With the festive season a matter of days away and 2012 rapidly drawing to a close, I'd like to take the time to reflect on the last 12 months as a project community, and look ahead to 2013. 2012 witnessed the period when Azerbaijan got to showcase their capital city Baku to the rest of Europe. Preparations for the contest were not the smoothest ever seen, but come the day of the contest everything seemed to have knitted together OK. Concerns over the longevity of the Junior Contest were also raised when the lowest participation ever recorded. Fans worried that the contest would be brought to an abrupt end, however, with 3 new countries debuting the contest went ahead as planned.
The project also seen the start of two new contests, ABU Radio Song Festival and ABU TV Song Festival, which were both staged in the Korean capital of Seoul. The host nation won the first edition of the festival. And so we look ahead to 2013, with Sweden hosting the Eurovision Song Contest for a fifth time, and for the second time in the city of Malmö. Vietnam is expected to host the 2013 ABU TV Song Festival, with the Radio Festival having a year break, which won't be hosted again until 2014 in Australia. Details about the 2013 Junior Eurovision Song Contest are still unknown. As always, be on the look out for potential new members to the project. Post {{subst:EurovisionInvite}} (which will produced this template) on any user page you think is interested to join the WikiProject, to officially invite them to join.
And so I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our project members a Very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!
Please can we also remember to keep this article well presented based on the layout that was agreed upon via the Project RfC. If in doubt, check Eurovision Song Contest 2012 as an example. That article is using the new layout format and gained the project it's first GA-class on annual pages. Let's maintain that high standard.
Also remember to communicate with fellow project members via the article talk or Project talk page, as communication is an important tool if we aim to collaborate as part of a team.
Please only add countries who have explicitly stated they will be competing, citing a reliable source. Anything not cited may be removed. If in doubt - ask someone for an opinion!
Ukraine won the tenth edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with the song "Nebo" performed by Anastasia Petryk. Twelve countries participated with Albania, Azerbaijan, and Israel making their début.
ABU Radio Song Festival 2014 - It was announced on 11 October 2012 that the 2014 Radio Festival will take place in Australia hosted by radio broadcaster ABC Australia.
As it is too soon to start work on the new article, can we please try and avoid creating one. Unless of course, there's enough information out there that would warrant an early creation.
Please remember to keep checking the project articles that have been flagged up as an alert. Since our last publication the following are listed as alerts: