Junior Eurovision 2023, in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes), is in its home stretch. THE Te Deum will kick off the competition reserved for artists aged 9 to 14 this Sunday, at 4 p.m. The event will be broadcast live on France 2, from the Palais Nikaïa. Less than twenty-four hours before the final, 20 minutes spoke with Alexandra Redde-Amiel. For the occasion, she takes on the roles of director of entertainment and games at France Télévisions, head of delegation and executive producer of this Junior Eurovision.
How have the last few days been behind the scenes?
It’s a very intense week. I have produced a lot of shows, but Junior Eurovision is a special event. These are ten days during which we receive the delegations, we have to take care of the sixteen countries… So we try to stay focused, not to give up, to make all the final corrections. The delegations come with desires, they offer us their performance and it is up to us to ensure the implementation, so we refine their requests as much as possible. We train a lot with the animators – Olivier Minne and Laury Thilleman – to see all the security eventualities just in case. We are also emotional because we know that tomorrow (this Sunday), it will stop even though we have been at 200% adrenaline for ten days.
Concerning security, is there any special device?
We talk about it all the time. Security is part of Eurovision even when there is not particularly a crisis. We’re talking to 33 million viewers. There are 700 of us on site. So, we always have plans A, plans B, plans C. We have strengthened security but the subject has always been on the agenda for our daily points. I am very confident in the processes that we have put in place.
Plans A, B or C, does that mean considering broadcasting the final on delay, recording a game?
This question did not arise because we have 45 minutes of vote revelation section. Doing a recorded singing part, then voting live, is complicated. There are lots of hypotheses, we work with a head of security from the EBU, a head of security from us. There are preparations that we don’t usually do on our French shows. It’s very interesting. The jury show that we are filming just now (this Saturday at the end of the afternoon, it is a rehearsal under live conditions during which the jurors vote) is a help. If we had a problem live, we would use it and resume voting live.
What is the difference for you between the first edition of Junior Eurovision organized in Boulogne-Billancourt in 2021 and this one?
The first, like all first times, is stressful, you don’t know what to expect, you don’t know where you’re going, you learn as you go. For me, it was the edition of fascination. We dream of producing shows like that and when it happens to us, we say wow. For the second, we feel better. We have taken our marks, we are more relaxed. I try to enjoy every moment.
And how do the child candidates experience these ten days?
They arrive, they are impressed, a little crushed by the machine. This is why the ten days are necessary. They repeat, get used to it. They eventually hatch. Not today but tomorrow (this Sunday). In the finale, usually, we have some crazy stuff, sometimes they change their tone, they know it must be completely crazy.