Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 | |
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Fun In The Sun | |
Dates | |
Final | 22 November 2008 |
Host | |
Venue | Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Centre, Limassol, Cyprus |
Presenter(s) |
Alex Michael Sophia Paraskeva |
Director | Klitos Klitou |
Executive supervisor | |
Executive producer | Munro Forbes |
Host broadcaster | Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) |
Opening act | Dance act featuring Yiorgos Ioannides and Mariam Venizelou. |
Interval act | Dima Bilan, Evridiki & Dimitris Korgialas, all JESC 2008 participants singing "Hand in Hand" |
Participants | |
Number of entries | 15 |
Debuting countries | None |
Returning countries | None |
Withdrawing countries | |
Vote | |
Voting system | Citizens of each participating country vote by telephone and SMS message, which counts for 50%. Each country's 10 favourites are awarded 1 to 8, 10 and 12 points based on the number of votes. Results 1–5 are automatically displayed on-screen, then each country announces 6–8, 10 and 12 points. A jury in each country also has a 50% say in the outcome. |
Nul points | All countries get 12 points from start |
Winning song |
Georgia "Bzz.." |
Junior Eurovision Song Contest: Lemesos 2008 | ||||
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Compilation album by Junior Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
Released | 10 October 2008 | |||
Genre | Pop | |||
Length |
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Label | Universal | |||
Junior Eurovision Song Contest chronology | ||||
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The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2008 was the sixth Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which is the world's largest song contest for children. It was held at the "Spyros Kyprianou" Athletic Centre in Lemesos, Cyprus and hosted by Alex Michael and Sophia Paraskeva. It was won by the Georgian trio Bzikebi, with the song "Bzz..". This is the first song to win any Eurovision Song Contest in an imaginary language. Ukraine took 2nd place and Lithuania finished 3rd. Bzikebi also became the first group act to win Junior Eurovision.
The theme of the event was "Fun in the Sun", despite the fact that there were thunderstorms in Lemesos the day of the contest. The stage, which was designed by George Papadopoulos, was nominated for the prestigious international "Live Design Excellence Awards". The design is an abstract composition and consists of a round stage representing the island of Cyprus, real water along the front of the stage, two jetties, the waves breaking and moving away from the island and five sailing boats with oars.
For the contest, various changes to the rules were made. One was that adults could assist children to write the songs submitted to their national broadcaster; previously only children could write the songs, with no assistance from adults. Another change was only six people could be on stage during a performance, instead of eight. The most significant change, however, was only half of the vote was decided by the tele-voters. Before the 2008 contest tele-voters completely decided the whole result. The other half of the result was decided by a jury of adults and children.
The Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Center (Greek: Αθλητικό Κέντρο "Σπύρος Κυπριανού"), also known as Palais des sports, is the biggest and the most imposing multi dynamic indoor athletic arena in Cyprus. It is named after the late president of Cyprus Spyros Kyprianou. This project was conducted by the Cyprus Sports Organisation and was constructed north of the city of Limassol near Kato Polemidia and by the side of Limassol - Troodos road. Construction of the project began in late 2002 and was completed at the end of 2005 at a total cost of approximately CY£8.5 million.