The Beginner's Guide to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest!

The Beginner’s Guide to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest!

| November 27, 2020

There is likely to be more attention on the Junior edition this year than ever before with many Eurovision fans set to tune in for the first time to quench their Eurovision thirst. To help bring you up to speed, Eurovoxx presents: The Beginners Guide to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest!

In the Beginning....

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest has its origins in a Scandanavian format that emerged in 2002. Melodi Grand Prix Nordic 2002 was open to children aged 8-15 years and included Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In fact, this format was itself a spin off from a children’s version of the Danish national final: De Unges Melodi Grand Prix, which ran within Denmark alone for the two years before the Nordic version began.

The First Show

The first Junior Eurovision Song Contest took place in Copenhagen, Denmark on November 15th 2003. Entries were received from 16 countries, including Belarus, who had not even competed in the adult version by that time.

11 year old Dino Jelusić clinched the first Junior Eurovision victory with a 9 point lead over the runner up from Spain, with his song “Ti si moja prva ljubav” (You are my first love).

It had already been decided that the winning country would not automatically be given the right to host the contest the next year. This had been decided in order to reduce pressure on the young contestants. Instead countries could bid to host the contest. The first contest was a success, but what next?

Teething Problems

The second contest was plagued by location issues. Originally British Broadcaster ITV had been working towards hosting the 2004 contest in the city of Manchester. However, the project was abandoned due to financial and scheduling issues. The Croatian broadcaster HRT was then approached to stage the event. This arrangement fell through when it emerged that the Croatian broadcaster were unable to secure their intended venue due to unavailability.

It was then, with 5 months to go, Norwegian broadcaster NRK swept int to host the contest in Lillehammer, a ski resort town in Southern Norway.

From then on it was decided that broadcasters would have to bid for the rights to host the contest. Belgium was therefore the first country to successfully bid for the rights to host the contest in 2005 when it came to the city of Hasselt.

The Scandinavian Departure

In 2006 the contest hit another speedbump when the founding countries decided to withdraw from the Junior Eurovision and revert back to their original MGP Nordic format. At the time it was reported that the Scandinavian broadcasters were unhappy with the amount of commercial pressure placed on the young contestants in the final, and found the treatment of the contestants unethical. Another factor may have been that, beginning in 2007, a rule change meant that participants were allowed to enter even if they had previously released music commercially. Prior to that, contestants had to have no previous commercial releases.

MGP Nordic continued until 2009 until its cancellation in 2010. Since then Sweden participated intermittently in the Junior Eurovision, but Norway and Denmark have never returned.

In general, participation in the contest changes from year to year. Only Belarus and The Netherlands have participated in every Junior Eurovision to date.

A Rollercoaster of a Ride

Although the contest got off to a good start, it didn’t always stay that way. As the years went by, it appeared that the contest was losing some of its popularity, and we saw fewer countries wanting to participate, so much so that in 2012 and 2013, we saw the lowest number of participating countries in Junior Eurovision: 12. However, in 2014, the numbers started to pick up again with 16 countries taking to the stage in Malta. Since then, the popularity of the contest has continued to go from strength to strength, even seeing a record number of 20 participants in 2018!

Participating Countries

39 countries have competed in the Junior Eurovision at least once. Listed below are all the countries that have ever taken part in the competition alongside the year in which they made their debut. The highest number of participants was in 2018 with 20 countries.

Georgia has won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest a record 3 times in total (2008, 2011, 2016); with Poland, Belarus, Russia and Malta having two wins each.

Armenia has the strongest overall record with seven top 3 finishes. Armenia has never been outside the top 10.

The Netherlands, Ukraine, Malta and Belarus (and soon Poland) have hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest on more than one occasion.

Year	Country making its debut entry
2003	Belarus
	Belgium
	Croatia
	Cyprus
	Denmark
	Greece
	Latvia
	Malta
	Netherlands
	North Macedonia
	Norway
	Poland
	Romania
	Spain
	Sweden
	United Kingdom
2004	France
	Switzerland
2005	Russia
	Serbia and Montenegro
2006	Portugal
	Serbia
	Ukraine
2007	Armenia
	Bulgaria
	Georgia
	Lithuania
2010	Moldova
2012	Albania
	Azerbaijan
	Israel
2013	San Marino
2014	Italy
	Montenegro
	Slovenia
2015	Australia
	Ireland
2018	Kazakhstan
	Wales
2020	Germany

Junior Stars Graduate to the Adult Competition

Since the first Junior Eurovision Song Contest, several Junior participants, including former winners, have gone on to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest.

To see more, see our article: Eurovision can be addictive! Artists who participated in Junior Eurovision and Eurovision.

Unique Rules

Junior Eurovision is broadly based on the concept of its older sibling, but there are some noteworthy differences.

The main vocals for a performance must be sung live, however backing vocals are permitted on the backing track. The EBU announced in June 2020 that this rule would be trialled for one year in the adult contest in 2021.
From 2003-2007, a maximum of 8 performers were allowed on stage, rather than the maximum of 6 in the adult contest. But this was reduced to 6 from 2008 onwards.
From 2005 to 2015, every country was automatically awarded 12 points just before the voting begun, so that no contestant would receive zero points.
The voting itself has undergone a few changes over the years. From 2003-2013, the results were decided by 100% televoting. In 2014, juries were brought in and there was 50% televoting, 50% jury voting. Online voting was first introduced in 2017 and has stayed ever since. And in 2016, for one year only, they had only jury voting (adult jury and kids jury) alongside an expert panel voting. (The expert panel was made up of Christer Björkman, Jedward (Ireland 2011 & 2012) and Mads Grimstad, an opera singer from Denmark.
All songs must written and sung in at least 60% of the national language, with up to 40% being allowed in English or any other language.
Over the years the permitted age range has changed from 8-15 to 10-15, and now currently stands at 9-14 years.
Since 2008, adults have been allowed to assist in the writing of entries. Previously, all writers had to be aged 10 to 15, and they had to be present on stage during the performance in the grand final.

Previous Winners

Year	Host country	Number of entries	Winner	Song	Performer
2003	Denmark	16	Croatia	“Ti si moja prva ljubav”	Dino Jelusić
2004	Norway	18	Spain	“Antes muerta que sencilla”	María Isabel
2005	Belgium	16	Belarus	“My vmeste” (Мы вместе)	Ksenia Sitnik
2006	Romania	15	Russia	“Vesenniy Jazz” (Весенний джаз)	Tolmachevy Sisters
2007	Netherlands	17	Belarus	“S druz’yami” (С друзьями)	Alexey Zhigalkovich
2008	Cyprus	15	Georgia	“Bzz..”	Bzikebi
2009	Ukraine	13	Netherlands	“Click Clack”	Ralf Mackenbach
2010	Belarus	14	Armenia	“Mama” (Մամա)	Vladimir Arzumanyan
2011	Armenia	13	Georgia	“Candy Music”	CANDY
2012	Netherlands	12	Ukraine	“Nebo” (Небо)	Anastasiya Petryk
2013	Ukraine	12	Malta	“The Start”	Gaia Cauchi
2014	Malta	16	Italy	“Tu primo grande amore”	Vincenzo Cantiello
2015	Bulgaria	17	Malta	“Not My Soul”	Destiny Chukunyere
2016	Malta	17	Georgia	“Mzeo” (მზეო)	Mariam Mamadashvili
2017	Georgia	16	Russia	“Wings”	Polina Bogusevich
2018	Belarus	20	Poland	“Anyone I Want to Be”	Roksana Węgiel
2019	Poland	19	Poland	“Superhero”	Viki Gabor

Don’t forget to tune in this Sunday 29 November at 17:00 CET for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020! Who do you think will be victorious this year?? Let us know in the comments section!

All images and videos used on this site have been used in good faith, and are understood to be available in the public domain. All text published on this site is the property of eurovoxx and eurovoxx.tv and is not to be reproduced without our permission. For queries or questions please contact us.

JUNIOR EUROVISION