Danish broadcaster DR can be proud of themselves – Saturday's inaugural Junior Eurovision Song Contest was pulled off without any major flaws. Producer Preben Vridstoft, however, still feels uneasy – by the fact that some children have to finish last. 'There must be a better way to get round the voting', he implies.

Agreed, children also enter sport games, and lose – and that hurts too. But the Junior Eurovision Song Contest should not be an event where some children are deemed (or felt deemed) worse and less talented then others, Preben Vridstoft points out.

As feared by many, Poland's Katarzyna 'Kasia' Zurawik and Swedish the Honeypies cracked down in the Green Room due to their last and second to last placings respectively, giving the other children a sense of guilt and bad conscience. At least so was the atmosphere in the Green Room, admits Preben Vridstoft.

»Indeed, this is a matter which we have discussed over and over since the beginning. We keep saying that 'everybody is a winner', but…« Preben Vridstoft leaves the sentence unfinished and moves on to suggesting that future editions of the children's contest be similar to the Danish natonal final, where perhaps half of the songs go on to a second round, thus to avoid the emotionally charged situation of a definite number last.

The two Swedish Honeypies, Rebekka Laakso and Julia Urbán, revived for the after-party, but Polish Kasia was very unhappy and sad. »Someone told me today that melancholy is almost a part of the Polish national character. The Polish people have suffered so much over the centuries that they almost like suffering«, Preben Vridstoft says.

»I am not entirely sure how to respond to that statement – but what I do know is that we must discuss the entire concept again, and learn from this year. Perhaps there are indeed other models«, Preben Vridstoft finishes.