Federica Falzon. Photo: Emil Calleja Bayliss

Excitement gripped the nation in 2013 when Malta won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, an event at which it never previously ranked in the top three.

People were overwhelmed with pride and overnight Gaia Cauchi became a household name.

In order not to put any added pressure on the participants of the junior Eurovision, the European Broadcasting Union issued a regulation saying that the winning country did not have to be given the role as host nation the following year.

Hence, the Public Broadcasting Services was given the right of first refusal, having never been given the opportunity to host a Pan-European event in the past, despite near misses at the Eurovision Song Contest.

It took on the challenge and grew a team of professional personnel, whose slogan #together is a fair reflection of the collaborative work put in by both the European Broad-casting Union and PBS.

This year’s edition of the junior Eurovision features 16 countries, the highest number since 2008.

This is a relative coup, considering that critics had previously labelled the competition as ‘dead water’ and on its way to a disappointing end.

With hindsight, there has been a lot of thinking outside the box, most notably in the creation of the dynamics surrounding the event.

This is true both with respect to the selection of the venue and the choice of the theme.

No one expected the Marsa Shipbuilding to be in consideration for the event. The highly successful Music & Steel Festival in the weeks preceding the official announcement played a decisive role.

With clear acoustics and the opportunity to seat thousands of people, it proved to be an inspired choice.

By choosing Moira Delia as a solo host, PBS has also made a statement. Delia is known to be accomplished and competent, thus she will be more than able to deal with any possible hiccups that might come up.

This year’s edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest features the highest amount of countries since 2008

Recently, responsible for the 2014 edition of the Malta Eurovision Song Contest, Delia assured the public that flying solo is not tedious as it is actually easier to manage by herself.

Malta has been used as a selling point to potential parti-cipant countries and this has led to the return of few countries. They are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Serbia as well as the debut of three others: Italy, Montenegro and Slovenia.

With the absence of the most financially secure countries in the European Broadcasting Union (France, the UK, Germany and Spain), it is a welcome addition to have Italy in the market for the programme, boosting their very own Ti Lascio Una Canzone.

Vincenzo Cantiello

Remarkable as it sounds, two of the participants in this programme will be at the junior Eurovision: Federica Falzon, representing Malta with Diamonds and Vincenzo Cantiello representing Italy with Il Primo Grande Amore.

Promoting the vocal talent of children has always been high on the agenda in Italy and RAI has truly shown commitment towards the event, even by virtue of appointing Antonella Clerici as commentator.

For Federica this will be the experience of a lifetime, performing in front of an audience who will be present to cheer her on andready to listen to the voice which they have grown fond of in the past couple of months.

The young mezzo soprano thrives on such an audience. The team behind her entry Diamonds was also responsible for The Start by Gaia Cauchi. This fact alone already puts her in the spotlight.

Following their recent success in the senior edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, Montenegro and Slovenia made it a point to give their audience something different.

Hence, they will be sending Maša Vujadinovi and Lejla Vuli with the song Budi Dijete na Jedan Dan (Be a Child for a Day) as well as Ula Ložar with the song Nisi Sam (Your Light).

As a result this has spurred on the return of Croatia and Serbia, whose entrants will be Josie with the track Game Over and Emilija Donin with the song Svet u mojim oima.

This success could only be achieved through a dynamic set-up and a hard-working professional team of personnel, who have devised a showcase which is attractive for countries.

It is the beginning of a new journey, one which continues to see the Junior Eurovision Song Contest grow in the future with several more countries such as Ireland, Iceland, Spain and Romania.

These are among those countries that have shown interest in making their return or debut in the 2015 edition.

In order to ensure the inclusion of Gaia Cauchi during the showcase, a common song, #Together, written by Elton Zarb, Gordon Bonello and Matt Mercieca, and which will also be interpreted by all the participants in this year’s edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, has been issued, featuring her as lead vocal.

The song is meant to show-case the young winner as a promising singer... she is certainly expected to accomplish great things.

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest takes place on Saturday and will be aired live at 7pm on TVM.