Junior Eurovision in Limassol tonight

THE 6th Junior Eurovision Song Contest will take place at Spyros Kyprianou Stadium, also known as Palais des Sports, in Polemidia tonight. The event will be broadcast live on CyBC1 at 9.15pm as well as throughout Europe and Australia.

Young contestants from 15 countries will be performing at the contest, which will also feature appearances by Russian Eurovision 2008 winner Dima Bilan, Evridiki and Dimitris Korgialas. The order of appearance will be Romania, Armenia, Belarus, Russia, Greece, Georgia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Serbia, Malta, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Lithuania, FYROM and Cyprus.

Cyprus will be represented by 11-year-old Elena Mannouri and 10-year-old Charis Savva with ‘Yioupi Yia!’. The two singers met four years ago at singing lessons in Larnaca and have participated in children’s music contests in the past. Their vocal coach is Riana Athanasiou and the choreographer is Antigoni Tasouri. Dancing alongside the girls will be Pantelina Charalambous, Tereza Koshi, Elena Zacharia Avraam and Christia Hericleous.

The presenters will be Sofia Paraskeva, a journalist and TV presenter, and Alex Michael, a model, actor and TV presenter. This year’s song contest will be themed around the elements of ‘Sun and Sea’.

CyBC, which is organising the event, urged ticket-holders to arrive at Spyros Kyprianou Stadium at least one and a half hours before the contest starts. Organisers also warned that parking at the stadium is limited and people planning to park there should arrive early. The stadium can host up to 6,255 viewers, including 42 wheelchair-users.

Televoting for UNICEF

ALL net profits from the televoting will be donated to UNICEF, one of this year’s JESC co-organisers. UNICEF representatives, who came to Limassol for JESC, as well as UNICEF goodwill ambassador Whoopi Goldberg through a televised message, urged the public to participate in the televoting to support UNICEF.

“The televoting is important as net profits from the calls will be given directly to the UNICEF fund, contributing to present efforts for the provision of clean water to children allover the world,” said Dutch goodwill ambassador Sipke Jan Bousema at a press conference in Limassol.

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