Growing up is getting old
VICTORIA (Eurovision 2020 & 2021 – Bulgaria)
Coronavirus drew the world to a standstill in 2020. For Eurofans everywhere this wasn’t any truer than when the 2020 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest was cancelled. Sometimes it is hard waiting for life to get back on track, need I even say it. We were there, we got through it, things are getting better. Through the marvel that is modern health care the world is slowly beginning to rise back to its feet and whist things aren’t fully normal yet, we did for example get to enjoy a pandemic altered Eurovision in 2021.
Not all Eurovision events have been so lucky though.
Scheduled to take place in Zagreb on June 21 2020 was the spin-off show Eurovision Young Musicians. This event would have seen eleven broadcaster send musicians (aged between 12 & 21) to Croatia to compete for the trophy and cash prize. As far as Eurovision spin-offs go this one seems to have achieved moderate success reaching 11.2 thousand subscribers on Youtube and having a long established tradition dating back to 1982. After all there is something therapeutic about listening to classical music, add in some inspiring young talent and you have a very enjoyable show on your hands. Whilst it will never have the mass appeal of its older sibling, Young Musicians has still been enjoyed and loved by many.
The show isn’t on every year though, instead it is on every other year which has in the past allowed for other contests such as Eurovision Young Dancers be scheduled into the calendar. Young Dancers has seemingly been shelved by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) as the contest has not occurred since 2017 and the EBU have announced it once again won’t return this year. The sad truth is many of these spin-off shows have struggled to gain participants and without interest from broadcasters these shows slowly die. What it does mean however, is if the EBU wished to move Young Musicians into 2021 they could.
Alas, the EBU has made no statements on the status of the contest since postponing it in March of 2020. The official announcement back then simply reads:
“It is with great regret that the EBU and HRT have taken the decision to postpone Eurovision Young Musicians 2020, due to the ongoing situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The EBU and HRT will continue planning for the event but no decision on a future date for the competition will be taken until the end of the current disruption can be foreseen.”
Dave Goodman (Communications Lead – Eurovision Song Contest and Live Events)
As we are already into June of 2021, I believe it is highly unlikely that the contest will be moved into this year’s vacant slot, there simply isn’t the time for necessary preparations. So at best, Eurovision Young Musicians will seemingly be pushed back to 2022, when it’s next edition should have appeared. The thing is however, there are no guarantees of this. The statement from Goodman is pretty ambiguous as to when the EBU would deem to be “the end of the current disruption”. Sure the world is in a substantially better place than it was in March, lockdowns are largely eased across the world now but the situation by no means is undisrupted. It is still difficult, if not impossible to travel into some countries of the world for starters. Businesses and enterprises are still doing catch-up work to make up for time lost in the pandemic. Many people still aren’t fully vaccinated. These are just a few of many potential disruptions the EBU could be considering.
Hopefully as the EBU were able to put on the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest and the 2020 Junior Eurovision Song Contest (which also involved children participating) the disruption isn’t so severe that the contest will be delayed for much longer. It is very much possible that the EBU decided it was best to keep the contest running on even numbered years and was aiming for a 2022 return all along. However, as a smaller contest with potentially less commercial drive for broadcasters to keep persevering in and other Eurovision contests vanish from the face of the Earth, you can’t blame me for worrying about this contest until we get an official date confirmed.
The longer they wait, the older we all get and the sad reality of that is potential contestants grow too old to compete and the franchise risks being forgotten. VICTORIA said it best EBU: “Growing up is getting old, know that you’re worth saving and getting up is all you’ve got”
Who is with me in wanting to see swift confirmation of the return of Eurovision Young Musicians? Please feel free to join the conversation in the comments or on our social media pages! And why not share the article… it’s free haha!