In the past few days, news broke that Ukraine would be withdrawing from the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Thus, the 2012 Junior Eurovision winners will not be present in this November’s contest in the Belarusian capital city of Minsk. Ukraine broadcaster UA:PBC has cited “financial difficulties” within the broadcaster as their reason for withdrawal.
Two hostings and one victory
Ukraine joined the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2006, participating every year since up until now. The country hosted the contest in both 2009 and 2013 in their capital city of Kyiv and also won the contest in 2012, courtesy of Anastasia Petryk and her entry Nebo. Furthermore, Ukraine has two runner-up finishes to their name. These were earned by Viktoria Petryk, Anastasia’s older sister, in 2008 and Sofia Tarasova on home turf in 2013.
Ukraine’s form in Junior Eurovision has dipped slightly in recent years. In 2015 and 2016, Ukraine missed the top 10 for two consecutive years with Anna Trincher placing 11th and Sofia Rol placing 14th respectively. Anastasiya Baginska was more successful in Tbilisi last year, with Don’t Stop finishing in 7th place.
14 participants so far
This means that Ukraine joins Cyprus as the second nation who participated in 2017 to withdraw ahead of the 2018 contest. Of those nations who participated in Tbilisi, Albania and Australia remain the only nations to keep quiet on their plans for this year’s contest. So far, 14 nations have confirmed their provisional participation in this year’s contest in Minsk. These are as follows:
- Armenia
- Belarus (host nation)
- F.Y.R. Macedonia
- France (returning nation)
- Georgia
- Ireland
- Italy
- Malta
- Poland
- Portugal
- Russia
- Serbia
- The Netherlands
- Wales (debuting nation)
Are you surprised by Ukraine’s decision not to take part in the 2018 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Minsk? Let us know in the comments below!
Ukraine\’s decision to withdraw was nothing but BS! 🙁 Hopefully Ukraine returns next year.