Final 26 November 2005 Executive producer Ludo Porrez | Executive supervisor Svante Stockselius | |
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Venue Ethias Arena, Hasselt, Belgium Presenter(s) Marcel Vanthilt
Maureen Louys Director Yves Podevyn
Ludovic Beun | ||
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005 was the third Junior Eurovision Song Contest for young singers aged 8 to 15. On 26 November 2005, the contest was broadcast live from the Ethias Arena in Hasselt, Belgium, in a joint effort by the national broadcasters Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep (VRT) and Radio télévision belge de la communauté française (RTBF), in co-operation with the European Broadcasting Union. Belgium won the right to hold the contest over five other countries including Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) of Croatia and AVRO of the Netherlands. Marcel Vanthilt and Maureen Louys hosted the event.
Contents
The show was not only broadcast live in the competing countries, it was also available on satellite worldwide and the Australian television channel SBS who acquired the rights to broadcast the show one month later. The theme of the show was Let's Get Loud, standing for the new generation on the stage. The show was watched by 8,500 people in the arena, including the Belgian Prince Laurent and 20–25 million people around Europe.
Belarus was the winner of this edition, with 10-year-old Ksenia Sitnik singing her song "My vmeste".
Location
The Ethias Arena is the largest multipurpose arena in Hasselt, Belgium used for music concerts, sports (tennis, indoor cycling, jumping, etc.) and other large events. The arena opened in 2004 and holds up to 21,600 people. Ethias Arena is a part of the Grenslandhallen and has a surface of 13,600 square meters (44,619 square feet). In 2015, it hosted the 2015 European Championship in darts, a Professional Darts Corporation event.
Participation
As many as twenty countries could have participated in this contest: Cyprus should have taken part but on October 13, Cypriot broadcaster Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) announced their withdrawal after questions arose over the song's origins, with complaints stating that the song they had chosen appeared to be plagiarism. This did not affect their ability to take part in the voting. In addition, Lithuania and Ukraine had planned on entering but later withdrew. Georgia had also wanted to appear but missed the participation deadline for the contest. Interest was also stated by Monaco with Phil Bosco the Head of Delegation for Monaco, telling esctoday.com that "The Minister of State was very interested in the proposal".
The public broadcasters of Switzerland and Poland didn't send candidates for financial reasons. France didn't join because of restructuring within the channel. Russia and Serbia and Montenegro made their debut in the competition this year. Poland would stay away from the competition for 12 years until 2016 when they returned.
Acts
The show opened with fireworks and bungee jumpers.
As surprise act the young Vladik Myagkostupov from the famous Cirque du Soleil showed his juggling abilities in a four-minute performance while people were voting during the interval. While the votes were being counted, the Spanish María Isabel, performed a medley from the song with which she won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004 and some of the numbers from the album she had recently released. She also presented the trophy to the winner.
Voting structure
Televote 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 point(s). The presenters started off by giving all contestants 12 points.
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points received:
Commentators
Official album
Junior Eurovision Song Contest: Hasselt 2005, is a compilation album put together by the European Broadcasting Union, and was released by Universal Music Group on November 2005. The album features all the songs from the 2005 contest.