Due to the withdrawal of one of the junior competitiors in Greece, broadcaster ERT has been forced to reissue the list of ten finalists for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest selection this October.

Vergina Evangelou was originally in the line-up, but has withdrawn, citing "personal reasons" as the cause. Young singer Maria Rigopoulou steps forward in her stead as the first runner-up, singing a new song Kosmos oneirikos (Dream world).

The selection will still take place as previously stated on October 7th, at the ET1 Studios.


Richard's ESC history began way back in 1992, when he discovered the contest could fuel his passion for music and languages. Since then, it's been there at every corner for him in some way or another. He joined the esctoday.com team back in 2006, and quickly developed a love for writing about the contest. In his other life, he heads the development team at the learning resources company Linguascope, and writes about all aspects of language learning on the site Polyglossic.com.