The event

The fifth Junior Eurovision Song Contest was held in the Ahoy in Rotterdam on the 8th of December 2007 with 17 participants. Hosting the show Sipke Jan Bousema and Kim-Lian van der Meij, of whom, Kim-Liam will return as a presenter in 2012.

The theme of the show was Make A Big Splash. AVRO won the rights to host the show over HRT of Croatia (which didn't actually participate in this contest) and CyBC of Cyprus. The budget for the contest was stated to be more than €2,000,000.

The participants

Georgia made its Junior debut with Mariam Romelashvili and her friends, all in red and white (the colours of the Georgian flag), and the catchy Odelia Ranuni. Belgium followed next with the band Trust and the beautiful ballad Anders (Different). Armenia almost won in their very first Junior participation with the group Arevik ,dressed as sailors, and their dream (Erazanq). Cyprus sent Yiorgos Ioannides with I Musiki Dini Ftera (Music Give Wings).

Portugal participated once more, this time with Jorge Leiria who only wanted to sing (Só Quero é Cantar). Alexandra Golovchenko represented Russia with Otlichnitsa ("A" Student), a very unusual jazzy number. Romania had another group in this Junior, the 4Kids and Sha-la-la while Bulgaria sent the Bon-Bon girls and introduced us to their wonderful Bonbolandia.

2007 Junior Eurovision Song Contest

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Serbia changed the style of previous particpations and competed with Nevena Božović and the beautiful ballad Piši Mi (Write To Me), which ended in 3rd place. The Netherlands gave a thunderous welcome to their girls Lisa, Amy & Shelley and the funky Adem In, Adem Uit (Breathe In Breathe Out). F.Y.R. Macedonia sent the duo composed by Rosica and Dimitar who sang Ding Ding Dong a nice pop-ethnic number. They were followed by Ukraine's Ilona Halytska and her change of clothes in a Lesson Of Glamour (Urok Hlamuru).

Sweden competed with Frida Sandén, sister of Molly from the year before, and the pop song Nu Eller Aldrig (Now Or Never). Malta had a "Cute" girl band singing Music and Greece the "Confused (Kapou Berdeftika)" girls Made In Greece dressed with what it looked like wedding outfits. Lithuania appeared in Junior for the first time with Lina Joy and her choregraphed uptempo number Kai Miestas Snaudžia. But one more year, we had to wait until the end for to see the winner; Belarus sent Alexey Zhigalkovich, not alone but with friends (S Druz'yami); his backing gifted dancers.

The winner

The Interval Act consisted of international star Katie Melua, the group Chipz and all the participants singing One World. The extremely tight voting finished when Belarus won the Contest by a single point over Armenia. Alexey Zhigalkovich took the stage again with his friends to reprise S Druzyami. This was Belarus' second win; they won for the first time in 2005 with Kseniya Sitnik.