[2] It was held at the "Spyros Kyprianou" Athletic Centre in Lemesos, Cyprus and hosted by Alex Michael and Sophia Paraskeva.

RTP of Portugal had also submitted a bid, however it was withdrawn at an early stage,[7] and the country went on to withdraw from the competition altogether.

[10] Fifteen countries took part in the 2008 Junior Eurovision Song Contest: Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Macedonia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and Ukraine.

[11] Portugal, which had taken part twice since 2006 announced that it was no longer interested in the contest and withdrew along with Sweden, a founding country in 2003, which left because of other broadcasting plans during the time of the event.

[8][12][better source needed] Portugal would return in 2017 after winning the adult contest for the first time that same year.

[13] On the other hand, Israel and Bosnia and Herzegovina announced their intention to participate, but decided both to withdraw before the contest.

According to İctimai Televiziya və Radio Yayımları Şirkəti, the network was unable to select and prepare children for such a high scale event without proper help from other governmental structures and bodies.

Prior to the event, a compilation album featuring all the songs from the 2008 contest, along with karaoke versions, was put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by Universal Music Group on 10 October 2008.

On 10 September 2008, the hosts were announced as Alex Michael and Sophia Paraskeva; both presenters with Cypriot backgrounds.

For a country to be eligible for potential participation in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, it needs to be an active member of the EBU.

The official Eurovision Song Contest website also provided a live stream without commentary via the peer-to-peer medium Octoshape.