Junior Eurovision winner 1st place. Daniel Yastremsky, Belarus

November 23 at " Junior Eurovision- 2018” rehearsals of the second group of participants took place: from Wales, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Serbia, Russia, Portugal, Poland, Malta, Kazakhstan and Italy. Wales Despite the fact that Wales is actually part of the UK, it is Wales that is taking part in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018. Fourteen-year-old Manyu will perform the song “Berta” in Welsh. Already at two years old, the girl performed in front of her parents with a toy synthesizer and microphone, and already at four she shone at the festival. Manyu is an excellent skier and loves to vacation in Switzerland with his parents and brothers. Big stage is the dream of many girls, including the representative of Wales. It is music that allows you to forget about everything and feel free. Ukraine Darina Krasnovetskaya was born in Vinnitsa in 2007. Since childhood, the girl demonstrated leadership skills. Music is an integral part of the life of the young performer, who has won victories and participated in many major competitions. In the future, the girl would like to build a large shelter for homeless animals. IN free time the artist loves to draw, read, photograph music videos. A true artist must be able to do everything, so the girl plays the piano and dances. The most cherished dream Darina - become worldwide famous singer. Participation in Junior Eurovision is another step towards the goal! Netherlands The Netherlands are represented at Junior Eurovision by fourteen-year-olds Max and Anna. Max lives in the city of Houten, Anna lives in Vorschoten. The guys separately took part in the show “The Voice. Children". Max leads own channel on YouTube, he already has 3 thousand subscribers. Anna has played leading roles in many musicals and continues to develop as an actress. In Minsk, the artists will perform the song “Samen”, which means “Together”. During the preparation, the guys managed to become very close friends. Max admits that he is crazy about the voice and vocal technique Anna, and Anna notes Max's cool hairstyle, parodying: “My voice is good, but my hair is perfect!” The girl equally enjoys both singing and acting, so she would really like to combine the two in the future. Serbia Bojana Radovanovic is very happy to be part of Junior Eurovision and represent Serbia at such an important international competition. A thirteen-year-old girl lives and studies in Belgrade. Boyana loves performing on stage, so she prepares very carefully for each performance. The girl loves to dance, but still devotes most singing time. Russia Anna Filipchuk was born in Barnaul ( Altai region). At the age of 2, the girl began studying at the local theater, at 5 she sang, and at 7 she performed in competitions. Anya teaches English, French and Italian, plays tennis and does gymnastics. Now the artist keeps in shape, and previously she performed at rhythmic gymnastics competitions and reached the rank of candidate master of sports! Once Anya even tried to combine the two important aspects of her life on stage: the girl sang, and during the musical breakdown she performed elements from rhythmic gymnastics. Complex and beautiful! IN currently the young talent lives in Moscow and studies at the Academy popular music Igor Krutoy. Anna's dream is to sing a duet with Lara Fabian. In Minsk, the girl will represent Russia with the song “Invincible”. “We are a new generation that can make the world a little better. There is no need to give up, we need to move forward, together we can do anything!” Portugal Rita Laranjeira was born in 2005 in the Portuguese city of Sintra. The girl loves everything related to music: she sings in a children's choir, wins competitions, plays the musical instruments. Rita also does acrobatics and horse riding. Poland Several participants of Junior Eurovision 2018 are winners of the show “The Voice. Children" in different countries Oh. Among them is thirteen-year-old Roxana Wegel from Poland. For a long time the girl was engaged in acrobatics, judo and dancing. About yours musical talent Roxana found out by chance: while performing karaoke at a judo camp. Positive reviews about her beautiful voice motivated the athlete to take up vocals. Roxanne's first single called “Live” collected 8 million views on YouTube! The artist is currently working on debut album. In Minsk, the girl will perform the song “Anyone I want to be.” Malta Ela Mangion from Malta started musical career later than many participants: not at 2 years old, but at 6 years old. Now the twelve-year-old girl is learning to play the piano and write songs. In 2014, Ela took part in the competition for the first time, and has not stopped since then. She already has 5 international vocal competitions, including Children’s New wave. Participation in Junior Eurovision is now a dream come true. Kazakhstan Twelve-year-old Daneliya Tuleshova is the first representative of Kazakhstan at Junior Eurovision. As a child, the girl studied dancing, not singing. For a long time, singing was just a hobby, but after major victories V music competitions The young talent began working with the teacher. Daneliya is the winner of the show “The Voice. Children" in Ukraine. According to the girl, this competition changed her a lot, “Daneliya before” and “Daneliya after” - two different people. At Junior Eurovision, the representative of Kazakhstan communicates a lot with Darina from Ukraine. “She is very kind, we found mutual language" Most of all Daneliya liked the songs of Australia, Ukraine, Malta and Belarus. The artist constantly listens to the composition “Wings” by last year’s winner Polina Bogusevich. In her free time, the Kazakh starlet does homework and reads interesting book“Wild Witch” weaves figures from silicone rubber bands. For many years, my favorite subject at school has been mathematics. Classmates often ask for help, and Daneliya is happy to help the kids. Before daily rehearsals, the girl sings and drinks a lot of water - her throat dries out from excitement. Italy Melissa and Marco from Italy perform at Junior Eurovision with the song “What is love”. Ten year old girl lives with younger brother and parents in the city of Allasio. Since the age of six, Melissa has been studying music, playing the piano, and winning vocal competitions. But there is something else very important and useful hobby- reading. Favorite books: “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “Geronimo Stilton.” Fourteen-year-old Marco was born in the city of Avezzano. WITH four years the boy danced a lot, trying himself in different styles. The love for singing came four years later, and the artist wrote his first song 6 months ago. In the future, Marco wants to become... a dermatologist! You can read about the Junior Eurovision 2018 participants from Israel, Ireland, Georgia, Macedonia, France, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Australia, Armenia and Albania

Very soon Belarus will turn into a hospitable (we hope!) host of the international children's Eurovision contest. site collected up-to-date information about where the competition will take place, who will participate in it and what we hear about tickets.

When and where will Junior Eurovision 2018 take place?

The date for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest is set to November 25, 2018. The competition will be held in the capital of Belarus - Minsk, with the Minsk Arena complex chosen as the venue.

The dress rehearsal will take place on November 24 (Saturday) at 18.00, and the competition itself will take place on November 25 at 18.00.

You can get to the Minsk Arena not only by taxi, but also by public transport: for example, from the railway station there is a direct bus No. 1, from the Nemiga metro station - buses 1 and 119c.

Who will participate in Junior Eurovision 2018?

In total, a record number of countries will take part in the competition - 20: Australia, Albania, Armenia, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine and, of course, the host country - Belarus. France, Israel and Azerbaijan have announced their return to the competition this year; Kazakhstan announced its debut. Interestingly, Wales will be competing separately from the UK in 2018.

At the same time, many countries refused to participate in Junior Eurovision 2018. However, this is a common practice for Eurovision. Thus, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Czech Republic and some others, as well as our neighbors Latvia and Lithuania and almost our neighbor Estonia, refused to participate in the competition.

Unlike the adult competition, the winning country at Junior Eurovision does not automatically receive the right to host the competition the following year.

What will the scene look like?

Two stages - large and small - will be connected by a bridge and long podiums across the dance floor in auditorium. The arena dome will be decorated with multi-tiered LED chandeliers. The press room, individual dressing rooms and a large common hall will also be stylized.

Installation of the stage will begin three weeks before the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018, but it is planned that already in early November, a the whole city with its own infrastructure.

Who represents Belarus at Junior Eurovision 2018?

On August 31, it became known that Daniel Yastremsky would represent Belarus at the competition with the song Time.

It is important that the performer at Junior Eurovision must have citizenship of the state he represents, or have resided in it for at least two years. In adult competition, citizenship does not matter.

When will they start selling tickets for children? Eurovision

Tickets for the final of the competition can be purchased. However, on October 8, the organizers announced that all tickets for the competition had already been sold, only tickets for attending the dress rehearsal remained, which could be purchased. They will cost only 6-8 rubles.

Where can I track the latest news and changes?

Junior Eurovision has official site in English. Here you can watch the performances of participants from different countries during the selections for the children's competition and monitor the changes.

The annual children's Eurovision Song Contest took place in Minsk on November 25. It was won by a participant from Poland, Roxana Wengel. The representative of Belarus, Daniel Yastremsky, took 11th place.

Roxana is 13 years old, and she is already a celebrity at home: she won the first season of the Polish show “The Voice. Children,” and almost 250 thousand people follow her Instagram.

At the competition she performed the song Anyone I Want To Be - partly in English, partly in Polish.

How was the Eurovision week in Minsk?

Minsk hosted Junior Eurovision for the second time and took the preparation of this event seriously.

Eurovision week started with a red carpet. It continued with Alexander Lukashenko at the Palace of Independence, during which the president promised Daniel Yastremsky if he won (which, however, did not happen). And it almost ended with a “false” ending. More precisely, at a packed Minsk Arena. Among its spectators one could find both couples who bought tickets and children whose trip to Minsk - in the best Belarusian traditions - was organized from above. And this despite the prices - tickets for the dress rehearsal cost from 6 to 9 Belarusian rubles (for the final of the competition - from 9 to 12 rubles). However, I just want to thank the local education departments for such a choice: the event was worth it.

However, the Belteleradiocompany assures that there were no orders from above. A number of organizations (schools, orphanages, boarding schools, various studios), as well as groups of individuals themselves sent applications and asked for invitation cards. No one had completed the schedule for filling the hall. Moreover, according to invitation cards Only a quarter of the hall was filled, the remaining ¾ of the tickets were sold, Belteleradiocompany said.

The dress rehearsal not only allowed the participants to get used to the Minsk Arena. This year (as in the past), 50% of the total points scored were determined by audience voting, another 50% were assessed by a professional jury. So, the latter evaluated the contestants on Saturday, during the rehearsal.

To complete the conversation about this year’s rules, let’s clarify: audience voting started on November 23 on the official website of Junior Eurovision. Ended before the start of the final concert. And then, after the performance of all participants, it opened again (but only for 15 minutes). Users could choose from three to five favorite performers (including, for the second year in a row, a representative from their country).

How they voted

Poland received a total of 215 points, France - 203, Australia - 201. In fourth place is Ukraine (182), in fifth place is Malta (181). This is followed by Kazakhstan (171), Italy (151), Georgia (144), Armenia (125), Russia (122) and Belarus (114). This result allowed our country to take the final 11th place.

From TV viewers, Daniel Yastremsky received 53 points and divided 9-
10th place with Australia, which for a long time was considered one of the potential winners.

But the international jury rated Daniel’s performance at 61 points.
Armenia gave the representative of Belarus the maximum (12 points).
Portugal, Azerbaijan and Malta - 10 each, the Netherlands - 8. Italy (5), Ireland and Kazakhstan (2), Australia and Georgia (1) also voted for us. It is curious that from Russia the results were announced by Piggy, the character “ Good night, kids."

How it all went

The hosts of this year’s final were Zina Kupriyanovich, aka Zena, a girl who last year took third place in the Russian “ New Factory stars", representative of Belarus at Junior Eurovision 2017 Helena Meraai and Evgeniy Perlin.

They were the ones who introduced everyone to the audience. “20 out of 18 possible,” joked fans of the competition, and there was some truth in this joke. According to the rules, only 18 countries can take part in Eurovision. But this year, the EBU and Belteleradiocompany made an exception for Israel as the country that won the adult Eurovision 2018 and officially included it among the participants in the children's song forum. Later, Ukraine joined their number, which initially refused to participate because of "". That's why total number participants turned out to be a record in the history of Junior Eurovision. By the way, Wales and Kazakhstan became absolute debutants of this competition.

The show was commented behind the scenes by Georgy Koldun and Andrey Makaenok, who, according to them, worked on the seventh level of the Minsk Arena, right under the ceiling. Uninhibited TV presenters joked about English language their colleagues on stage (they say that elementary English still submitted to them), appearance Evgeniy Perlina and even over the expensive train on which the participant from Kazakhstan went to Vyazynka.

Of course, the guests had minimal time, so there was no talk of actually visiting places associated with the work of Yanka Kupala. But thanks to the employees of Belteleradiocompany, who developed the plot of the finale, the visit turned out to be virtual. According to the plot, when filming business cards, the contestants wore a virtual reality helmet. Thanks to this, they visited the most beautiful, famous and tourist-attractive places in Belarus (after all, no one has canceled the “visa-free” policy yet!).

Trinity Suburb and Victory Park, where the half marathon begins, Opera theatre And National Library, Knitting and Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Dudutki and Strochitsy, Dynamo stadium and Chizhovka Arena, Mir and Nesvizh castles. And also Zybitskaya, who was symbolically visited by the Polish participant, after which her travels around Belarus ended (Roxana Wengel performed last). Perhaps this was a hint where to relax on a late November evening?

True, tourists simply cannot get into one building - we are talking about the Palace of Independence. True, the charming French girl Angelina Nava. Maybe Belarus is not against establishing close relations with France? (Joke.)

Speeches by participants in Once again demonstrated diametrically opposed approaches to who should be sent to Junior Eurovision and, more importantly, who should be considered a child. At one extreme are the seemingly completely grown-up Portuguese Rita Laranjeira, the Maltese Ela Mangon, and the Australian Jael Uena. On the second - charming and vocal children from Ukraine (Darina Krasnovetskaya), Kazakhstan (Daneliya Tuleshova with her not-teenage-like powerful vocals), a duet from Italy (Melissa & Marco).

And between them is the Albanian doll Efthimia Dzhika, who, apparently, really wants to grow up as quickly as possible, and for this she needs to look like an adult.

If the TUT.BY journalist were a child, he would definitely be captivated by the duo from the Netherlands. And it's all about attitude to conventions: Max Albertazzi came on stage wearing braces, which were teased in schools just recently (and maybe still?) Together with his partner Anne Bure, Max sang a romantic song about lovers who break up and never meet again. By the way, both singers are only 14 years old. And the Irishman Taylor Gins would also attract my attention. It turns out you can let go long hair, wear glasses - and feel great.

But as an adult, I would give first place to the Macedonian Maria Spasovskaya - bright, charismatic and touching during the performance of her ballad Doma (that is, “Home”).

What about Daniel Yastremsky? He definitely did not spoil the mass, having talentedly embodied the image of a modern major, but still did not seem the best. Why? In my opinion, it's a matter of excessive bet on virtual reality with homey interiors and a basketball court. And was it really necessary to have a real bicycle on which one of the team members was doing laps on stage?

However, Ruslan Aslanov, who represented Belarus at Junior Eurovision in 2015 and took fourth place, said on BT that Yastremsky’s number looked not only fashionable, but also one of the most technically difficult among other participants.

It is quite difficult to draw conclusions about Junior Eurovision based on just one competition. But still, several conclusions suggest themselves (even if they lie on the surface). Contemporary music has long been associated with the movement. Perhaps only one of the Eurovision participants sang in a traditional performing manner - we are talking about the Israeli singer Noam Dadon. And the children's stage is developing quickly. It seems that just a little more and she will catch up with the adult. But Belarus in this aspect is just an exception to the rule. After all, child singers in our country often look even more interesting than adults.

The competition will be shown live on TV "Belarus 1". The broadcast starts at 18:00.

1. Ukraine. Darina Krasnovetskaya - Say Love

Darina is from Vinnitsa, she is 11 years old, five of which she has been studying vocals professionally. The girl became famous after she took part in the show “The Voice” in 2016. Children".

The young performer collaborated with top Ukrainian performers, including Jamala, ONUKA, Panivalkova and others. Above in a scenic manner Darina worked with the famous Ukrainian stylist and costume designer Lesya Patoka.

2. Portugal. Rita Laranjeira -Gosto de Tudo (Já Nã o Gosto de Nada)

Rita was born in Sintra, she is 13 years old and in 8th grade. He plays the violin, takes piano lessons, and sings in the choir at the Sintra Conservatory. Rita participates in musicals of the Musical Theater.

3. Kazakhstan. Danelia Tuleshova -Ò ziń e Sen

Danelia Tuleshova was born in 2006 in Astana. The girl studies at the lyceum, where she studies mathematics in depth. She suffered a serious injury, which prevented her from playing sports, although Danelia showed interest in it from the very beginning. early age. When she recovered, she began studying in the studio ballroom dancing. Now we have added classes acting art and singing.

In 2015, Danelia won the “Ayaglagan Astana” competition and reached the final of the “Children’s New Wave”, where she won the audience award.

In 2017, Danelia took part in the international singing competition “The Hopes of Europe”, where she received Grand Prize, and then became the first non-Ukrainian to win the competition The Voice Kids in Ukraine.

4. Albania. Efi Gika- Barbie

Efi Ghika is only 10 years old, she is the youngest participant in Eurovision this year. The girl sings, composes music, plays the piano, dances and draws. Efi will perform the song Barbie in Albanian, the composition was the result family labor: The words were written by the girl’s mother, and the music was written by Efi herself.

She has participated in children's play"Alice in Wonderland" and other roles in musicals at a children's art school.

5. Russia. Anna Filipchuk-Unbreakable

The girl is from Barnaul, she is 13 years old. She began her singing career in hometown in the show theater of the song "Caprice". Anna participated in various vocal competitions in Russia and abroad, in 2013 she won the title “Little Miss Barnaul”, and in 2018 she became a candidate for master of sports in rhythmic gymnastics.

Anna studies at the Igor Krutoy Academy of Popular Music, participated in the selection for the “Children's New Wave” (reached the semi-finals Russian stage), in the show “Battle of Talents”.

6. Netherlands. Max & Anna- Samen

Max is 14 years old and lives in Houten with his older brother and parents. Singing is a great achievement for him, because the boy cannot hear in one ear. Anna is the same age as him and lives in Voorschoten. When she was only 8 years old, she played young Anastasia in the musical Anastasia. Since then, she has played in several more musicals, including The Sound of Music.

For the first time in the history of Junior Eurovision, the Netherlands will be represented by a duet of a boy and a girl. The composition Samen is a ballad about friendship between a boy and a girl who cannot be together.

7. Azerbaijan. Fidan Huseynova- I Wanna Be Like You

Fidan was born in 2005 in Moscow, lives in Baku. He takes vocal lessons at the Tofik Guliyev Music School.

Her portfolio includes a joint performance with Lara Fabian of the songs Je Suis Malade in Baku and Je T’aime in Istanbul.

In 2016, Fidan received a government scholarship and her name was added to the Golden Book of Young Talents. This year Fidan performed at the junior festival in San Remo, where she received third place.

Fidan plays chess and has won several tournaments, including the 2017 Azerbaijan Championship

8. Belarus. Daniel Yastremsky- Time

The 14-year-old singer was born in Cincinnati, America, and lives and studies in Minsk. Daniel reached the final in Russian competition“Battle of Talents” in 2016, represented Belarus at the children’s “New Wave 2017”.

9. Ireland. Taylor Hines-IOU

Taylor is 14 years old and lives in Clones and has a twin brother, Alex. Taylor Hines has been singing and dancing since an early age. They say about him that he was born to perform. And performing at Junior Eurovision is the fulfillment of his dream.

10. Serbia. Boyana Radovanovic -Svet

Bojana Radovanovic is 13 years old and lives in Belgrade. She has a background in many children's music festivals, where she achieved exceptional results, including becoming a super finalist in the third season of the popular Serbian TV show Pinkove zvezdice. This year Boyana released her first single.

11. Italy. Melissa & Marco -What Is Love

Melissa di Pasca, 10, and Marco Boni, 14, live in different cities. They were united into a duet by the RAI TV channel, which conducts the national selection for Junior Eurovision. By the way, like the Netherlands, Italy also entered a duet of a girl and a boy into the competition for the first time.

Melissa has been studying music at the Riviera Musical school since she was six years old; she not only sings well, but also dances well, and recently began taking piano lessons.

Marco with early childhood He was engaged in dancing, and began to sing much later. But he has already experienced success at various Italian competitions. By the way, Marco does not dream of making a career as a singer; in the future he sees himself as a dermatologist.

12. Australia. Jael- Champion

12-year-old Jael lives in Melbourne. She is the eldest of four children in the family. The girl has been singing on stage since she was four years old, and at this age she wrote her first song. And when she was 9 years old, she was already recording in her father’s studio.

13. Georgia. Tamar Edilashvili-Your Voice

Tamar was born in 2005 in Tbilisi. Study in private school and attends vocal classes at the Central Music School. Started visiting in 2016 music studio Face Dato Porchkhidze - one of the soloists of the first boy band in Georgia “Sakhe”.

Tamar is the winner of the national children's vocal project “Ranina”. The girl announced herself as a bright performer in 2017 on the music show X Factor.

14. Israel. Noam Dadon-Children Like These

13-year-old Noam Dadon started singing at the age of five and continues to this day. Noam repeatedly took part in various television shows and competitions and once managed to bring the audience to tears with his singing.

Like many of his peers, Noam is not averse to playing football. And he also has his own Youtube channel.

15. France. Angelina- Jamais Sans Toi

When Angelina was only five years old, she performed “The Color of the Wind” from the cartoon “Pocahontas” at a charity event, and it changed her life. Since then she has been singing almost always. "Even when brushing his teeth"- says her mother. As a result, she has already sung to victory in the largest French TV show for young talents. I also came to Minsk with the hope of success.

The girl's second passion is dancing.

“The more I sing with my heart, the more people join my songs"- says the girl.

16. Macedonia. Maria Spasovska-Doma

Maria Spasovska is 13 years old, she was born in Skopje, she studies at a music school, where she takes lessons in playing the violin and piano. First time performing at music festival at four years old. She released a CD with children's songs.

Her message to her fans reads: "The most wonderful fairy tale becomes true if you love her with all your heart and soul. I will tell my tale through my song. The dream of representing my country has already come true. Let's enjoy these wonderful Eurovision moments. We have a great show ahead of us and days filled with music and entertainment.”

17. Armenia. L.E.V.O.N - L.E.V.O.N

12-year-old Levon Galstyan was born in Yerevan, then his family moved to Moscow, where the young singer ended up in music academy Igor Krutoy. In 2016 he participated in Russian show"Voice. Children,” ended up in Valery Meladze’s team. Since then he has participated in various competitions, including the children's “New Wave”.

The song for Levon was written by Artem Walter, whose composition has already won Junior Eurovision once - in 2012, this was done by the young Ukrainian Anastasia Petrik with the song “Sky”.

18. Wales. Manv - Perta

With Wales making her Junior Eurovision debut, 14-year-old Manw has already written her name into history. And, by the way, he is very proud of this. Accordingly, for the first time from the stage of the largest children's music show A song will be played in Welsh.

Manw's first public performance was when she was four years old at the Urdd Eisteddfod, an annual festival of literature, music and performing arts in the Welsh language.

Although her main passion singing, Manv is also an avid football player, and she is also good at skiing.

19. Malta. Ela Mangion- Marchin'On

The girl is 12 years old and has been singing for six years. She also composes music herself and takes piano lessons.

Ela has represented Malta on numerous occasions at various international competitions, including the children's New Wave in Russia in 2016, where she took second place, and the Italian show Next Generation in 2017, where she received the title Mini Next Generation.

She won the national selection for Junior Eurovision on her second attempt.

20. Poland. Roxana Wengel- Anyone I Want To Be

Roxana is 13 years old and the winner of the first season of The Voice Kids Poland. In addition to singing, she practiced acrobatics, judo and dancing.

Roxana's talent for singing was discovered almost by accident - at karaoke, where the girl came with her judo friends.

Her first single entitled Żyj (Live) has over 8 million views on YouTube and she has over two hundred thousand subscribers in in social networks. Now Roxanne is working on her debut album.

The winner will be determined by the sum of points of the national jury from each of the participating countries and the voting results on the Junior Eurovision website.

Voting on the website junioreurovision.tv has already begun and will last until 18:00 on November 25. After all contestants have performed, voting will resume for another 15 minutes.

According to the rules, you can choose from three to five artists you like, including a representative of your country.

Next Monday the opening ceremony of Junior Eurovision will take place. As the correspondent of the Minsk-News agency was told in the press service of the Belteleradiocompany, it will be held at the National exhibition center“BelExpo”, and will later be shown on TV and on the official website of the media holding. Now the main work on the project is in full swing under the arches of the Minsk Arena. Just yesterday we finished editing the scene, and today we started rehearsals with the extras. This will allow you to practice concert numbers and prepare the main surprises of the main show. But rehearsals with real participants of Junior Eurovision 2018 will begin on November 20, the day after Euroweek starts in Minsk.

Representatives from 19 countries will come to visit. This is a record number of performers. Albania, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, France, Macedonia, Georgia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Serbia, the Netherlands, Wales (UK), and Ukraine have officially confirmed their participation in the international competition. This is despite the fact that according to the rules of Junior Eurovision, up to 18 countries can take part in the competition (in 2010, when Belarus hosted the forum for the first time, 16 countries competed in it). However, this time the organizers made an exception for Israel as the country that won the adult Eurovision 2017 and officially included it among the participants in the international children's song forum. Ukraine, which had previously announced its refusal to participate in the children's song competition due to financial difficulties, returned to the competition after the application deadline.

The winner of the national competition will represent Belarus qualifying round Daniel Yastremsky with the composition Time. The 14-year-old singer was born in Cincinnati, America, and lives and studies in Minsk. The young performer has already tried his hand at the television show “Ukraine May Talent. Children" and "Children's New Wave". In addition, he graduated music school in piano and studied at the Igor Krutoy Academy.

It is already known that all participants will live in the five-star hotel complex “President Hotel”. From there all the guests will go to the red carpet at the BelExpo National Exhibition Center. And there the participants will be greeted by the hosts of the opening ceremony of Euroweek Denis Dudinsky and Anna Kviloria. The competition itself was entrusted to Evgeniy Perlin, Helena Meraai and Zena. The latter, by the way, stormed the national selection for the competition more than once, participated in popular TV shows, and most importantly, achieved success and recognition. Today she collaborates with composer Viktor Drobysh. Lives and studies in Moscow.

The culmination of the week's fun will be the final of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which, as in 2010, will be held at the largest venue in the country - the Minsk Arena sports and entertainment complex. Over the past week, the construction of the main forum venues has been going on here, because in a few days the first delegations of the participating countries will arrive in Belarus. The technical team of Belteleradiocompany suspended the cable-stayed ceiling structure and installed lighting, sound and LED equipment. As a result, the sports complex turned into “ solar system» Junior Eurovision 2018.

According to the authors’ idea, a single composition will cover the entire space of the core of the Minsk Arena: there will be two round stages (14 and 7 meters in diameter), a bridge between them and long podiums into the hall. Nearby there will be a green room literally “floating in the starry sky”, where participants will be during voting. The arena dome will be decorated with specially designed multi-tiered LED chandeliers. They also promise that an entire city with infrastructure will grow in the areas adjacent to the arena hall.

You can learn about preparations for the main musical event of the year from news releases and the Junior Eurovision 2018 Diaries. Diaries Light up! go to Belarus 1.

Let us remind you that Belarus participates in the international children's competition Eurovision songs since its inception - since 2003. The country has two victories to its credit: in 2005, Ksenia Sitnik won the competition with the song “We Are Together,” and in 2007, Alexey Zhigalkovich took 1st place with the song “With Friends.” In 2017, Helena Meraai took fifth place with the song “I am the Same.” This year Minsk will host the music forum for the second time.