Meet Mykhailo Nekrasov, creator of magical music for this year's Junior Eurovision Song Contest

His name for many national artists is for long associated with the best performances of the ‘adult’ Eurovision: he helped Ruslana, Tina Karol and Zlata Ognevich shine at the event.  He created the arrangement for Ruslana’s ‘Wild Dances’ – the winning song of 2004, and created and arranged Tina Karol’s ‘Show Me Your Love,’ the song that resulted in her incredible performance at Eurovision in 2006. This year Mykhailo became the good music angel for Zlata Ognevich performing at Eurovision in Malmo. Mykhailo created the music for the song ‘Gravity’ that impressed both the audience and many participants of Eurovision, and the efforts of Mykhailo and Zlata were awarded with the third prize.

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest was a challenge he was willing to accept. “Indeed, such a large event requires a corresponding musical format,” Nekrasov says.

“I must admit, I adore the motto selected for this year's contest, ‘Be creative!’ as it freely implies fairytales, magic, transformation and charm not only in the stage performances, but also in the music. Fairytales can be a lot of different things from the unpretentious and funny ‘Kolobok’ to fantasy pictures. The musical background is corresponding to this; from joyful Broadway musicals, epic symphonic movie scores and magic.”

Magic abounds in the music too – over 70 professional ‘fairies’ and ‘magicians’ from all over theworld have taken part to record classical instruments including a full string and brass section recorded in Las Vegas by Studio Pros and some added exotics:  authentic wind instruments from Australia and Kazakhstan. Later, under the careful eye of Mykhailo Nekrasov, academic and pop choirs will be added to magically combine into an unforgettable music background for Junior Eurovision.

The potential surprise of the evening will be an extraordinary interval act with the mentee of Mykhailo Nekrasov - Zlata Ognevich - and her co-host Timur Miroshnychenko.

Meanwhile Mykhailo Nekrasov appeals not only the organisers of children's contests but also to artists and producers in the 'grown up' world of show business to be attentive. “This project has been very inspiring. I realise how important it is to reach to the next generation," he says. "I do not make public addresses often, but now I want to address producers who think that their artists need to be undressed to be on television - remember instead that children watch it, as they are our future." 

You can see the results of all this hard work and the performances of the young talents at Kyiv on November 30, 2013.