Sofia Revisited Part One: Preparing for Junior Eurovision 2015

Bulgaria was offered the opportunity to host Junior Eurovision in 2015 after achieving its best ever placing in the contest, second, in 2014, with the song Planet of the Children performed by Krisia, Hasan & Ibrahim. Bulgarian National Television, BNT, staged the 2015 Junior Eurovision Song Contest in the capital Sofia in November last year. The theme for the 2015 competition was #Discover which was unveiled at a press conference at the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna in May 2015.

The 17 participating delegations arrived in Bulgaria the weekend before the live final to begin a week of rehearsals. Australia and Ireland made their respective debuts in the competition in 2015. The opening ceremony took place on the Wednesday evening before the final. Young singer Destiny, pictured on the red carpet below, represented Malta. 

During a joint press conference between BNT and the EBU, Executive Producer Joana Levieva-Sawyer revealed that over 200 people were working on the production of Junior Eurovision including 80 technicians. 14 cameras covered the 700 metres of stage in Sofia's Arena Armeec. "I'd like to say that it has been so rewarding to put all of these people together, to have this wonderful thing that is happening here at the moment", said Joana.

In the next part of Sofia Revisited we will look back at the live final of the 2015 Junior Eurovision Song Contest.