Today see’s the deadline for registration participation at this year’s Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Minsk. We are still awaiting some confirmations, so what is the state of play?

Wales will be debuting, France will be returning and Cyprus will sadly be withdrawing from the Contest.

The countries continuing their participation after Tbilisi are: Armenia, Belarus (Host Country), Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia and Serbia.

Russia will be defending their title after winning in Tbilisi. Polina Bogusevich sang “Wings” and achieved a victory with 188 points – just 3 points ahead of Grigol Kipshidze from Georgia, the Host Country in 2017.

Video: YouTube/EBU

Several of last year’s participating countries have yet to reveal if they will be once again attending the Contest this year. Will Albania, Australia, Macedonia and the Ukraine participate? Only time will tell, but do look out for an article from us later this evening to see the status of each nation as things stand.

Author: Richard Taylor

Source: Eurovision Ireland