Iceland are not ruling out a Junior Eurovision debut in the future.
Icelandic broadcaster RÚV has confirmed that have not ruled out joining Junior Eurovision, and that they would consider participating in the contest in the future, as RÚV Project Director Rúnar Freyr Gíslason explains: “RÚV has not decided to join the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, but we are still considering it.”
The Icelandic broadcaster sent a delegation to Paris in 2021 to observe the contest. Two staff members were in attendence, and were able to go backstage to see how the contest works and to find out more about the production. In addition to this, the contest was broadcast on RÚV, a few hours behind the live broadcast.
Lack of money to participate in the contest, and to organise a national final, have been cited as reasons why Iceland has not yet participated in Junior Eurovision, along with reported low viewing figures for the 2021 contest.
Say no, say no!
Whilst Iceland have not closed the door on a Junior Eurovision participation, another Nordic nation has. Denmark, who have previously participated three times in 2003, 2004 and 2005, have confirmed they will not be returning to the contest in 2024.
Head of DR’s children’s department, Marlene Boel, has explained that despite the changes the contest has undergone over the years, it is still not something that are looking to participate in at this moment in time: “We are very involved in the competition for our young MGP audience. However, we have decided to analyze the competition and its development in the coming years, and we wish to keep the competition close to us and our core values without participating in the international competition. We know that they have developed the European competition over the years, but in this case we still prefer not to participate in the European version.”
Denmark was chosen as the host country for the very first Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2003, which came to Copenhagen. During their short participation in the contest, they achieved great success, finishing in 5th place, 5th place and 4th place respectively in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
Would you like to see Iceland participate in Junior Eurovision? Do you think Denmark will ever return to the contest? Let us know your thoughts on this in the comments below!
One Response
I have an idea. Would you please ask the EBU to require all future entries for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest to be written by the participants starting in 2024?