The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was the 21st edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, held on 26 November 2023 at the Palais Nikaïa in Nice, France, and presented by Olivier Minne, Laury Thilleman, and Ophenya. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster France Télévisions, who staged the event after winning the for with the song "" by Lissandro. This was the second time that the Junior Eurovision Song Contest was hosted in France, the first being in Paris in .
Broadcasters from sixteen countries participated in the contest, with participating for the first time and returning after its absence from the previous edition, while and did not take part. This was also the first and so far only time that all members of the "Big Five" from the Eurovision Song Contest took part in the junior contest together.
The winner was with the song "" by Zoé Clauzure, making France the second country to win the Junior Eurovision Song Contest twice in a row, after . The result also marked France equaling 's record for the most Junior Eurovision victories to date. , , the and completed the top five. Further down the table, achieved its best result to date, tied its worst placement, and placed last for the first time.
Location
The contest took place at the Palais Nikaïa in Nice, a multi-purpose concert hall, following the country's victory at the with the song "" by Lissandro. This was the second time that France hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, the first being in Paris in .
Bidding phase and host city selection
Unlike in the Eurovision Song Contest, the winning country did not receive the automatic rights to host the next contest. However, since , each contest has been hosted by the previous year's winning country, and since 2011 (with the exceptions of and ), the winning country has had the right of first refusal on hosting the following competition. In , Italy was given the option to host but ultimately opted out of it.
Following France's win in , French head of delegation Alexandra Redde-Amiel and Director General of France Télévisions Delphine Ernotte revealed that the country wishes to host the contest in 2023. On 3 April 2023, the EBU and France Télévisions announced that the contest would be held in Nice.
Participants
On 29 August 2023, the EBU announced that 16 countries would participate in the contest, with making its debut and returning after a one-year absence, while and would not take part after doing so the previous years.
Sophie Lennon, who represented , joined Jessica McKean on stage.
Prior to the contest, a digital compilation album featuring all the songs from the 2023 contest was put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by Universal Music on 3 November 2023.
+ Participants of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) RTSH Viola Gjyzeli "" Albanian AMPTV Yan Girls "Do It My Way" Armenian, English ERR Arhanna "" Estonian, English Zoé Clauzure "" French GPB Anastasia and Ranina "Over the Sky" Georgian, English NDR/Kika Fia "" German TG4 Jessica McKean "" Irish RAI Melissa and Ranya"" Italian, English PBS Yulan "Stronger" English AVROTROS "Holding On to You" Dutch, EnglishRobert Dorn MRT "" Macedonian, English TVP Maja Krzyżewska "I Just Need a Friend" Polish, English RTP Júlia Machado "Where I Belong" Portuguese, English RTVE "Loviu" Spanish UA:PBC Anastasiia Dymyd "" Ukrainian, English Svitlana Tarabarova BBC Stand Uniqu3 "Back to Life" English
Production A new child safety protocol focused on the well-being of the participants was implemented for the 2023 contest. According to the Spanish head of delegation , it sought to offer transparency in the competition, and to bring especially Nordic countries, who were critical of child safety in the contest, back to the event.
Visual, slogan and stage design
The 2023 contest was the first edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest to incorporate the modern Eurovision heart, which has been used in the adult contest since 2015, in its generic logo. The update was revealed during the host city announcement on 3 April 2023.
During a European Broadcasting Union press conference on 10 May 2023 in Liverpool, where the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 was taking place, Alexandra Redde-Amiel, head of the French Eurovision delegation, announced the slogan of the contest, "Heroes". The accompanying theme art was unveiled on 29 August, which featured a street art look based on splashes of paint, chalk, powder and fireworks that "brings modernity and speaks to all generations". The stage design, unveiled on 27 September, featured a 12-metre high LED screen in the shape of wings, "reflecting the desire to fly away, create and imagine".
Presenters
Laury Thilleman, Olivier Minne, and Ophenya were the presenters of the show; Minne had previously co-hosted the . Ophenya, a French influencer, additionally acted as a "digital ambassador", creating content for Junior Eurovision's social media channels.
The opening ceremony event, which was held on 20 November at Hotel Negresco, was hosted by Carla Lazzari, France's representative at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019, and Manon Théodet. During the ceremony, each delegation was welcomed by and Ophenya, and the draw was carried out, according to tradition. In this ceremony, the draw took place which determined the position of the host country (France) and which country will open and close the show. The ceremony also saw French Junior Eurovision representatives, since the country's return to the contest in 2018, perform excerpts of their entries.
Postcards Contestants were featured in "postcard" video introductions, set in different locations in Nice. Each postcard began with a child participating in an activity of their choice and facing a setback that discourages them, before the upcoming performer, standing on top of a building, empowered them to accomplish their task. At the end of each postcard, the children participating in the aforementioned activity creatively recreated the flag of the upcoming performer's representative country, after which it transitioned to the stage.
Musée Villa Masséna Promenade de Paillon (Masséna's statue) Opéra de Nice Rossetti Street, Old Town of Nice Carrousel Garibaldi (Garibaldi square) Hotel Negresco Place Masséna Théâtre National de Nice (St. Francis square) Quai Rauba Capeu (#IloveNice structure) Promenade des Anglais (Neptune beach) Stade du Fort Carré (Antibes) Nice City Hall Crémât Castle Nice Lawn Tennis Club Gare du Sud (Mediterraneo restaurant) Old Port of Nice (quai des Deux Emmanuels)
Contest overview The event took place on 26 November 2023 at 16:00 CET. Sixteen countries participated, with the running order published on 20 November. All the countries competing were eligible to vote with the jury vote, as well as participating and non-participating countries under an aggregated international online vote. France won with 228 points, winning both the jury and online vote. Spain came second with 201 points, with Armenia, the United Kingdom and Ukraine completing the top five. North Macedonia, Portugal, Georgia, Estonia and Ireland occupied the bottom five positions.
The opening of the show featured the traditional flag parade, accompanied by a remix of "Makeba", with all participants performing the common song "Heroes" alongside Florence François and the Shiny Gospel Choir. During the interval, Lissandro performed his winning song "". Amir then performed "", with which he represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016, and his new single "". Following a brief appearance by French pianist and TikTok personality Van Toan, former French Junior Eurovision entrants Angelina, Valentina, and Lissandro closed the interval with "We Are the World", in support of the Non-Violence Project.
During the event, there was a technical problem in which the LED screen abruptly shut off during Portugal's performance; Portugal's Júlia Machado was offered the chance to perform again, but the Portuguese delegation declined it because her vocal performance was not affected. The official upload of the Portuguese entry on YouTube used footage from the previous evening's jury show. Country Artist Song Points Place1Sandra Valero "Loviu" 201 22 Yulan "Stronger" 94 103 Anastasiia Dymyd "" 128 54 Jessica McKean "" 42 165 Stand Uniqu3 "Back to Life" 160 46 Tamara Grujeska"" 76 127 Arhanna "" 49 158 Yan Girls"Do It My Way" 180 39 Maja Krzyżewska"I Just Need a Friend" 124 610 Anastasia and Ranina"Over the Sky" 74 1411 Júlia Machado"Where I Belong" 75 13 12Zoé Clauzure"" 228 113 Viola Gjyzeli"" 115 814 Melissa and Ranya"" 81 1115 Fia "" 107 916Sep and Jasmijn"Holding On to You" 122 7
Spokespersons
The 12 points from the juries were announced live by a spokesperson from each country. Countries that did not provide their own spokesperson had their 12 points announced by a student from the International School of Nice. Known spokespersons are as follows:
Mariam Bigvava Louisa McKean Gaia Gambuzza Luna Gabrysia Wojciechowicz Juan Diego Álvarez Zlata Dziunka
Detailed voting results Split results Place Combined Jury Online vote Country Points Country Points Country Points 1 228 136 92 2 201 116 86 3 180 115 83 4 160 102 74 5 128 70 70 6 124 69 64 7 122 52 58 8 115 51 55 9 107 45 53 10 94 37 45 11 81 37 12 76 33 44 13 75 30 43 14 74 21 15 49 8 39 16 42 6 34
+ Detailed voting results of the final Voting procedure used: scope="col" rowspan="3" scope="col" rowspan="2" scope="col" rowspan="2" Jury vote scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="rowgroup" rowspan="17" Spain 201 115 86 6 5 8 10 12 6 2 12 12 10 12 10 10 Malta 94 51 43 3 4 12 3 7 10 4 6 2 Ukraine 128 45 83 1 3 1 3 4 5 6 8 2 7 5 Ireland 42 8 34 3 4 1 United Kingdom 160 102 58 10 10 12 4 7 6 8 8 1 4 12 8 5 7 North Macedonia 76 37 39 2 2 2 1 1 10 6 5 1 4 3 Estonia 49 6 43 1 2 2 1 Armenia 180 116 64 3 12 10 2 12 12 8 7 10 2 7 6 5 12 8 Poland 124 69 55 8 4 7 10 10 2 5 8 3 6 6 Georgia 74 21 53 5 3 4 5 3 1 Portugal 75 30 45 7 5 6 1 1 2 6 2 France 228 136 92 12 8 6 12 6 8 10 10 12 5 10 7 10 8 12 Albania 115 70 45 8 7 7 5 5 7 4 4 12 3 7 1 Italy 81 37 44 6 3 5 1 3 8 3 8 Germany 107 33 74 1 4 4 7 3 7 2 1 4 Netherlands 122 52 70 4 7 8 5 6 2 6 2 5 4 3
12 points Below is a summary of all 12 points received from each country's professional juries.
+ 12 points awarded by juries Recipient Countries giving 12 points 4 , , , , , , , , , 2 , 1
Broadcasts All participating broadcasters may choose to have on-site or remote commentators providing insight and voting information to their local audience. The European Broadcasting Union also provided international live streams of the contest through their official YouTube channel with no commentary.
Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) RTSH RTSH 1, RTSH Muzikë, Radio Tirana Andri Xhahu AMPTV 1TV and ERR ETV2 Marko Reikop ETV+ Aleksandr Hobotov and Julia Kalenda [russian] France 2 Stéphane Bern and Carla Lazzari GPB 1TV Nikoloz Lobiladze ARD/ZDF Kika TG4 Sinéad Ní Uallacháin RAI Rai 1 PBS TVM NPO/AVROTROS NPO Zapp via NPO 3 Bart Arens and Matheu Hinzen MRT MRT 1 Eli Tanaskovska TVP TVP1, TVP Polonia, TVP ABC RTP RTP1, , Nuno Galopim and Iolanda Ferreira RTVE La 1, TVE Internacional, Julia Varela and Tony Aguilar UA:PBC Timur Miroshnychenko BBC BBC Two, CBBC Lauren Layfield and Hrvy
Broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) Khabar Agency Khabar TV Yerdana Yerzhanuly and Dinara Sadu LRT LRT televizija
Incidents and controversies
Investigation into event financing