Kazakhstan: Discussions to appear as a special guest in Tel Aviv? Interest in hosting next JESC
After its successful debut in Junior Eurovision 2018 where it achieved an honorable 6th placing, Kazakhstan is aiming next to its debut participation in the Seniors’ Eurovision Song Contest.
According to statements made by Alan Azhibayev, the chairman of Kazakhstan’s national broadcaster Khabar Agency to the website of today.kz. the country’s next ambition is to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Spefically, Azhibayev admits that participating in Eurovision 2019 is not feasible since Khabar Agency is a the moment an associate member and not a full member of EBU. However he left the door open for a guest performance during the break and the interval act. like Australia did before she was invited to participate. All the direct discussions are been held by Minister of Information and Communications , Dauren Abayev.
A second set of news coming from Kazakhstan concerns Junior Eurovision. After the country’s debut performance in Minsk , it has official submitted apllication of interest in hosting the next Junior Eurovision in 2019.
Of course we must not forget Jon Ola Sand’s recent statemetent in Minsk, that a “Eurovision expansion” in the future is always open for EBU . Additionally, interest in hosting the next JESC has been shown by several countries. As the JESC hosting issue is disconnected from which country won the previous contest we’ll have to wait and see which will be the next host nation.
So far the country is only an associate EBU member since 2016, so has the right to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest only after an invitation by EBU to join the event, pretty much as Australia is doing in the latest years. However, the contest has been aired the last years in Kazakhstan. So was its debut participation in JESC an indication of what will follow in the Seniors’ Eurovsion case, implied by Jon Ola Sand’s recent statements in Minsk or is it too early to consider such development feasible?
