Earlier this evening the opening ceremony for the 2016 Junior Eurovision Song Contest took place at The Manoel Theatre in Valletta, Malta.

The hour-long event which was streamed live on Junior Eurovision’s official YouTube channel featured short interviews with all 17 competing artists, plus live performances from past winners; Destiny Chukunyere (“Not My Soul” – 2015) and Gaia Cauchi (“The Start” – 2013), plus Malta’s 4th place contestant in 2014, Federica Falzon (“Diamonds”).

We aso got to meet this years’ hosts, Ben Camille and Valerie Vella – plus the EBU’s executive supervisor, Jon Ola Sand met and greeted the performers and delegations too.

Towards the end of the event, each contestant picked a numbered red ball that determined which part of the show they will perform on Sunday afternoon’s contest. The results of the allocation draw are as follows:

First Half:
Ireland (perfoming the first song)
Albania
Armenia
Belarus
Bulgaria
F.Y.R. Macedonia
Malta
Poland
Russia

Second Half:
Australia
Cyprus
Israel
Italy
The Netherlands
Serbia
Ukraine
Georgia (performing the final song)

The first of the delegations rehearsals begin tomorrow morning, with Italy, Ireland, Cyprus, The Netherlands, Israel, F.Y.R. Macedonia, Malta and Poland taking to the stage. On Wednesday, the first rehearsals of Russia, Ukraine, Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Armenia, Georgia, Serbia and Australia will take place.

Keep checking ESCBubble for updates over the course of the Junior Eurovision week, as some of our team will be in Valletta, reporting on the news as it happens!