy” All Saints’ Day! November is an important month for the Eurovision family of events and for fans this year: let’s see what will happen during the next 30 days!

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest : Tbilisi 2017

The main event in the Eurovision world this month will be the Junior Eurovision Song Contest (JESC). It will take place on November 26th, in the Tbilisi Sports Palace, in the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
16 countries will participate in this 15th edition of the JESC, including Portugal, returning after a 10-year-long absence:

• Albania
• Armenia
• Australia
• Belarus
• Cyprus
• F.Y.R Macedonia
• Georgia (host country)
• Italy
• Ireland
• Malta
• Poland
• Portugal
• Russia
• Serbia
• The Netherlands
• Ukraine

Despite EBU sanctions, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will still be able to participate in JESC.
As of now, only 15 songs are known. The last country to reveal its entry will be Ireland. The Emerald Isle is currently broadcasting a pre-recorded national selection, Junior Eurovision Éire, consisting of four semi-finals and a final. With one show per week each sunday, and two semi-finals already over, the final will be broadcast on November 19th, seven days exactly before the JESC night.
For the occasion, ESCXTRA will be in Tbilisi thanks to Brent and Ryan, the dynamic duo whom you surely remember from the ESCXTRA Livestream during Eurovision week last May, and from their articles of course!
==> Don’t hesitate to read Ryan’s editorials about JESC. The first one addresses the common criticism that the JESC is allegedly cruel on its contestant. The second one is about Ryan’s personal experience with the contest. <==

Eurovision 2018 : selections underway

San Marino starts

Today, at around 6pm (London time), 1in360 will start publishing the first submissions for San Marino 2018. The micro-state announced the “revolutionnary” format of their first ever national selection in October. In collaboration with 1in360, San Marino starts an internet quest, giving anyone a chance to go to the Semi-Finals in May. The submission period started on October 17th, and will last until November 30th.
What should we expect for now?
Who can tell? While some people have criticized the branding of the selection, saying it’s nothing “revolutionnary”, the concept is still novel for Eurovision. If submitting artists followed the advice from the website, then we will surely listen to many covers, and few original songs. We might also see artists campaigning on social media to collect “likes” and “shares”, to have their performance watched by the jury panel.
==> You can listen to the first submissions here. <==

The ongoing selection(s?)

San Marino might be an early starter this year, but there’s at least one country that really started its national selection : Israel. The Next Star For Eurovision 2018 started on October 29th and will continue for 19 other episodes.
Meanwhile, in Spain, Operación Triunfo (the Spanish Star Academy) has started again for its 9th season. The TV show itself doesn’t have any link with Eurovision, for now. But it could become, in one way or another, a part of Spain’s selection process for Eurovision 2018.

News from other countries : Latvia, Finland, and maybe others ?

November will be the last month to submit entries in many countries, such as Estonia (the submission period ends today), Serbia (November 10th) or France (November 30th).
But in other countries, the submission period is already other. In Latvia, LTV made public a list of the 63 valid songs they received for Supernova 2018 and asked people to listen to all of them, and to either “like” (patīk) them or “don’t like” (nepatīk) them. This online voting ended on October 29th. This month, on November 5th, a jury panel will listen to all the songs live and select “a number” of them (probably around 20) among the 63. Those selected songs will go to the televised show in 2018. The jurors will take the online voting into account when considering who will participate in the actual Supernova.
Finally, if Latvia is still in the pre-selection process, Finland has already chosen its candidates for next year’s Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (UMK). YLE, Finland’s broadcaster, will reveal their names on November 7th, during a press conference that you will be able to watch online. The conference will also give details about the format of UMK 2018, especially the voting and the presence (or absence) of semi-finals.

The OGAE Video Contest

If the purely Eurovision news makes it feel like the 2018 Eurovision Year is already beginning, there is still one last event for the 2017 Eurovision Year, after JESC. That is the OGAE Video Song Contest, organized this year by OGAE UK.
The list of the 21 songs and videoclips was revealed a week ago, but a slight change was made before the opening of the voting. Turkey’s entry, Ses Etme by Athena (who represented Turkey at Eurovision in 2004), was replaced by Kal Bungün, a song by Can Bonomo.
The voting should normally start today, on November 1st, and end on November 30th, spanning over the entire month. Only OGAE members can vote.
 
What do you think? What is the event you’re waiting the most for this month? Tell us on the comments below or on social media at @escxtra !