Wiwi Has Landed In Kiev. . .

…and is happily ensconced in the Junior Eurovision press center. Wiwi wants to mention how inappropriate it is for parents to allow their 15-year old daughters to wear hot pants and sequined ‘tops’ in front of 23 million people, but he does not want to criticize anyone. Well, maybe the host. Is this kind of clothing appropriate for a children’s program!?If you just opened that link, you should counter the filth by checking out how adorable Belgium’s Laura Omloop looks in her lederhosen. Such innocence!

Wiwi’s already noticed some big differences between Junior Eurovision and the adult one. First, the contestants generally wear more clothes. Second, it seems much less produced…even with the Ukrainian contestant riding out on a wooden wagon full of hay with accompanying backup vocalists. Third, the contestants don’t seem nervous at all. And that’s despite their parents being complete train wrecks. Producers have actually banned parents from going back stage because they’re likely to upset the kids. (Have you seen a Belarussian pageant mom before? Not cute.) Finally, the contestants actually seem to like each other. There’s this room called Club Europe where they all go to hang out between rehearsals. It’s seriously Babel up in there: Serbian, Russian, Dutch and English (courtesy of Beyonce who is constantly played on the radio. She’s conquering Europe, that one!)

Wiwi is seriously impressed with his fellow Eurovision journalists. Everyone knows who Verka Serduchka is and several folks have Alexander Rybak ringtones on their phone. I’m super serial serious! They’re also a hard-working bunch. A Maltese journalist (who you might remember from Sounds Like Teen Spirit) is sitting next to Wiwi and he’s all like, ‘I can’t go to dinner. I have a midnight deadline.’ Wiwi kind of envies how Eurovision is big time journalism in the rest of Europe. I may move to Malta! Holla back Valletta!

Anyway, Wiwi is going back to the hotel (it sells mink and chinchilla furs — if only he had more more hryvnia). He needs to get some sleep ahead of Saturday’s finale! But check out his press pass above. Totes official, right?

xoxo, Wiwi