The Junior Eurovision Song Contest, often known simply as Junior Eurovision, is an international children's song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 2003. Each participating broadcaster submits an original song representing its country, to be performed by children of its choice aged 9 to 14, lasting three minutes at most, and broadcast live to all of them via the Eurovision and Euroradio networks, and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine a winner. It is a spin-off the Eurovision Song Contest with which it has many similarities.
Since 2017, viewers worldwide can vote for their favourite entries through online voting, and a national jury assembled by each participating broadcaster also vote for their favourites. The overall winner of the contest is the entry that receives the most points after the scores from every country have been collected and totalled. The main differences with the Eurovision Song Contest are that in the junior version, the song must be predominantly in the language of the country it represents, and viewers can vote for their own country. The most recent winning song is "" performed by Lou Deleuze representing , who won the in Tbilisi, Georgia.
In addition to the participating countries, the contest has also been broadcast in Finland in 2003 and Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2004 and from 2006 to 2011, Andorra in 2006, Iceland in 2021 and Luxembourg in 2024, although these countries have not yet taken part in the contest. Since 2006, the contest has been streamed live on the Internet through the official website of the contest. Australia was invited to participate in the contest, while Kazakhstan was invited in the contest, making it the only major Eurovision event to feature multiple EBU associate member broadcasters.
Origins and history The origins of the contest date back to 2000 when (DR) held a song contest for Danish children that year and the following year. The idea was extended to a Scandinavian song festival in 2002, MGP Nordic, with Denmark, Norway, and Sweden as participants. In 2001 and 2002, Polish broadcaster (TVP) hosted two pilot editions of an international song contest for children in Konin with the name () in 2001 and () in 2002 but the whole project was called . TVP went on to hold further editions in Konin between 2003 and 2006, some time of which after Poland's initial withdrawal from Junior Eurovision Song Contest. In 2006, returned as () and was hosted by Dominika Rydz and Weronika Bochat, who represented Poland in as part of girl group KWADro.
In November 2002, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) picked up the idea for a song contest featuring children and opened the competition to all member broadcasters making it a pan-European event. The working title of the programme was "Eurovision Song Contest for Children", branded with the name of the EBU's long-running and already popular song competition, the Eurovision Song Contest. DR was asked to host the first edition after its experience with MGP Nordic.
After a successful first contest in Copenhagen, the second faced several location problems. The event originally should have been organised by British broadcaster ITV in Manchester. ITV then announced that due to financial and scheduling reasons, it would not host the event. It is also thought that another factor to their decision was the previous year's audience ratings for ITV which were below the expected amount. The EBU approached Croatian broadcaster (HRT), who had won the previous contest, to stage the event in Zagreb, though it later emerged that HRT had 'forgotten' to book the venue in which the contest would have taken place. It was at this point, with five months remaining until the event would be held, that Norwegian broadcaster (NRK) stepped in to host the contest in Lillehammer.
Broadcasters have had to bid for the rights to host the contest since 2004 to avoid such problems from happening again. The broadcasters from were therefore the first to successfully bid for the rights to host the contest in 2005.
All contests have been broadcast in 16:9 widescreen and in high definition. All have also had a CD produced with the songs from the show. Between 2003 and 2006, DVDs of the contest were also produced though this ended due to lack of interest.
As of , the winner of the contest is decided by 50% televote and 50% national jury vote. The winners of all previous contests had been decided exclusively by televoting. Between 2003 and 2005 viewers had around 10 minutes to vote after all the songs had been performed. Between and the televoting lines were open throughout the programme. Since 2011 viewers vote after all the songs had been performed. Profits made from the televoting during the 2007 and 2008 contests were donated to UNICEF.
Prior to 2007, a participating broadcaster's failure in not broadcasting the contest live would incur a fine. Now broadcasters are no longer required to broadcast the contest live, but may transmit it with some delay at a time that is more appropriate for children's television broadcast.
The 2007 contest was the subject of the 2008 documentary Sounds Like Teen Spirit: A Popumentary. The film followed several contestants as they made their way through the national finals and onto the show itself. It was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival 2008 and was premiered in Ghent, Belgium and also in Limassol, Cyprus, where the 2008 contest was held.
Format The format of the contest has remained relatively unchanged over the course of its history in that the format consists of successive live musical performances by the artists entered by the participating broadcasters. The EBU claims that the aim of the programme is "to promote young talent in the field of popular music, by encouraging competition among the [...] performers".
The programme is usually on a Saturday night in November or December and lasts approximately two hours and fifteen minutes. Between 2016 and 2023, the contest was screened on Sunday afternoon instead.
Traditionally the contest will consist of an opening ceremony in which the performers are welcomed to the event, the performances of the entries, a recap of the songs to help televoting viewers decide which entries to vote for, an interval act usually performed after the televoting has closed, the results of the televoting or back-up jury voting which is then followed by the declaration of the winning song and its reprise. At various points throughout the show, networks may opt out for a few minutes to screen a commercial break.
Since 2008 the winning entry of each contest has been decided by a mixture of televoting and national juries, each counting for fifty per cent of the points awarded by each country. The winners of all previous contests had been decided exclusively by televoting. The ten entries that have received the most votes in each country are awarded points ranging from one to eight, then ten and twelve. These points are then announced live during the programme by a spokesperson appointed by the corresponding participating broadcaster (who, like the performers, is aged between ten and fifteen). Once all participating countries have announced their results, the song that has received the most points is declared the winner of that year's contest.
Until 2013 the winners receive a trophy and a certificate. Between 2013 and 2016 contest the winner, runner-up and third place all won trophies and certificates.
Originally, unlike its adult version, the winning broadcaster did not receive the rights to host the next contest. From 2014 until 2017, the winning broadcaster had first refusal on hosting the following contest. Italy's (RAI) used this clause in 2015 to decline hosting the contest that year after its victory in 2014. On 15 October 2017, the EBU announced a return to the original system in 2018, claiming that it would help provide broadcasters with a greater amount of time to prepare, ensuring the continuation of the contest into the future. However, from 2019, all contests have been hosted by the previous year's winning broadcaster, with the exception of the 2024 contest being hosted by the runner-up of the 2023 contest, Spain's (RTVE), after the 2023 winner, France's , declined to host again after hosting in 2021 and 2023.
The contest usually features two presenters, one man and one woman, who regularly appear on stage and with the contestants in the green room. The presenters are also responsible for repeating the results immediately after the spokesperson of each participating broadcaster to confirm which country the points are being given to. Between 2003 and 2012, the spokespersons gave out the points in the same format as the adult contest, in front of a backdrop of a major city of that country in the broadcaster's television studio. From 2013 to 2023, the spokespersons gave the points from their country on the arena stage, as opposed to the adult contest where spokespersons are broadcast live from their respective country (with the exception of 2020, due to travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic). From 2024 onwards, the previous format made a return where the spokespersons give out the points in front of a backdrop.
Despite the Junior Eurovision Song Contest being modelled on the format of the Eurovision Song Contest, there are many distinctive differences that are unique to the children's contest. From 2005 to 2015 every contestant was automatically awarded 12 points to prevent the contestants scoring zero points, although ending with 12 points total was in essence the same as receiving zero, however, no entry has ever received nul points in total scoring.
Entry restrictions
The song must be written and sung in the national language (or one of the national languages) of the country being represented. However, they can also have a few lines in a different language. The same rule was in the adults' contest from 1966 to 1972 and again from 1977 to 1998. This rule was later changed in 2009 so that up to 25% of a song could be in a different language, usually English. This rule was changed again in 2017, now allowing up to 40% to be in a different language.
Originally the competition was open to children between the ages of 8 and 15, however in 2007 the age range was narrowed so that only children aged 10 to 15 on the day of the contest were allowed to enter. In 2016 the age range was changed again. From now on children aged 9 to 14 on the day of the contest are allowed to enter.
The song submitted into the contest cannot have previously been released commercially and must last 3 minutes at most. The rule stating that performers also must not have previously released music commercially was active from 2003 to 2006. This rule was dropped in 2007 thus allowing already experienced singers and bands in the competition. As a result, NRK chose to withdraw from the contest.
Since 2008, adults have been allowed to assist in the writing of entries. Previously, all writers had to be aged 10 to 15.
Organisation