Junior Eurovision Song Contest

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The Junior Eurovision Song Contest (sometimes known as Junior Eurovision or JESC) is an international song contest organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) annually since 2003. It is held each year in a different European city. Each participating broadcaster sends an act and an original song lasting between 2.30 and 2.45 minutes in length to compete against several other entries. Each entry represents the country the participating broadcaster serves. The contest is open exclusively to broadcasters that are members of the EBU. The competition boasts many similarites to the Eurovision Song Contest from which its name is taken. Originally the competition was open to children between the ages of 8 and 15, however since 2007 the age limit has been narrowed and presently only children aged 10 to 15 on the day of the contest are allowed to enter.

Contents 1 History 2 Differences between the junior and adult contests 2.1 Broadcasting and performance requirements 2.2 Voting and scoring 3 Entry restrictions 4 Participants 4.1 Début of nations 4.2 Withdrawal of nations 4.3 Notes 5 Winners 6 Future 7 References 8 External links

[edit] History

Danmarks Radio had held a song contest for Danish children in 2000 and 2001, ^[1][2] and the idea was extended to a Scandinavian song festival in 2002, MGP Nordic, with Denmark, Norway and Sweden as participants.^[3][4] The EBU picked up the idea for a song contest featuring children and decided to open the competition to all EBU member broadcasters, making it a pan-European event. The working title of the programme was "Eurovision Song Contest for Children",^[5] branded with the name of the EBU's already popular song competition, the Eurovision Song Contest. Denmark was asked to host the first JESC after their experience with their own contests and the MGP Nordic.

After a successful first contest, the second was plagued with 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, the contest would not take place in the United Kingdom after all.^[6] It is also thought that another factor to their decision was the previous years' audience ratings for ITV which were below the expected amount.^[7]The EBU approached Croatian broadcaster HRT, who had won the previous contest, to stage the event in Zagreb;^[8] though it later emergered that HRT had 'forgotten' to book the venue in which the contest would have taken place.^[9] 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. ^[9]

Broadcasters have had to bid for the rights to host contest since 2004 avoiding such problems from happening again. Belgium was therefore the first country to successfully bid for the rights to host the contest in 2005. ^[10]

All contests have been broadcast in 16:9 widescreen and have had a CD produced with the songs from the show. Between 2003 and 2006, DVDs were also produced of the contest though this ended in 2007 due to lack of interest. ^[11]

Since 2006 the televoting lines have been open throughout the programme and profits made from the televoting during the 2007 contest were donated to UNICEF. ^[12]

The basic logo since the launch of the competition has featured a singing girl, though it was retired after the 2007 contest. ^[13]

In total, four countries have won the competition: Croatia, Spain and Russia have each won once while Belarus have won twice.

Participation in the contest tends to change dramatically each year. Eight countries out of twenty-seven have been represented in every contest. In recent years fewer West European countries have taken part whilst more East European countries have joined the contest. The Scandinavian broadcasters left the contest in 2006 and began organising the MGP Nordic competition again which had not been produced since the Junior Eurovision Song Contest began.

[edit] Differences between the junior and adult contests

Despite the Junior Eurovision Song Contest (JESC) being modelled on the format of the regular Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), there are many distinctive differences between the two formats.

[edit] Broadcasting and performance requirements

• English is now the sole "official" language used by the presenters in the JESC, as there are no longer any French-speaking countries taking part (Belgium is now only represented by the Dutch language broadcaster VRT). Technically, however, broadcasters have the right to announce their votes in French. The ESC uses both English and French throughout. ^[14]
• In the ESC, participants are limited to six performers on stage. In the JESC, up to eight performers are allowed. ^[14]
• The writer or writers of the song must be aged between 10 and 15 and appear on-stage during the performance of the song. There is no such requirement for on-stage presence in the ESC. ^[14]
• Although the main singers must sing live during the contest, backing vocals may be recorded onto the backing track. This is unlike the ESC, where all vocals must be sung live.^[14]
• Whilst the ESC has a song time limit of three minutes, the JESC has a limit of two minutes forty-five seconds. The song cannot last less than two minutes thirty seconds.^[14]
• In the ESC the winning country automatically has the right to host the next contest. In the JESC the country hosting the next contest is selected well in advance of the preceding contest. The winner will receive a trophy and a certificate.^[14]
• Each country's entry must be selected through a televised national final (unless circumstances prevent this and permission is gained from the EBU). An entry in the ESC can be chosen this way or internally by the participating broadcaster.^[14]
• From 2007 onwards, broadcasters of JESC in participating countries 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. Before 2007 and in the ESC, failure to broadcast the contest live would result in penalties for the broadcaster who failed to do so.^[14]

[edit] Voting and scoring

• In recent years every contestant has automatically been awarded 12 points in a bid to prevent the infamous "nul points" situation happening to the younger contestants. In the ESC each contestant starts with zero points.^[14]
• The televoting must be presented by children rather than adults to stay in keeping with the "junior" theme.^[14]
• The presenters read out the first five votes from each member country, while in the ESC the first seven results appear on screen and are not read out.^[14]
• The back-up jury, used by each country if it does not transmit the contest live or the televoting encounters technical difficulties, must contain eight people - four of whom must be under sixteen years of age. The ESC uses eight people, all over sixteen years of age.^[14]
• In 2006 for the first time, viewers were able to vote for any of the songs at any time during the performances. In the ESC voting is only possible for 15 minutes after all the songs have been performed.^[14]

[edit] Entry restrictions

The song must be written and sung in the national language (or one of the national languages) of the country.^[14] Performers must have lived in the country they are representing for at least two and a half years or be of a national of that country.^[14] The song submitted into the contest cannot have previously been released commercially.^[14] The rule stating that children-performers also must not have previously released music commercially was active from 2003 to 2006 and was dropped in 2007 thus allowing already experienced children-singers and bands in the competition.^[14] Only member broadcasters of the EBU may take part in the contest. ^[14]

[edit] Participants

Further information: List of countries in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

Up to and including the 2007 contest, a total of 27 members of the EBU have taken part in the contest.

[edit] Début of nations

Year	Debuting Countries
2003	Belarus,  Belgium,  Croatia,  Cyprus,  Denmark,  Greece,  Latvia, FYR Macedonia,  Malta,  Netherlands,  Norway,  Poland,  Romania,  Spain,  Sweden,  United Kingdom
2004	France,  Switzerland
2005	Russia,  Serbia and Montenegro
2006	Portugal,  Serbia,  Ukraine
2007	Armenia,  Bulgaria,  Georgia,  Lithuania
2008	Azerbaijan,  Bosnia and Herzegovina

[edit] Withdrawal of nations

Year	Withdrawing Countries
2005	France, Switzerland, Cyprus, Poland
2006	Norway, United Kingdom, Latvia, Denmark, Serbia and Montenegro
2007	Croatia, Spain
2008	Sweden, Portugal[15]

[edit] Notes

• Slovakian broadcaster STV and German broadcaster ARD expressed an interest in joining the first contest and were included in a draw for the fifteen countries to take part in the programme (though the results of this draw later became redundant). ^[5] They later withdrew for unknown reasons.
• Ireland and Israel were included in preliminary lists for the 2004 contest but withdrew before the official participation deadline passed. Germany, once again were featured in these lists.^[16]
• Cyprus withdrew just before the 2005 contest because their song was said to be plagiarism. However, they were allowed to vote and participated in the years following. ^{[17] [18]}
• Serbia and Montenegro appeared once before the union was dissolved in 2006. The EBU invited both the Serbian and Montenegrin broadcasters to participate. RTCG of Montenegro declined ^[19] while RTS of Serbia has participated each year since 2006.^[20]
• Denmark, Norway and Sweden withdrew from the 2006 contest claiming that the children were too pressured by the contest.^[21] It was reported that the three broadcasters had requested that the EBU limit the number of participants in the JESC to 12 in order for them to gain better results. ^[22] The MGP Nordic contest, on which the Junior Eurovision Song contest is based was revived by the three countries' broadcasters in 2006 to replace the JESC in the area. Sweden did continue to participate in the JESC with commercial broadcaster TV4 through to the 2007 edition. ^[23][24]
• ITV in the United Kingdom recorded lower than expected viewers for the first contest in 2003. ^[7] To fulfil its three-year contract with the EBU the contest was moved to ITV2 where it was unadvertised and attracted less than 500,000 viewers.
• HRT of Croatia announced that they would withdraw from the 2007 edition and future contests, as otherwise they would have faced a fine from the EBU as they did not screen the 2006 event live and did not broadcast it on a nationally available network. Broadcasters must screen the event live and on a channel available to the majority of the public.^[25]
• Spain made a surprise withdrawal from the 2007 contest. The director of TVE Javier Pons stated that "[The Junior Eurovision Song Contest] produces stereotypes that we don't share. It spreads dangerous 'rays' that form stereotypes. TVE is now looking for other formats that spread different values."^[26][27] As they had withdrawn after the participation deadline set by the EBU, TVE still had to pay the participation fee. ^[28]
• Bosnia and Herzegovina was included on a preliminary list of participants in 2007, but later withdrew due to financial reasons. They were replaced by Georgia.^[29]

[edit] Winners

Year	Winner	Language	Artist	Song	Translation	Date	Venue	Location
2009	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	Kiev
2008	-	-	-	-	-	November 22, 2008	Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Center	Limassol
2007	Belarus	Russian	Alexey Zhigalkovich	S druzyami	With Friends	December 08, 2007	Ahoy Rotterdam	Rotterdam
2006	Russia	Russian	The Tolmachevy Twins	Vesenniy Jazz	Spring Jazz	December 02, 2006	Sala Polivalentă	Bucharest
2005	Belarus	Russian	Ksenia Sitnik	My Vmeste	We Are Together	November 26, 2005	Ethias Arena	Hasselt
2004	Spain	Spanish	María Isabel	Antes Muerta Que Sencilla	Better Dead Than Normal	November 20, 2004	Haakons Hall	Lillehammer
2003	Croatia	Croatian	Dino Jelusić	Ti Si Moja Prva Ljubav	You Are My First Love	November 15, 2003	Forum Copenhagen	Copenhagen

[edit] Future

The next contest takes place on 22 November 2008 in Limassol, Cyprus. Participating countries will be officially announced by the EBU in due course.^[30]

The EBU is currently considering whether or not to use 50% televoting and 50% jury voting to decide the winner of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. There are also plans to introduce an independant jury that are not connected to any of the participating nations. This would act as an 'extra country' in the voting system.^[31][30]

The EBU is currently inviting broadcasters to bid for the rights to host the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009 although it hasn't specifically confirmed that a seventh contest will take place. Belarus, Serbia and Ukraine have been confirmed as bidders for this edition.^[32] TV4 of Sweden had also submitted a bid but they have since decided to withdraw from the contest completely.^[33]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official site
• EBU home page

v • d • e Junior Eurovision Song Contest Years: 2003 · 2004 · 2005 · 2006 · 2007 · 2008 Winners: Dino Jelusić · María Isabel · Ksenia Sitnik · The Tolmachevy Twins · Alexey Zhigalkovich

v • d • e Countries in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest Active Armenia · Belarus · Belgium · Bulgaria · Cyprus · FYR Macedonia · Georgia · Greece · Lithuania · Malta · Netherlands · Romania · Russia · Serbia · Ukraine Inactive Croatia · Denmark · France · Israel · Latvia · Norway · Poland · Spain · Switzerland · United Kingdom · Portugal · Sweden Former Serbia and Montenegro