The health and safety of Junior Eurovision acts always comes first. That’s the important message that the European Broadcasting Union has sent in a statement confirming that the U.K.’s Freya Skye won’t perform in Saturday night’s dress rehearsal. This rehearsal serves as the jury final. In a statement sent to members of the press corps, the EBU said:
“For medical reasons UK artist Freya Skye will not perform in the 2nd Dress Rehearsal of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday 10 December. A recording of her performance from the 1st Dress Rehearsal held earlier in the day will be used instead. The health and well-being of all participants is always our top priority. All the Junior Eurovision family send her their best wishes and are looking forward to Freya returning to sing in the live show on Sunday 11 December.”
?? “For medical reasons Freya did not sing live in this rehearsal and playback was used.”
— wiwibloggs (@wiwibloggs) December 9, 2022
? Hoping the U.K.’s Junior Eurovision star gets well soon so she can show off her killer vocals on Sunday ??#jesc2022 #junioreurovision pic.twitter.com/mYCjPcFi3Z
As you’ll recall, online voting opened on Friday evening. Because Freya was unable to sing live during an earlier rehearsal because of her health issue, her recap clip used playback audio.
Our team watched her in Yerevan during the Saturday afternoon rehearsal. Although she only sang the first part of the song live, her choreography and charisma were ON POINT. She is ready to nail the performance as soon as her health improves.
The last line of the EBU statement gives us hope that she’ll be able to take the stage and show off her full talents on Sunday.
sorrry amaze
wow freya is amae
they should consider live-on-tape if more kids get sick UNLESS they move the contest to September or April.
If the ukranian girl would compete with playback… You wouldn’t be sooooo nice. Hypocrisy.
Lol my guy you made up a situation and got mad at it. Try to stay positive, I think that we all want the kids to be healthy
Lying. It happened with other artists too see Iceland 2021 when they had to self-isolate and came 4th.
The Irish girl is also very sick
She looked and sounded fine at the most recent conference when they had contestants answer questions from the audience.
Por girl. I hope she can perform tomorrow.
OH NO… poor girl!! 🙁
Freya get well soon!!! How hard could be a contest for children… I am sure that Freya puts herself under pressure because she is representing her own country and this is the moment of her life.
I support JESC but my heart breaks when I think how hard this could be for a kid who is ill while the others are enjoying.
Go Freya! Europe loves you!
You really think it’s unfair? She will probably be penalized ny juries… it’s sad when you know she was a great contender for the win. I think it will be for Armenia again this year.
France won with playback in 2020 though. It can also work in your favor.
And here we go again…he can’t prevent himself…
I have no idea what you mean. Just stating a fact xD
Facts are backed by evidence and clearly, Valentina was a capable singer who can sing live.
This again? It’s been two years, move on.
How tf is penalising someone because they have a sore throat fair? sometimes it feels like ye want her to do bad, give her a break.
She has a sore throat and clearly its impacting her to the point she can’t even perform. Idk why you’re being so cruel about a child not being able to sing.
So are the juries gonna vote based on playback? That is unfair to both Freya and to other contestants. It is unfair to Freya because she might lose a lot of points because of the playback, as she could be very good live, but we would never know. It is also unfair to other contestants, because Freya’s performance will sound perfect, and she might get an advantage. Anyways, I wish her a speedy recovery. I agree with some points below, that Junior Eurovision should be more of a festival than a contest. But since it is still a contest, competition,… Read more »
Apparently the clip they showed in the jury show didn’t use playback. I just hope the jury take into account her illness when they vote.
It says she performed earlier live and theyll be basing their judgement on that performance. If anything, its unfortunate for her because she’s singing with a sore throat which will probably affect where she places.
Yeah, I agree. If they showed the live performance where she is sick, then she is unfortunate. I just hope juries can understand how her actual voice would be without a sore throat
Her first rehearsal had her singing live so that was the footage shown in the jury rehearsal.
I understand. I would hate it so much for the adult contest, but for children, it’s okay. The best thing that could happen to this show is to drop the contest aspect completely, just make it a festival. They say the health of the child always come first… if this was actually true, they would not be put through so much pressure, stress and scrutiny. They obviously only mean physical health, not mental health.
Hell no. Junior Eurovision is already a festival of friendship among the children because the atmosphere here is more friendly than on an adult one. But the contest is a contest. It teaches children to work hard, very hard, to achieve something. They should know that life itself is not always as… simple as you want it to be.
They can learn that in many other ways. If their life depends on a song contest, something is very wrong.
Yes, make it a festival where the audience awards a few prizes like “favorite song”, “favorite staging”, “favorite outfit”, “most charismatic”.
There should she be one winner for each category and no ranking of the other contestants so there’s no last or bottom places, yet there are a few rewards for the 1-4 who stand out and wow the audience.
They could go back to the old system. For the first ten or fifteen years of the junior contest, the winner is not what decided. To help avoid pressure on the children. That was then abandoned for whatever reason.
maybe they should consider live on tapes for junior eurovision as well.
No, because it would be too disappointing to make a child drop out at the last minute.
Dadi Freyr seemed to take it rather well
He is a frickin’ grown-up!
I hope UK doesn’t get penalized horribly for it, but I do appreciate that they’re all being transparent. Better that than have people speculate about if playback was used.
You wouldn’t say the same if it was Ukraine!
What about Ukraine?
Hope she’s good to sing tomorrow, one of my fav songs in this edition. Anyway, I don’t think they should use the 1st rehearsal footage, instead of the playback one, which, of course, it’s unfair to the other participants.
Okey, I’ve read they have cut out the playback from the video, only remaining Freya’s voice. I was the fairest decision. Though it would have been better the UER used the first rehearsals when Freya could actually sing.
Oh nooooo… she’s my favourite. Wish a speedy recovery. Hope to see her tmr…