Wales in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018


Wales debuted in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 held in Minsk, Belarus on 25 November 2018. The Welsh broadcaster S4C was responsible for organising their debut entry for the contest. Manw was selected through Chwilio am Seren to represent Wales, winning the televised national final on 9 October at the Venue Cymru in Llandudno. The winning song, "Hi yw y Berta", was chosen internally and written by Ywain Gwynedd.

Background

Wales announced on 9 May 2018 that they would debut at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 to be held in Minsk, Belarus. Welsh broadcaster S4C is responsible for the country's participation in the contest. A televised national selection process, Chwilio am Seren, was held to select the Welsh entry.
Wales previously took part in the contest as part of the United Kingdom between and, with ITV being responsible for their participation. S4C had also shown interest in participating in the contest, but in the end decided against participating.

Before Junior Eurovision

''Chwilio am Seren''

Chwilio am Seren was the national selection process that was used to select the 2018 entrant. Auditions took place at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, Aberystwyth Arts Centre and at Cardiff's Wales Millennium Centre during June 2018 with mentors Connie Fisher, Stifyn Parri and Tara Bethan as the judging panel. The four-part series, produced by Rondo Media for S4C, was aired on Tuesday nights.
The first two shows covered the nationwide auditions. Following a masterclass round at Llandaff's Memorial Hall, the final twenty singers were wittled down to the top 12 who then performed in public at Quadrant Shopping Centre in Swansea. The jury decided at the end of these performances who would perform during a final round live on television.
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National final

The national final took place in Llandudno's Venue Cymru on 9 October 2018, hosted by Trystan Ellis-Morris and broadcast live on S4C. The first round saw the six live finalists performing cover songs. Regional juries consisting of two adults and two children awarded stars to their favourite three performers which were announced by a spokesperson. The three mentors, Fisher, Parri and Bethan all gave their opinions on the performances but could not vote. In the second round, the three superfinalists each performed a different arrangement of the official Welsh entry "Hi yw y Berta", written by Ywain Gwynedd. The televote alone selected the winner from the second round, this being Manw.
The national final opened with a performance by the six finalists, performing a Welsh version of the anthem of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017, "Shine Bright". During the televote window, a summary of the various winners of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest was broadcast.

Artist and song information

Manw

Manw Lili Robin age 14 at the time, is a Welsh singer from Rhosgadfan in Gwynedd, North Wales. She represented Wales at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Perta".
She performed at the National Eisteddfod of Wales and Urdd National Eisteddfod a number of times, most recently in 2017, and attends Ysgol Glanaethwy in Bangor. In 2014, Manw played the part of Awen in the Welsh version of the animated film, The Secret of Kells which was broadcast on S4C on 24 May. In 2015, Manw was a member of the Welsh choir Cor Glanaethwy, who reached the live finals of Britain's Got Talent.

Perta

"Perta" is a song performed by Welsh singer Manw. It represented Wales at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The song underwent a revamp ahead of the contest in Minsk, with the official music video released on 16 October. Ywain Gwynedd stated in an interview that the lyrics were written with a focus on sounding nice to non-Welsh speakers, with a repetitive chorus that was easy for viewers to sing along to. The song finished in 20th place with 29 points.

At Junior Eurovision

During the opening ceremony and the running order draw which both took place on 19 November 2018, Wales was drawn to perform eighteenth on 25 November 2018, following Armenia and preceding Malta.
The final was broadcast live in Wales on S4C, with commentary provided by Trystan Ellis-Morris in Welsh. English commentary by Stifyn Parri was available via the red button.

Voting

The results of the 2018 Junior Eurovision Song Contest will be determined by national juries and an online audience vote. Every country will have a national jury that will consist of three music industry professionals and two kids aged between 10 and 15 who are citizens of the country they represent. This jury will be asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The first phase of the online voting will start on 23 November 2018 when a recap of all the rehearsal performances will be shown on junioreurovision.tv before the viewers can vote. After this, voters will also have the option to watch longer one-minute clips from each participant's rehearsal. This first round of voting will stop on Sunday, 25 November, at 15:59 CET. The second phase of the online voting will take place during the live show and will start right after the last performance and will be open for 15 minutes. International viewers can vote for a minimum of three countries and a maximum of five. They can also vote for their own country's song. These votes will then be turned into points which will be determined by the percentage of votes received. For example, if a song receives 20% of the votes, thus it will receive 20% of the available points. The public vote will count for 50% of the final result, while the other 50% will come from the professional juries.

Points awarded to Wales

12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points
6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points
2 points
1 point

Split voting results