Word: childrene
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...Last year, Georgia stormed to victory with three children singing in an imaginary bee language. Eager to defend its title, Georgia put this year's act through four months of training and arrived in Kiev with an entourage of 21 people, including two vocal coaches, a stage producer, a choreographer and a psychologist. Maia Baratashvili, head of Georgia's delegation, sees Junior Eurovision not as a mere variety show, but as a glimpse into the region's collective psyche. "The West is leading today, so the countries of the former Soviet Union want to see themselves as a part...
...songs may be juvenile, but those yodels translate into big business. In Belgium, where nearly 1,000 children competed for the national title this year, the broadcaster VRT selected 12 finalists and aired the competition in primetime over four weeks. (Think American Idol for the pre-pubescent set.) The September finale earned a 30% audience share for the night in Belgium, and the CD compilation of the finalists' performances - along with karaoke versions - went platinum. (See Eurovision's most memorable moments...
...former Soviet bloc countries, the children take Junior Eurovision seriously. Very seriously. Eastern European nations have won four out of the past five competitions, which isn't particularly hard when the vast majority of the performers come from that part of the world. Steve De Coninck-De Boeck, the founder of Belgium's Junior Eurovision program, believes the show is a barometer of the east's promise. "A lot of people don't see the evolution in Eastern Europe," he says. "When you're within Junior Eurovision, you see it every year. Their self-confidence is growing. They're becoming...
...symbolism, too. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko banned all public gatherings for several weeks, supposedly to slow the spread of swine flu. But when it came to Junior Eurovision, she decided that the show had to go on - if only so she could be photographed with the children ahead of January's presidential election. During the final on Saturday night, Tymoshenko took to the stage to thank all of the children for putting on "a beautiful festival in Ukraine." Not to be outdone, her rival, current President Viktor Yushchenko, delivered his own message from the opposite side...
...Isabel of Spain won with her ode to materialism called, I'd Rather Be Dead Than Plain, French broadcasters dismissed the show as "vulgar" and withdrew from all future contests. In 2006, Denmark and Norway followed suit, claiming that the high-profile event puts too much pressure on young children. With that in mind, the producers of the competition have taken steps to let children be children - and slow their maturation into the scantily clad stars common in the adult version of Eurovision. This year's delegate handbook discouraged children from revealing their midriffs or wearing "mini-skirts or netted...