The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017 was the fifteenth edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest, organised by the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It took place on 26 November 2017 at the Olympic Palace, in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. This was the fifth time that the contest was hosted by the previous year's winning country. The visual design and contest slogan, "Shine Bright", were revealed in May 2017.

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017
Shine Bright
Dates
Final	26 November 2017
Host
Venue	Olympic Palace, Tbilisi, Georgia
Presenter(s)	Helen Kalandadze Lizi Japaridze
Directed by	Simon Gibney Gordon Bonello
Executive supervisor	Jon Ola Sand
Executive producer	Sergi Gvarjaladze
Host broadcaster	Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB)
Opening act	Mariam Mamadashvili with "Mzeo" All participants with "Shine Bright"
Interval act	The Virus with "Atsabatsa" Lizi Japaridze and Helen Kalandadze Georgian Dancers
Website	www.junioreurovision.tv/event/tbilisi-2017
Participants
Number of entries	16
Debuting countries	None
Returning countries	Portugal
Non-returning countries	Bulgaria  Israel
Participation map      Participating countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 2017
Vote
Voting system	Each country's professional jury award 12, 10, 8–1 points to their 10 favourite songs. International viewers vote for 3–5 songs, and votes are converted to points by proportional representation.
Winning song	Russia "Wings"
2016 ← Junior Eurovision Song Contest → 2018

Sixteen countries participated in the contest, which saw the return of Portugal for the first time since 2007 and the withdrawals of Bulgaria and Israel. The winner was Polina Bogusevich, who represented Russia with the song "Wings", marking the second time that Russia has won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, and the first time since The Tolmachevy Twins in 2006, and the third overall victory for the country in any Eurovision-related events. The last victory in any Eurovision event for Russia was when Dima Bilan won the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade. Georgia and Australia finished in second and third place, respectively.

Location

Tbilisi Sports Palace

Olympic Palace

The Olympic Palace (marked in blue) was announced as the new venue, after the larger capacity Tbilisi Sports Palace (red) was considered unsuitable for hosting the contest.

During the Winner's Press Conference of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016, Jon Ola Sand - Head of Live Events, announced that the EBU would invite broadcasting members to submit applications to host the 2017 contest, which would take place on 26 November 2017.[1][2]

Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) announced on 22 November 2016 that they had begun talks with the EBU in connection to hosting the 2017 contest. The first refusal of hosting rights to the winning country of the previous is something that was introduced by the EBU since the 2013 contest.[3]

The EBU confirmed in February 2017 that the contest would be hosted by Georgia.[4] This was the first Eurovision event hosted by the country, despite them winning a record three times. It was confirmed on 26 February 2017 that Tbilisi would host the contest.[5]

Venue

On 16 March 2017, it was announced that the Tbilisi Sports Palace would be the host venue for the contest.[6] However, on 9 August 2017, the venue was changed to the 4,000-capacity Olympic Palace in Tbilisi which was considered more suitable for hosting the contest.[7]

Officially opened on 13 July 2015 by Georgian Prime Minister, Irakli Garibashvili, the venue was built to host the 2015 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival. The complex features two halls that are capable of hosting several sporting events.[8]

Format

Visual design

The theme for the contest, Shine Bright, was unveiled on 12 May 2017 during a press conference prior to the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv. The emblem is a multi-coloured, stylized sun, representing a "burst" of expression; Jon Ola Sand explained that the theme reflected the goal of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest to give youth "a moment to shine and an opportunity to showcase their full potential as young artists".[9]

Language

The original rules of the competition were changed, allowing up to 40% of each song to be in a language other than the national language of the representative's country, instead of 25% as in previous years.[10] This allowed countries, such as the winner, Russia, to have both a verse and a chorus in English, rather than just a chorus.

Hosts

On 3 October 2017, it was announced that Helen Kalandadze and Lizi Japaridze would host the contest. Japaridze is the third person under the age of sixteen to ever host the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, after Ioana Ivan in 2006 and Dmytro Borodin in 2009, and also the first former participant to host an edition of the contest. Japaridze previously represented Georgia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014, where she placed eleventh with the song "Happy Day". Kalandadze is a television presenter and singer, who previously was a backing singer for Georgia's 2010 Eurovision entry "Shine" by Sofia Nizharadze.[11]

Voting

The results were determined by national juries and an online audience vote. Every country used a national jury that consisted of three music industry professionals and two kids aged between 10 and 15 who were citizens of the country they represent. The first phase of the online voting started on 24 November 2017 when a recap of all the rehearsal performances were shown on the official website before the viewers could vote. Following this recap, voters had the option to watch longer one-minute clips from each participant's rehearsal. This first round of voting ended on 26 November at 15:59 CET. The second phase of the online voting took place during the live show and started after the last performance and was open for 15 minutes. International viewers could vote for a minimum of three countries and a maximum of five. For the first time, viewers could also vote for their own country's song.[12]

The number of points were determined by the percentage of votes received. The public vote counted for 50% of the final result, while the other 50% came from the professional juries.[13]

Trophy

The trophy was designed by Kjell Engman of the Swedish glass company Kosta Boda. Engman also designed the adult contest trophy. From this year, the design of the trophy was unified and awarded to the subsequent winners. The main trophy was a glass microphone with colored lines inside the upper part, which symbolize the flow of sound.[14]

Participating countries

On 9 August 2017, it was confirmed that sixteen countries would take part in the contest. Portugal marked their first appearance since 2007, while Bulgaria and Israel withdrew.[7]

R/O	Country[7]	Artist[15]	Song[15]	Language	Points[16]	Place[16]
1	Cyprus	Nicole Nicolaou	"I Wanna Be a Star"	Greek, English	45	16
2	Poland	Alicja Rega	"Mój dom"	Polish	138	8
3	Netherlands	Fource	"Love Me"	Dutch, English	156	4
4	Armenia	Misha	"Boomerang"	Armenian, English	148	6
5	Belarus	Helena Meraai	"I Am the One"	Russian	149	5
6	Portugal	Mariana Venâncio	"Youtuber"	Portuguese	54	14
7	Ireland	Muireann McDonnell	"Súile Glasa"	Irish	54	15
8	Macedonia	Mina Blažev	"Dancing Through Life"	Macedonian, English	69	12
9	Georgia	Grigol Kipshidze	"Voice of the Heart"	Georgian	185	2
10	Albania	Ana Kodra	"Don't Touch My Tree (Mos ma prekni pemën)"	Albanian, English	67	13
11	Ukraine	Anastasiya Baginska	"Don't Stop"	Ukrainian, English	147	7
12	Malta	Gianluca Cilia	"Dawra Tond"	English, Maltese	107	9
13	Russia	Polina Bogusevich	"Wings"	Russian, English	188	1
14	Serbia	Irina Brodić and Jana Paunović	"Ceo svet je naš" (Цео свет је наш)	Serbian	92	10
15	Australia	Isabella Clarke	"Speak Up"	English	172	3
16	Italy	Maria Iside Fiore	"Scelgo (My Choice)"	Italian, English	86	11

Detailed voting results

Split results

Place	Combined		Jury		Online Vote
	Country	Points	Country	Points	Country	Points
1	Russia	188	Georgia	143	Netherlands	112
2	Georgia	185	Russia	122	Malta	81
3	Australia	172	Australia	93	Australia	79
4	Netherlands	156	Armenia	92	Belarus	69
5	Belarus	149	Belarus	80	Ukraine	67
6	Armenia	148	Ukraine	80	Russia	66
7	Ukraine	147	Poland	77	Poland	61
8	Poland	138	Serbia	48	Armenia	56
9	Malta	107	Netherlands	44	Italy	49
10	Serbia	92	Italy	37	Portugal	45
11	Italy	86	Albania	32	Serbia	44
12	Macedonia	69	Macedonia	28	Georgia	42
13	Albania	67	Malta	26	Ireland	42
14	Portugal	54	Ireland	12	Macedonia	41
15	Ireland	54	Portugal	9	Cyprus	40
16	Cyprus	45	Cyprus	5	Albania	35

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received from each country's professional juries.

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
6	Georgia	Albania,  Armenia,  Belarus,  Poland,  Russia,  Ukraine
4	Russia	Australia,  Georgia,  Macedonia,  Portugal
1	Armenia	Cyprus
	Australia	Netherlands
	Belarus	Malta
	Malta	Italy
	Poland	Ireland
	Ukraine	Serbia

Spokespersons

Other countries

For a country to be eligible for potential participation in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, it needs to be an active member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).[27] It is currently unknown whether the EBU issue invitations of participation to all 56 active members like they do for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Active EBU members

•  Austria – The Austrian national broadcaster, ORF, announced on 31 May 2017 that they would not debut in the contest in 2017, with no intention to participate for the next few years.[28]
•  Bulgaria – On 23 May 2017, the Bulgarian national broadcaster, Bulgarian National Television (BNT), provisionally confirmed their participation in the 2017 contest.[29] However, on 7 June 2017, it was revealed that due to the election of the company's new Director-General, that the broadcaster had withdrawn its application.[30] On 22 September 2017, it was announced that Bulgaria would not participate in the contest.[31]
•  Croatia – The Croatian national broadcaster, Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT), had confirmed that the broadcaster was looking at the possibility of returning to the contest in 2017. However, Croatia was not on the final list of participants released by the EBU.[32]
•  Hungary – On 13 July 2017, Hungarian national broadcaster Médiaszolgáltatás-támogató és Vagyonkezelő Alap (MTVA) stated that they were not ruling out a debut at the 2017 contest.[33] However, on 25 July 2017, MTVA announced that they would not debut in 2017.[34]
•  Israel – The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) shut down on 9 May 2017.[35] The new broadcasting network Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC, "KAN") was not a member of the EBU at the time, which was a requirement to participate in the contest.[36] It was revealed on 6 July 2017 that an agreement had been signed between the EBU and IPBC, allowing the broadcaster to participate in EBU contests such as the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, despite not having full membership.[37] Israel was not on the final list of participants released by the EBU, however IPBC still broadcast the contest.

Broadcasts

Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref.
Albania	TVSH	Andri Xhahu	[38]
Armenia	Armenia 1	Gohar Gasparyan
Australia	ABC Me	Grace Koh, Pip Rasmussen and Tim Mathews	[39]
Belarus	Belarus 1, Belarus 24	Evgeny Perlin	[40]
Cyprus	RIK 2, RIK Sat	Kyriacos Pastides
Georgia	First Channel	Demetre Ergemlidze
Ireland	TG4	Eoghan McDermott
Italy	Rai Gulp	Laura Carusino and Mario Acampa	[41]
Macedonia	MRT 1	Eli Tanaskovska
Malta	TVM1	No commentary
Netherlands	NPO Zapp	Jan Smit
Poland	TVP2	Artur Orzech	[42]
Portugal	RTP1, RTP Internacional, RTP Africa	Hélder Reis and Nuno Galopim	[43][44]
Russia	Carousel	Lipa Teterich	[45]
Serbia	RTS2, RTS Satelit	Olga Kapor and Tamara Petković	[46]
Ukraine	UA:Pershyi	Timur Miroshnychenko	[47]

Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries

Country	Broadcaster(s)	Commentator(s)	Ref.
Israel	KAN	No commentary	[48]
Kazakhstan	Channel 31	Unknown	[49]
United Kingdom	Radio Six International, Fun Kids, Radio Telstar, Castlepoint FM	Ewan Spence, Lisa-Jayne Lewis	[50]

Official album

Junior Eurovision Song Contest Tbilisi 2017 is a compilation album put together by the European Broadcasting Union, and was released by Universal Music Group on 10 November 2017. The album features all the songs from the 2017 contest.[51]

See also

• ABU International Dance Festival 2017
• Bala Turkvision Song Contest 2017
• Eurovision Choir of the Year 2017
• Eurovision Song Contest 2017
• Eurovision Young Dancers 2017
• Turkvision Song Contest 2017

References

External links

Media related to Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017 at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website

На других языках

[ru] Детское Евровидение — 2017