After the disappointment that was Bulgaria and Cyprus withdrawing from this year’s Junior Eurovision Song Contest, we are faced with yet another surprise withdrawal. The Ukrainian broadcaster has announced that Ukraine will not be participating at this year’s contest which will be held in Minsk, Belarus.
Financial difficulties have been stated as the reason why the nation won’t participate this year, and unfortunately it will be the first time since the nation debuted in 2006 that they won’t be present at the contest. The nation has previously won the contest, and has hosted the competition twice and as such their presence will be missed.
Although we will be missing a fair few of the more consistent nations, we are still excited to see that France will be returning to Junior Eurovision after a 14 year absence, and Wales will be debuting independently this year.
So far 13 nations have confirmed, however there are still a few more nations yet to confirm their participation, including Albania, Australia and FYR Macedonia.