Junior Eurovision 2019: Poland confirmed as the host country ; TVP to hold a bidding process for the host city
It has been confirmed that Poland will be the host country of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019.
Poland was crowned winner of the 16th edition of Junior Eurovision just a couple of weeks before in Minsk, with Roksana Węgiel and her entry Anyone I Want to Be. Right away after Roksana’s victory ,Jacek Kurski, CEO of the Polish national broadcaster, TVP, expressed the country’s interest in hosting Junior Eurovision 2019. Today it has been confirmed that Polish broadcaster TVP have taken on hosting responsibilities and the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019 will take place in Poland. The host city and venue are yet to be confirmed however this is the first time that Poland have hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
EBU’s Executive Supervisor of Jumior Eurovision, Jon Ola Sand stated:
We are delighted to be able to announce Poland as the host of the upcoming event, and TVP as the official broadcaster of the Eurovision Junior 2019. On this occasion, I again wanted to congratulate Roksan Węgiel on her spectacular victory in this year’s competition. It’s always exciting when the contest goes to the state that makes its debut as a host. We look forward to the vision that Telewizja Polska will present when organizing this event!
Jacek Kurski , CEO of TVP said :
We are prepared organisationally, but also creatively and I am convinced that Junior Eurovision in 2019 will be remembered for years – just like the amazing performance of Roksana Węgiel , which will surely go down in the history of the competition. However, from today we do not look at the past, we focus only on hard work, to dazzle the audience in 2019 exactly as Roxana did in Minsk. Telewizja Polska is a team of great, creative people who love new challenges, and this is one of the most interesting things they have ever faced
TVP TO HOLD A BIDDING RACE FOR THE HOST CITY
The Head of TVP has stated that the broadcaster is to hold a bidding process in order to select the host city of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019. According to Jacek Kurski, the broadcaster will seek for the city that creates the best bid for the competition and can live up to the high demands of such an event.
According a TVP report cities that are likely to bid for the competition include or have already expressed interest in hosting the contest are Katowice, Krakow (Tauron Arena) , Gliwice (Gliwice Arena) , Szczecin and Gdansk (Ergo Arena). Of the five cities listed Gliwice’s MP has already stated that he wishes to see the competitin hosted in the city, the remaining four cities have not yet made a public statement. According to the current survey results from 1.12 ( published on the Eurovision Journal ), as many as 44.83% are opting for Kraków , 16.95% for Gdańsk / Sopot , and 15,54% for Łódź . Gliwice have only 5.8% of support, although it was the city that was the first to express JESC’s wish to do so through the words of PiS deputy Jarosław Gonciarz
The EBU opted for the winners of the 2018 contest, Poland to host, over interest that also came from 2011 hosts Armenia as well as Kazakhstan who made their debut in the contest in 2018. This will be the 6th time the host country will be previous year’s winner. So far the countries that have confirmed a 2019 participation are Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, The Netherlands, Russia and of course the host country Poland.
Lets remember Poland’s winning performance of Roksana in Minsk Arena that gave her the trophy:
Source: Dziennik Eurowizyjny
