The official Junior Eurovision website said that they would release the official list of competitors in September, after some broadcasters returned from summer break. Well the broadcasters are back in the office, but unfortunately two have revealed that they will not vie for the trophy in Malta. We are sad to report that FYR Macedonia and Portugal will not be on the sunny island this November.
Macedonian Melancholy
The country debuted in the contest in 2003, the first edition, and competed every year until 2012. They withdrew that year because of issues with the voting system and financial problems. However, they returned last year with the calypso-influenced “Ohrid i muzika” (Ohrid and Music), sung by thirteen-year-old Barbara Popovic. Barbara, who had some fierce dance moves, earned 19 points (12 of which were given by the supervisors to prevent nil points from occuring), coming in last place. Our hearts sank, as we loved this song. Macedonia has reportedly been considering to withdraw since then. Today tabloid Dnevnik reported that the bad result is not the sole reason for Macedonia to withdraw — they also wish to focus on new programming.
Portuguese Problems
On July 29th rumours began to emerge that the two-time participant would try to come back to the contest. Unfortunately, the director of RTP confirmed that this was only a story, and the country would not return after all. Apparently some bloggers got a bit too excited when reporting the rumour at the time, as many took it as fact. The Iberian country last participated in 2007, when Jorge Leiria placed 16th (second from last) with the song “Só quero é cantar” (All I Want Is To Sing).
We are still waiting to hear from Azerbaijan, Moldova, and San Marino about their Junior Eurovision intentions. Azerbaijan will most likely compete, as will Moldova. It is believed that San Marino will also withdraw, however, since the broadcaster was simply testing the waters for Italy, who is set to debut in this edition. However, we still await for any more surprise debuts, especially after hearing news of Montenegro’s debut.
You can see all of our Junior Eurovision 2014 coverage by clicking here.
I doubt bloggers in Portugal care about jESC.!!
Good news about the withdraw of FYR Macedonia since their entries are extremely bad.
I hope San Marino doesn’t withdraw, especially now that Italy is making a debut. I wish more Western countries were back eg Spain, France, UK
Well F.Y.R of Macedonia is not a loss it’s relief from all the horrible songs they have brought us over the years
Is it me, or does the Belarusian entry “Sokol”, which I love, sound a bit like “Only Teardrops”. Sorry, forgot to put this on my previous comment and yes, (@MTD) that is awful what they said.
On one Greek site (you will probably know it) this was stated:
“This means that this year we will not be “honoured” to experience another trash entry with a voiceless and untalented kid from the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.”
I mean, how low one can go in order to write these kind of things? Oh, Greeks and their problems.
Nevertheless, I thought that JESC will be a smash this year, but somehow, it won’t be. Still, I hope.
It’s depressing how this contest turned out. I love this contest and others do also but to me, countries, like my own (UK) have lost interest. However this year has nearly as many competitants than when they show was introduced. I would like to see Albania again, and for Azerbaijan, Moldova and San Marino, of course! Plus, if Scotland is independent soon, they’ll début no time soon (if there is no financial difficulty)
@An absolute legend says, my home country (Albania) was supposed to only withdraw for one year, so hopefully we’ll return! And it doesn’t surprise me that Macedonia and Portugal are withdrawing. I knew that either Portugal or Italy would be the one to give us false hope this year!
Albania NEEDS to return to redeem itself from 2012! And hopefully this Hungary rumour has something behind it! Macedonia in 2011 and 2013 was my least favourite so I’m not too bothered. Portugal did really surprise me due to its financial situation so this isn’t a shock… just a shame 🙁 Still I can tell its going to be the best JESC ever!
i never believed portugal was coming back. there was never an official response until today so i didn’t understand the hype. as for macedonia, that’s sad. i really like barbara’s song. it’s a shame they always get low scores 🙁
Yeah, someone at OGAE Portugal CLAIMED that Portugal was coming back, but clearly they had their facts wrong. Then a bunch of other blogs repeated the rumour, so, John, your “responsible” wasn’t exactly “responsible”, was he?
Bloggers get excited in Portugal? One responsible from RTP said that Portugal will take part but now they have quited. There’s nothing here about bloggers getting excited. You try so hard to be sassy but…not everyone can achieve that 😉