During the Online Press Conference earlier in the week that Jon Ola Sand participated in, the subject about possible semi finals at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and a new upper limit of number of participating countries was brought up. This is what he had to say:

“It could happen if there is sufficient interest from countries to participate. We see that the popularity is growing, at some point we might consider to do that. I seriously believe that the interest will be stronger in the years to come.

We will evaluate after this year to see if this is a good amount (20) or we should go back to 18. When it comes to expanding it to 26 we would have a much longer show, and for most of the broadcaster it would be difficult to schedule. It would be hard to schedule a show that is exceeding 2 hours.

There are  pros and cons, we are really discussing this, if the interest is growing we should be one way or another be able to harvest this. “

It is important to remember that back in Lisbon, in May, Jon Ola Sand stressed in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest Press Conference that the upper limit would always be 18 participating nations. But why do we have 20 in Minsk I hear you all ask? This will be down to discussions between the  Reference Group and the Belarusian broadcaster to see if the extra delegations could be accommodated within the broadcast or not.

Author: Richard Taylor

Source: Eurovoix