JESC 2017

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017 will be the fifteenth annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest, organised by the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It was confirmed in February 2017 that the event is scheduled to take place on 26 November 2017 at the Tbilisi Sports Palace, in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi. This will be the fourth time that the contest was hosted by the previous year's winning country. The visual design and contest slogan, "Shine Bright", was revealed in May 2017.

As of 28 May 2017, the following countries have confirmed their provisional interest to participate.

The following list of countries participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016, although no announcements have been published so far on whether they will continue to participate in the 2017 contest.

                                                                Albania

                                                                Italy

                                                                Macedonia

                                                                Serbia

Is this the Serbian artist?

Although Serbia has not stated their interest to participate in Eurovision 2018, Aleksandra Radović, one of the most famous artists in Serbia and the former Yugoslavia, is already interested in representing Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Portugal next year. This comes after she rejected an offer from Serbian National Broadcaster, RTS, this year.

According to the Serbian internet portal Bulevar.b92.net, Aleksandra Radović refused to represent Serbia in Kyiv this year because she already had planned important arrangements right before Eurovision. Furthermore, Aleksandra expressed her concern about the fact, that the contest has changed a lot and that the focus is no longer on songs and music, but on other things. Other Serbian medias have been speculating that the singer was demanding too much money from RTS to represent Serbia, and that it was the real reason why the national broadcaster offered Tijana Bogićević to travel to Ukraine’s capital instead.

Aleksandra Radović

It is interesting, that Tijana, according to Bulevar.b92.net, only was the fourth choice for Serbia this year. Jelena Tomašević, who represented Serbia with Oro on home soil in 2008, refused the offer because she was “not ready to venture into all that again.” Finally, Ivana Peters, who composed Serbia’s entry Goodbye (Shelter) last year, was offered to write and perform her own song, but she declined because of the health issues, that prevent her from flying. She was interested though in composing the Serbian entry this year.

However despite her concerns, Aleksandra Radović seems to be ready to wave Serbia’s flag in Portugal. When asked about her possible participation in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2018 she answered to the Serbian newspaper Kurir that if certain conditions are met, she would be ready.

"Why not? Everyone would like to represent their own country at Eurovision, but there must be worked on some conditions regarding the organisation. I couldn’t accept the offer this year because I was busy with my concerts."

Aleksandra Radović is 42 years-old. She graduated from the Academy of Music in Novi Sad. Aleksandra owns a music school, where she works as a singing teacher. Until now she has released four studio albums – her last album Carstvo (Empire) was released in December last year.

Eurovision 2018

The Eurovision Song Contest 2018 will be the 63rd edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It will take place for the first time in Portugal, following the country's first victory at the 2017 contest in Kiev with the song "Amar pelos dois", performed by Salvador Sobral. The contest will comprise two semi-finals and a final scheduled to be held in May 2018.

Russia is expected to return after withdrawing from the 2017 edition, following the ban of their representative Yulia Samoylova from entering Ukraine. As of 26 May 2017, seventeen countries have confirmed their intention to participate in the contest.

Location

The contest is scheduled to take place in Portugal, following the country's victory at the 2017 edition with the song "Amar pelos dois", performed by Salvador Sobral. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU)'s Executive Supervisor for the Eurovision Song Contest, Jon Ola Sand, issued the hosting invitation to Portuguese public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) during the winner's press conference, and it is expected that a bidding phase in order to select the host city and venue will be carried out similarly to the previous contests. The dates for the contest are yet to be determined, although it is expected to be held in May 2018.

Bidding phase

A Portuguese Eurovision website reported on the day of the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 Grand Final that RTP would accept the challenge of organising the 2018 edition in case of victory. The following day, this intention was further validated by the broadcaster's director-general, Nuno Artur Silva, who mentioned the MEO Arena in Lisbon as a likely venue to host the contest. On 15 May 2017, RTP appeared to have confirmed Lisbon as the host city, but clarified the following day that no final decision had yet been made regarding both the host city and the venue.

A bidding process is expected to be launched within a few weeks after the 2017 contest. Besides Lisbon, other cities have signaled their interest in hosting the 2018 contest: Guimarães, Gondomar, Faro and Santa Maria da Feira. The mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira, declared he would not be interested in "spending millions of euros" to host the contest.