As the world mourns the victims of the November 13 Paris Attacks, officials at Bulgaria’s BNT and the European Broadcasting Union have decided to postpone the Junior Eurovision 2015 Opening Ceremony. Announcing the news on Facebook, BNT wrote that the move “is an expression of sympathy for the tragedy in Paris and three days of mourning declared in France.”

“Bulgarian National Television expresses its deep condolences and support in this hard moment for the people of France,” Viara Ankova, BNT’s general director, said in the statement, which you can also read here. “Love and tolerance between people are the values the Eurovision Song Contest is based on. These are also the values which unite all public broadcasters in Europe.”

The ceremony will be re-scheduled for later in the week — after France’s three days of mourning, and presumably after all of the contestants have had the opportunity to rehearse.

Junior Eurovision 2015: Running Order Draw

The running order draw was originally scheduled to take place after the contestants walked the red carpet inside the National Palace of Culture. The shifting circumstances have necessitated a slight tweak to that.

“The running order draw will still take place tomorrow [Sunday], so that the production team can begin working on the show,” Vladislav Yakovlev, Executive Supervisor of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, said. “This will occur separately from the opening ceremony.”

The running order will be broadcast in a news report on BNT tomorrow evening and we’ll publish them here.

As for now, you can enjoy some coverage from last year’s Opening Ceremony below.

 

Follow all of our Junior Eurovision news here

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Sarah Boucher
8 years ago

UPDATE: JESC 2015 Has Been Cancelled

DenizNL
DenizNL
8 years ago

@James – thanks Initially where I was going for (before I knew about the 3 days of mourn), I felt like you can not get over such an event happening in Paris in even a week. And because in a week JESC will be there, they should have at least changed the date for JESC to a later date (because you know people think about it a lot). But because the date of JESC hadn’t changed and openingceremony did, my comcern was more about the little time they have for everything. And that mourning can still happen in an event… Read more »

Levi21
Levi21
8 years ago

I agree with that except one thing. Thr opening crremony’ biggest event is the running order draw. And now they are presenting it in a morning show only? They must’ve made for it another event. Kids were really happy when they pulled out the cakes in 2013 for example, so I will miss it.

James
James
8 years ago

@Hypocrite I agree, I am disappointed that as horrible and tragic as the events in Paris are, from the point of view of North America (where I am), the Lebanon attacks have are basically non-existent. They got little to no coverage and the media have definitely skewed it to portray lives lost in France as far more important than lives lost in Lebanon. I am deeply hurt for Paris as I have traveled there and have friends there, but I also have a good friend from Lebanon and am sad that the plight and tragedy there has been more or… Read more »

Hypocrite
Hypocrite
8 years ago

Your empathy was so hypocrite and double standard towards what you called “empathy and humanity” meanwhile at middle east civilians was bombed and slaughtered everydays, refugees of Rohingya at Burma, suicidal bomb at Lebanon, forest fire at the largest forest in the world at Sumatra and Borneo and no one cares. And does’nt it looks suspicious why a country with one of the best security in the world like France can be attacked so easily. Looks like a conspiration for another “peace” project for me to exploit oil from a countries that “suspected” as a center of ISIS for USA

James
James
8 years ago

@DenizNL Thank you, I am trying to be respectful of your opinion. However you should understand that your (and others) comments were inflammatory and as this is such a recent event, many people are still upset. You can’t blame someone for calling you an idiot and expressing their opinion on you, when you made comments calling the decision “dumb” – that was your exact wording, not “i just don’t agree”. You are entitled to disagree with it and express it and saying “i don’t really agree” is OK. But calling a decision to postpone an event due to a serious… Read more »

DenizNL
DenizNL
8 years ago

@George and actually most people here, but mostly George. Well, I already said I did understand it now that someone explained the 3 days of mourn to me (because I didn’t know that was going on at all). But besides that, you have absolutely no right to call us idiots for just expressing about what we think and what I thought, because I changed my opinion there.(saying that for the 3rd time). @James I already explained it actually, but I am at least happy you are talking in a nice way, unlike our friend george :/. I didn’t call the… Read more »

George
8 years ago

@DenizNL & jr esc nl

Hope the nl on your usernames stands for Naive Lame*sses cause I don’t believe Dutch people can be sooo idiot. Can they?

@Erin
”it’s a direct assault, a declaration of an all-out war against France, Western Civilization and basic civil liberties.”
Thank You. You just revived my faith in humanity.This is the most inclusive, spot on phrase, to describe what the masscre happened in Paris, means.

James
James
8 years ago

@jr esc nl
People need to understand what has happened and it is an important part of moving on. I agree sometimes the media can go too far in “sensationalizing” particularly here in North America, and sometimes the reports can become intrusive and disrespectful. But they should still be reporting on the updated news, the vigils, the countries showing solidarity etc, these things can hardly be ignored.

James
James
8 years ago

@DenizNL, Let’s just be clear you are complaining about people mocking your opinion yet your opinion was the people who made this decision are dumb and we’ve had 2 days to get over it by then… @jrescnl It doesn’t matter if France are not in JESC, they are a part of Europe and many many people in countries like Bulgaria have friends/relatives etc in Paris. They wish to show their respect and solidarity to these people . And as Robyn said, people are not going to feel like celebrating. The children participating probably don’t want to walk a red carpet… Read more »

jr esc nl
jr esc nl
8 years ago

Zack, wow talking about being judgemental! I was also sad when i heard the news, heck i thought about it the whole day. With that being said i don’t see the point of another day with only news of tragedy and sadness…

DenizNL
DenizNL
8 years ago

@Zack
Uhm hello, I already explained what I meant with my comment. No need to bring us down.

And because D explained the situation better (with the 3 days of mourn and stuff) I agree that postponing is a better option.

Jeez, that even opinions can’t be said anymore wothout people constantly mocking it.

Well, still I am sorry for all families and for the people that didn’t make it.

Zack
Zack
8 years ago

Well stated Mario! Nothing else needs to be said to the first three commenters; their comments speak enough.

cheesecake
cheesecake
8 years ago

Well done. Celebrating doesn’t seem right at the moment.

D
D
8 years ago

They’re postponing the opening ceremony because it’s a day of mourning in Bulgaria (in respect to France) and BNT (a government-funded broadcaster) isn’t legally allowed to broadcast any entertainment shows during this period of time. This isn’t just some decision bigwigs at BNT decided, they literally aren’t allowed to broadcast the opening ceremony and if they didn’t postpone it none of us would be allowed to watch it, so they’re doing you all a favour.

Quentin
Quentin
8 years ago

It’s very nice from Bulgaria to respect what’s going on in Paris.
Thank you.
xoxoxo from France.

Erin
Erin
8 years ago

I would have gone further than ‘an expression of sympathy’ to ‘an expression of SOLIDARITY’…some people are obviously living in denial and are unable to grasp the severity and the repercussions of Yesterday’s coordinated Kamikaze attacks in Paris perpetrated by home-grown, fake ‘refugees’ and foreign terrorists of a specific persuasion. This isn’t a human error tragedy or a natural catastrophe…it’s a direct assault, a declaration of an all-out war against France, Western Civilization and basic civil liberties.

DenizNL
DenizNL
8 years ago

@Mario=legend & The commenter.

I don’t blame them for respecting the situation in Paris. I do understand them. But most of us already showed some respect and I feel like 2 days after it happend, the openingceremony could just go on.

The week of Junior Eurovion is already hectic and buzy and tweaking things in a week where everything needs to be done and sorted out for a big show, it is handy to not change that much. And that was what I meant.

paco
8 years ago

Por que? Pero que clase de principios teneis por el dolor de nuestros hermanos Franceses, hay que dar ejemplo a las nuevas generaciones.Que pasa no lo podeis entender DOLOR

The Commenter
The Commenter
8 years ago

Agreeing win Mario=Legend. We need to respect the inhumane act from Friday Night. Thoughts with Paris <3

Mario = Legend
Mario = Legend
8 years ago

Yeah it’s a dumb choice to respect the deaths of 129 innocent people and the serious injury of 350 others. You know, sometimes things have a higher priority than a song contest? Disappointed with the comments below me.

jr esc nl
jr esc nl
8 years ago

agree, with the comments underneath me, also france doesn’t even compete in jesc.

DenizNL
DenizNL
8 years ago

Oh.. I actually don’t like that. I am very sad about what happend too, but tweaking everything because of what happend somewhere else is kind of a dumb.choice.