To pay respect to the victims of yesterday’s terrorist attacks in Paris, BNT has postponed the Opening Ceremony for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest to next week. Bulgaria takes part in the three days of mourning declared by the president of France, François Hollande. This decision has been taken by BNT together with the Executive Supervisor of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, Vladislav Yakovlev. During these three days of mourning, BNT is required not to broadcast any entertainment show, including the Opening Ceremony that was planned for tomorrow.

Viara Ankova, General Director of BNT, has said that “The Bulgarian national television expresses its deep condolences and support in this hard moment for the people of France. Love and tolerance between people are the values the Eurovision Song Contest is based on. These are also the values which unite all public broadcasters in Europe.”

On what will be happening next, Vladislav Yakovlev explained: “The running order draw will still take place tomorrow (Sunday), so that the production team can begin working on the show. The participants will still draw their halves of the running order, just that this will take place now separately from the red carpet ceremony and in a different place.”

Tomorrow Bulgaria will draw its exact running order position first, after which whichever starting number they randomly have picked will be taken out of the draw. From there, providing Bulgaria has picked a number between 2 and 16, there are 4 possible outcomes for the rest of the countries to draw:

– 1st
– 17th
– Performing in the first half
– Performing in the second half

There will be no space for the press to attend the draw tomorrow, but the outcome will be published on junioreurovision.tv tomorrow evening.