Some sad news for fans of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest today as the official JESC EBU Twitter feed seemingly confirmed two withdrawals for the contest in Bulgaria.
Sweden (who will host the main Eurovision in 2016) and Cyprus both seem unlikely to participate in the 2015 contest, with SVT’s children programming going through restructuring and the Cypriot broadcaster CyBC lacking the funding to enter both contests.
@orestmahlay There has been some restructuring at the children’s channel, so for this year is seems like they can’t, but we’re not giving up
— Junior Eurovision (@JuniorESCPress) June 29, 2015
Unfortunately they don’t have the budget to particpate this year but there are some other options we’re going to try https://t.co/qSPgstjbsj
— Junior Eurovision (@JuniorESCPress) June 29, 2015
The current participant total for 2015 stands at 10, including hosts Bulgaria, returning Albania and a first ever entry from Ireland. 16 countries participated in the Maltese hosting of Junior Eurovision in 2014.
Would you be sad to see Sweden and Cyprus go? Share your thoughts below or join the discussion on our forum!