The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was the 22nd edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, held on 16 November 2024 at the in Madrid, Spain, and presented by Ruth Lorenzo, Marc Clotet, and Melani García. It was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). It was the first time that the contest was held in the country. The contest was also the first since to be held on a Saturday.
Broadcasters from seventeen countries participated in the contest, with and returning after six- and eight-year absences respectively, while the opted not to participate after doing so the previous year.
The winner was with the song "To My Mom" by Andria Putkaradze, its fourth win and first since . won the public vote and finished in second place, its best placing to date. finished in third place, its best placing since . finished in fourth place, the first time it placed outside of the top three in four years. finished in fifth place, its best placing since . finished last on its return.
Location
Unlike the Eurovision Song Contest, the winning broadcaster of the previous year's Junior Eurovision Song Contest does not automatically receive the right to host the next edition. However, since (with the exceptions of , , and ) it has become customary for winners to take on hosting duties, and since , the winning broadcaster has had the right of first refusal on hosting the following competition. In 2015, 2014 winner, Italian broadcaster (RAI), was given this right but ultimately opted out of it.
On 27 November 2023, upon its victory in the on home soil, French broadcaster announced that talks would be conducted with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) regarding the hosting of the 2024 contest, as multiple countries had expressed interest in doing so and it did not want a "French monopoly on Junior Eurovision", having already hosted the event twice in a three-year span; It ultimately opted not to host in 2024. Spanish broadcaster (RTVE), which had finished in second place in the 2023 contest, was announced as the host for 2024 on 14 February 2024, with the in Madrid announced as the venue on 10 May 2024. This marked the first time that the contest has been held in the country.
Bidding phase and host city selection
Upon the confirmation of Spain as the host country for 2024, the announced that it would bid to host the contest in a city in the Valencian Community; since 2022, the autonomous community has hosted Benidorm Fest, the Spanish national final for the Eurovision Song Contest. The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, expressed interest in hosting the event in the city, followed by the mayor of Málaga, Francisco de la Torre. Madrid, Granada and Zaragoza also announced their readiness to host the competition. , head of the Spanish delegation for the contest, had said that the broadcaster had received several bids upon the host country announcement and that a decision would be taken within the following weeks. Valencia, Barcelona, Málaga, Granada and Zaragoza were reported to have submitted an official bid by mid-March 2024. Shortly after, however, Zaragoza announced its withdrawal due to the unavailability of the intended venue for an assessment visit. In mid-April, Barcelona was unofficially reported to be in the forefront of the selection process, with considered as the potential venue, but by the end of the month the city dropped out of the running due to the lack of an adequate venue available for late 2024.
RTVE and the EBU scheduled a press conference at in Malmö on 10 May 2024, during the , where the selected host city was revealed to be Madrid, with as the selected venue.
Participants
On 3 September 2024, the EBU announced that 17 countries would participate in the 2024 contest. returned to the contest after a six-year absence, while did so after an eight-year absence, despite originally confirming non-participation. Meanwhile, the opted not to participate after doing so the previous two years.
Prior to the contest, a digital compilation album featuring all the songs from the 2024 contest was put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by Universal Music on 1 November 2024. +Participants of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2024 Country Broadcaster Artist Song Language Songwriter(s) RTSH Nikol Çabeli "" Albanian AMPTV Leo "Cosmic Friend" Armenian, English CyBC Maria Pissarides "Crystal Waters" Greek, English ERR Annabelle "" Estonian Sven Lõhmus "" French GPB Andria Putkaradze "To My Mom" Georgian Kika/NDR Bjarne "Save the Best for Us" German, English TG4 Enya Cox Dempsey "" Irish RAI Simone Grande "" Italian, English PBS "" Maltese AVROTROS "Music" Dutch, English MRT Ana and Aleksej "Marathon" Macedonian, English TVP Dominik Arim "All Together" Polish, English RTP "" Portuguese, Spanish Victoria Nicole SMRTV Idols SM "" Italian RTVE ""Spanish Suspilne Artem Kotenko "Hear Me Now" Ukrainian, EnglishSvitlana Tarabarova
Production and format Slogan, visual and stage design
On 3 September 2024, along with the list of participating countries, RTVE and the EBU revealed the theme art and slogan of the 2024 contest, "Let's Bloom", as well as the stage design. The theme art features the image of a blooming flower, which "references the blossoming of young artists".
Presenters Ruth Lorenzo, Marc Clotet and Melani García were revealed on 12 September 2024 as the presenters of the show. Lorenzo had represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 and hosted Benidorm Fest 2024, while García had represented Spain in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019.
Postcards Contestants were featured in "postcard" video introductions, in which they perform activities interspersed with artificial intelligence (AI)-generated footage of themselves in various imaginary scenarios.
Presentation of the jury votes The presentation of the jury votes was additionally changed for 2024. As opposed to previous years in which the scoreboard was laid out horizontally in descending order, the scoreboard this year was laid out vertically, with each country having its position fixed according to the running order and a score bar to fill out points with. The presenters announced the number of points each country received according to the 1–10 scale; for example, each country is shown the number of countries that have given it 1 point, 2 points, and so forth. The 12 points were still announced by a spokesperson appointed by each country, however, their segments were pre-recorded instead of being a live link. Executive producer stated that this was due to the Saturday timeslot forcing the producers to cap the show at two hours, and also in order to avoid causing stress for the participants.
Contest overview
The event took place on 16 November 2024 at 18:00 CET. Seventeen countries participated, with the running order published on 10 October. 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. Georgia won with 239 points, winning the jury vote. Portugal, who won the online vote, came second with 213 points, with Ukraine, France and Malta completing the top five. Cyprus, Estonia, Ireland, North Macedonia and San Marino occupied the bottom five positions.
The opening of the show featured the traditional flag parade, accompanied by all participants performing the common song "Let's Bloom" with winner María Isabel, winner Zoé Clauzure and 2023 runner-up . The interval acts included a dance number titled "Time to Bloom" performed by actress and choreographed by Borja Rueda, and Abraham Mateo performing a version of "Maniac" titled "". Country Artist Song Points Place1 Simone Grande "" 98 92 Annabelle "" 55 143 Nikol Çabeli "" 126 74 Leo "Cosmic Friend" 125 85 Maria Pissarides "Crystal Waters" 60 136 Titouan "" 177 47 Ana and Aleksej "Marathon" 54 168 Dominik Arim "All Together" 61 129 Andria Putkaradze "To My Mom" 239 110Chloe DelaRosa"" 144 611 Bjarne "Save the Best for Us" 71 1112 Stay Tuned "Music" 91 1013 Idols SM "" 47 1714 Artem Kotenko "Hear Me Now" 203 315 Victoria Nicole "" 213 216 Enya Cox Dempsey "" 55 1517 Ramires Sciberras "" 153 5
Spokespersons The 12 points from the juries were announced by a spokesperson from each country; known spokespersons are listed below.
– Patroklos Patroklou – Arhanna – Lissandro – Anastasia Vasadze – Yulan – Veronika – Maja Krzyżewska – Júlia Machado – Carlos Higes – Anastasiia Dymyd
Detailed voting results Split results Place Combined Jury Online vote Country Points Country Points Country Points 1 239 180 117 2 213 122 81 3 203 103 79 4 177 96 74 5 153 82 64 6 144 80 59 7 126 76 57 8 125 74 9 98 52 50 10 91 34 49 11 71 20 48 12 61 15 46 13 60 14 14 55 14 44 15 55 13 41 16 54 10 40 17 47 1 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="col" scope="rowgroup" rowspan="20" Italy 98 46 52 3 6 8 4 1 6 2 4 6 3 2 7 Estonia 55 41 14 2 6 1 1 4 Albania 126 44 82 6 8 5 7 1 5 6 7 2 3 8 10 8 6 Armenia 125 49 76 10 2 1 12 5 2 12 4 7 2 5 6 8 Cyprus 60 50 10 4 2 1 1 2 France 177 74 103 7 4 5 10 2 3 7 10 5 8 10 7 6 4 10 5 North Macedonia 54 34 20 5 3 3 4 1 1 3 Poland 61 48 13 2 8 3 Georgia 239 59 180 12 12 12 12 12 8 10 8 12 10 12 12 12 12 12 12 Spain 144 64 80 4 5 7 1 10 3 6 8 3 5 8 10 3 5 2 Germany 71 57 14 1 2 7 1 2 1 Netherlands 91 57 34 3 1 7 3 4 3 3 5 4 1 San Marino 47 46 1 1 Ukraine 203 81 122 10 7 10 8 10 12 12 5 10 2 8 4 7 7 10 Portugal 213 117 96 8 6 8 5 5 7 10 7 8 12 6 4 6 4 Ireland 55 40 15 2 4 3 5 1 Malta 153 79 74 2 4 6 6 4 8 6 7 6 3 10 7 5
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 12 , , , , , , , , , , , 2 , , 1
Online voting According to the EBU 2.3 million votes were cast.
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.
Confirmed broadcasters and commentators Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) RTSH RTSH 1, RTSH MuzikëAndri Xhahu AMPTV 1TV and Sevak Hakobyan CyBCRIK 2, RIK SatKyriakos Pastides ERRETV2Estonian: Marko ReikopETV+Russian: Aleksandr Hobotov and Julia Kalenda France TélévisionsFrance 2Stéphane Bern and Valentina ARD/ZDFKika WDR via WDR 5Annika Witzel and Max Plate GPBFirst Channel SportNika Lobiladze TG4 Louise Cantillon RAIRai 2, Simone Barlaam and Kaze PBSTVM NPO/AVROTROSNPO Zapp via NPO 3 Bart Arens and NPO 2 Extra MRTMRT 1Eli Tanaskovska TVPTVP2, TVP PoloniaArtur Orzech RTPRTP1, RTP África, RTP InternacionalCarina Jorge and SMRTV San Marino RTVMirco Zani and Roberto Bagazzoli RTVELa 1, TVE InternacionalSpanish: Julia Varela and Tony AguilarRadio NacionalSpanish: David Asensio and Sara CalvoLa 1, Ràdio 4Catalan: Sònia Urbano and SuspilneSuspilne KulturaTimur Miroshnychenko
Confirmed broadcasters and commentators in non-participating countries Country Broadcaster Channel(s) Commentator(s) HRT HRT 2 Duško Ćurlić and Nika Turković LRT RTL RTL Zwee Eric Lehmann and
Incidents and controversies Implementation of AI