Today, Heads of Delegation of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest meet in Lemesos, Cyprus, to be informed about the preparations for the 2008 running of the contest, hosted by broadcaster CyBC.
The Heads of Delegation were welcomed by the General Manager of CyBC, Themis Themistocleous, and Munro Forbes, Executive Producer of the event.
This year, EBU Members from 18 countries subscribed to take part in the competition; Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, FYR Macedonia, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine. Newcomers are Azerbaijan, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Israel, who were warmly welcomed by the head of the contest's Steering Group, Steve De Coninck-De Boeck and the EBU's Executive Supervisor, Svante Stockselius. Today is the last day that participating EBU Members can withdraw from the competition without financial consequences.
At the opening of the meeting, delegation leaders updated eachother on the national selection processes at home. Some updates for you… Armenia has 200 songs to pick from. The national final for the 2008 Junior Eurovision Song Contest takes place on the 11th of July, and the winner will be chosen by SMS vote. The Netherlands picks its song for Lemesos on the 4th of October. Belarus picks its young contestant in September. Belgium received 548 songs, out of which 10 were selected to take part in the national selection. The winner will be chosen on the 27th of September. Georgia will decide around the end of September, Lithuania will pick in October. Ukraine selects for Lemesos on the 20th of September.
It was also announced that a new website for the upcoming Junior Eurovision Song Contest will be launched by the EBU on the 8th of July.
