Last year, even before Junior Eurovision 2017, it was announced that Belarus will be hosting the contest this year. Instead of the winning nation given first choice to accept or reject the opportunity to host, the EBU decided to open up the bids earlier and choose Belarus as the host nation in order to give the broadcaster and host city more time to prepare for the event.
It’s been a while since that announcement, but now we have more news on the contest. We know that the contest will take place on the 25th of November, at the Minsk Arena in Belarus! The Minsk Arena is the largest arena for cultural and sport events in Belarus, and holds 15,000 spectators. It’s held concerts of international acts such as Shakira, Jennifer Lopez and Depeche Mode.
The other piece of exciting Junior Eurovision news is that we now have a slogan for this year’s contest! The slogan that broadcaster BTRC landed on is #LightUp, which is complimented by the creative logo. The logo is a design based around a morning star made up of vertically inverted soundwaves, bringing in both the Light Up element as well as the musical nature of the contest.
Head of Live Events at the EBU Jon Ola Sand said, ‘We are pleased to be working with BTRC this year and we have full confidence that they will host a great show in November. This will be the 16th edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and we’re sure that this year’s competition will be once again a great way for children to showcase their musical talent.’
Belarus is one of the most successful Junior Eurovision nations, having won twice and also finishing in the top 5 no less than 9 times. The nation is also one of very few who have consistently participated in every edition of the contest, and as such much deserving of the hosting duties!
