2007
Hosted in: Rotterdam, Netherlands Won by: Belarus - S druz'yami by Alexey Zhigalkovich For the first time ever, the “big three” that have once dominated, well, the top three of the first two editions of the JESC are absent. Alongside the UK’s continued disinterest in the competition, Croatia withdrew due to expenses on broadcasting the contest, let alone sending a representative, and Spain withdrew because while TVE wants to broadcast kids programmes accordingly to them. Unfortunately such exaggerated show like the JESC does not fit with their standards. Despite the fact that they did not host it. The Netherlands did. Yup, even though the trophy stayed in the east, the contest didn’t, coming back to Benelux after only 2 years. Unlike the chaotic circus of Bucharest, Rotterdam brought some much-needed order (and industrial lighting design) to the contest. Still, we were yet to see any connection between winning and hosting, so once again, a completely unrelated country took the rein...