Final 22 November 2008 | Director Klitos Klitou Executive producer Munro Forbes | |
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Presenter(s) Alex MichaelSophia Paraskeva | ||
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the sixth Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which is the world's largest song contest for children. It was held at the "Spyros Kyprianou" Athletic Centre in Lemesos, Cyprus and hosted by Alex Michael and Sophia Paraskeva. It was won by the Georgian trio Bzikebi, with the song "Bzz..". This is the first song to win any Eurovision Song Contest in an imaginary language. Ukraine took 2nd place and Lithuania finished 3rd. Bzikebi also became the first group act to win Junior Eurovision.
Contents
- Location
- Format
- Voting
- Participating countries
- Final
- International broadcasts
- Commentators
- 12 points
- Official album
- References
The theme of the event was "Fun in the Sun", despite the fact that there were thunderstorms in Lemesos the day of the contest. The stage, which was designed by George Papadopoulos, was nominated for the prestigious international "Live Design Excellence Awards". The design is an abstract composition and consists of a round stage representing the island of Cyprus, real water along the front of the stage, two jetties, the waves breaking and moving away from the island and five sailing boats with oars.
For the contest, various changes to the rules were made. One was that adults could assist children to write the songs submitted to their national broadcaster; previously only children could write the songs, with no assistance from adults. Another change was only six people could be on stage during a performance, instead of eight. The most significant change, however, was only half of the vote was decided by the tele-voters. Before the 2008 contest tele-voters completely decided the whole result. The other half of the result was decided by a jury of adults and children.
Location
The Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Center (Greek: Αθλητικό Κέντρο "Σπύρος Κυπριανού"), also known as Palais des sports, is the biggest and the most imposing multi dynamic indoor athletic arena in Cyprus. It is named after the late president of Cyprus Spyros Kyprianou. This project was conducted by the Cyprus Sports Organisation and was constructed north of the city of Limassol near Kato Polemidia and by the side of Limassol - Troodos road. Construction of the project began in late 2002 and was completed at the end of 2005 at a total cost of approximately CY£8.5 million.
Format
On 27 May 2007 the Eurovision Steering Group decided to award CyBC of Cyprus to host the 2008 contest, over TV4 of Sweden and NTU of Ukraine. On 10 September 2008 the hosts were announced as Alex Michael and Sophia Paraskeva; both presenters with Cypriot backgrounds. On 13 October 2008 the draw of the running order took place live on CyBC1. This involved drawing the first and last countries and performers, and then drawing countries into various 'pots' to decide when they would perform. The full running order was announced on 14 October 2008. The stage was constructed between 30 October 2008 and 14 November 2008.
Voting
As in all previous Eurovision Song Contests each country gave their top 10 countries songs points from 1 point for their 10th favourite song up until 8 points for their 3rd favourite song. Then 10 and 12 points were given for the second favorite and favorite respectively. But, the difference between this contest and other past contests is this is the first Eurovision Song Contest that implements a jury vote that counts for half of each countries vote.
Participating countries
Fifteen countries took part in the 2008 Junior Eurovision Song Contest: Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Macedonia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine. Portugal, which had taken part twice since 2006 announced that it was no longer interested in the contest and withdrew along with Sweden, a founding country in 2003, which left because of other broadcasting plans during the time of the event.
On the other hand, Israel and Bosnia & Herzegovina announced their intention to participate, but decided both to withdraw before the contest. Welsh language broadcaster S4C considered the possibility of participation, but in the end it was decided they would not to participate in the competition, because their debut was rejected because Wales isn't a sovereign state. Only the BBC has the exclusive right to represent the United Kingdom.
Azerbaijan announced its intention to take part also, but withdrew from the contest in early October. According to İctimai Televiziya və Radio Yayımları Şirkəti, the network was unable to select and prepare children for such a high scale event without proper help from other governmental structures and bodies. The broadcaster also confirmed payment of a fine to the EBU due to its late withdrawal. Poland had also considered participation but decided that it would not take part this year. The 2008 contest was the first Junior Eurovision Song Contest to have no debuting countries.
Final
Each country decided their votes through a 50% jury and 50% tele-voting system which decided their top ten songs. Ukraine calculated their vote using a jury. Ukrainian broadcaster NTU opted not to broadcast the contest live, but to air it deferred on Sunday, November 23 as Saturday, November 22 is Holodomor Remembrance Day in the country.
International broadcasts
Commentators
12 points
Below is a summary of all 12 points received:
Official album
Junior Eurovision Song Contest: Lemesos 2008, is a compilation album put together by the European Broadcasting Union, and was released by Universal Music Group on 10 October 2008. The album features all the songs from the 2008 contest, along with karaoke versions.