Junior Eurovision 2023: What We Know So Far (June 2023)
- Jun 27, 2023
- 13 min read
It's that time of year again, where nothing really happens in the fandom. The official term would be "off season". But of course, for us hardcore Eurovision fans, there is no end to the Eurovision season. And while for many people, Junior Eurovision is just a cute little footnote for the actual contest, for me and several others, we find it just as important as adult Eurovision. We don't have a huge amount of information at the moment, but various bits of information is slowly coming in. So let's take a look at what we know so far about Junior Eurovision 2023, five months out from the contest.
Junior Eurovision 2023
Host Country: France
It's actually a rather recent phenomenon that the winning country would then go on to host the upcoming contest. Previously we even had countries like Malta or Bulgaria host the contest, despite having never won the contest. Poland first did it in 2019, they did it again in 2020 (albeit remotely), and then France did it for the first time. After that of course we had Armenia win in Paris, and we went to Yerevan. Then France won in Yerevan, and immediately at the press conference, the French delegation expressed their interest in hosting the upcoming contest.
Strangely they were never officially confirmed as the host country even as a formality, until early April, when the host city was announced alongside the host country. Speaking of which...
Host City: Nice (Palais Nikaïa)
It had been rumoured that the initial host city choice in 2021 had been Nice rather than Paris. Presumably the French delegation did not want kids to go any further than Paris due to Covid concerns, so they held the contest in Paris instead. But this year the pandemic situation is of course much better, so we are finally going to the French Riviera. Although according to Eurofans from France, Nice is apparently a rather racist city. So if you don't look outwardly European, be careful if you plan on travelling there.
The Palais Nikaïa is a venue that can hold 9000 people. Would be small by adult Eurovision standards, but a relatively big venue by Junior standards. Incidentally, "Nikaïa" is the French transliteration of the Ancient Greek name of the city, so the name of the arena literally translates to "palace Nice".
Hosts: unknown
No real point in speculating this far out, but I reckon Carla will probably be involved again one way or another. And/or one of their more recent JESC entrants. Would be great to have Barbara Pravi as a host, but she's probably too busy writing their next JESC entry.
Date: 26th of November
Interesting to note that this is the first November contest since...2020. I thought it was longer ago than that, but Paris 2021 and Yerevan 2022 were both hosted in December, mid-December at that. It was hosted so late in the year that one way or another, these two contests tied a Christmas theme into the show. But this year, we seem to be returning to the norm of hosting the contest in late November as opposed to December. The last December contest before 2021 was 2012, and even then it was only the 1st of December. Paris was by far the latest contest in the year; the latest before then was 2007, when it was hosted on the 8th in Rotterdam.
Part of that decision to move back to November might have been driven by the fact that some of the participants in Yerevan got sick due to the cold and weren't able to perform at their best vocally. In particular, Sophie Lennon from Ireland and Freya Skye from the UK both suffered colds and sore throats. Fortunately Sophie was able to mostly recover and she gave a strong performance on the night, however Freya was not and many of the parts with high and/or falsetto notes had to be sung by the backing dancers, and the long note was replaced by a "let's go Junior Eurovision" shout. One wonders whether the UK would have won the contest, had Freya been able to properly sing. Certainly I still see people suggesting that to be the case. Even so, the UK did still win the televote. Regardless, it seems that this sickness was part of what caused them to move the contest back to where it had been in the year pre-2021.
Slogan: Heroes
This was revealed during the press conference on 10/5 in Liverpool, alongside a dramatic trailer. The French head of delegation, Alexandra Redde-Amiel, says that they "wanted it to be an immediate signal of good times". Also noteworthy that this is the first time the Eurovision heart is being used in the generic logo of JESC, as follows:
Time: 16:00 CET
I normally wouldn't put a section for this because it's relatively trivial, but there has been some confusion in the past few weeks on the show's timing. On the website of the Palais Nikaïa, they wrote that the contest would start at 20:00. This is in direct conflict with what the post on eurovision.tv wrote, which is 16:00, as it had been for basically every single year before then. To quote the post from the Eurovision website: "Junior Eurovision fans should clear their diaries for Sunday, 26 November at 16:00 CET, because that's when the Competition will take place in the host city, Nice". This is what was written on the Eurovision website as of last month, so I'd trust them rather than the website of the host arena. Some confusion in communication, it appears.
Rule Changes: "all performances must be carried out live"
This is what was written on the RTVE website when they announced the opening of casting applications. Many people have since interpreted this as requiring fully live vocals, however if you look at the direct next sentence after this, it says: "In addition, no processor will be allowed for ... full-screen insertion of video clips as part of stage performances."
Remember Poland last year? "To The Moon"? Where they had clips of Laura and the backing dancers in school uniforms? I think that's more what they're trying to ban, rather than backing vocals on the backing track. Plus given that kids more easily get nervous than adults, it would be beneficial actually to have backing vocals on the track. So when some people asked why they implemented this first in JESC rather than adult ESC, my answer is that they didn't implement it. They're implementing a ban on cutting to music videos during the live performance. If they were actually banning non-live vocals, they would most likely specify that in a separate clause.
Budget: unknown
Most likely lower than that of Yerevan though. Yerevan 2022 had a literal government working group set up for the show, with a budget almost reaching that of smaller-scale 2010s ADULT Eurovisions. Redde-Amiel didn't mention much in the way of budgeting, other than "different from Armenia 2022".
Steering Group: member changes
Like its equivalent in the adult contest, the Steering Group of JESC has seen some of its members replaced with new ones. In particular, Ekaterina Orlova from the Russian broadcaster was removed from the group after a year of suspension, with Melissa Hardinge of the BBC taking her place. The rest of the members remain unchanged, with AMPTV, AVROTROS, France Televisions, Rai, RTP and TVP represented in the group.
Non-participating Countries: Denmark, Norway, Sweden (SVT), Finland, Iceland, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Switzerland, Lithuania, Czechia, Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Austria, Luxembourg, Moldova, Belgium (VRT), Latvia, San Marino, Romania, Israel, Cyprus, Belarus, Russia
For most of these countries, the issue is with finances. However, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Switzerland, and Belgium have stated that they do not rule out either a return or a debut in the future. With VRT in fact, they explicitly said that they will consider it next year, possibly motivated by the success of Gustaph. No statement has been made by RTBF yet, who will be responsible for Belgium's participation in adult Eurovision 2024.
Iceland was reported to be planning some sort of national final for Junior Eurovision, and was widely viewed to be the most likely debutant, but they didn't even broadcast Yerevan 2022. It remains to be seen whether they will broadcast Nice 2023, as they did with Paris 2021.
Perhaps noteworthy as well that the current Moldovan head of delegation is actually also the head of children's programming at the national broadcaster. Again, although they did not mention it in their statement, the issue seems to be with finances. We often say that Moldova at adult Eurovision is "5 euros and a dream", well, if their adult Eurovision budget is so low, then how would they be able to finance taking part in Junior?
Also Slovakia had inexplicably expressed interest in debuting in Junior Eurovision in 2019 and 2021, despite them simultaneously saying interest in Eurovision was low in the country. A new director-general for the national broadcaster was elected in 2022, however Slovakia will remain out of the contest, both adult and junior, for the "near future", largely due to funding issues.
People noted that since at least 2018, the EBU has been successful in getting the host country of next year's adult Eurovision to take part in Junior Eurovision this year. Portugal did JESC2017 (although they had been taking part before then), Israel did JESC2018, Netherlands did JESC2019 (they've taken part every single year), Italy did JESC2021, and the UK did JESC2022, as did Ukraine who are very active in JESC. Well, that streak ends this year. Despite a jury-favouring voting system and previously having done JESC up to 2014 (cf. Norway and Denmark up to 2005), SVT have said that they will NOT take part in Junior Eurovision in Nice. Of course this still leaves TV4, the other Swedish JESC broadcaster, free to do it, but at this point it's not super likely. I was talking to a Swedish Eurofan, and he said to me that SVT don't have much funding at the moment. This could have some implications for ESC2024, but I'll get to that in a separate blog post. For now, unless TV4 for some reason accepts the costs of participation, we aren't seeing Sweden in Nice. It's worth noting as well that while Sweden was in the contest, they had intermittently used a national selection for their entry, named "Lilla Melodifestivalen", or literally "small Melodifestivalen". One imagines that any return to the contest would likely involve the hosting of such an event, or at least when SVT is involved.
One standout country from that list is Kazakhstan. So far, they are the only country to withdraw from the contest, having taken part in Yerevan. It was being noted that interest in Eurovision seemed to be waning on the part of Khabar Agency (the Kazakh EBU associate member). They had broadcast several editions of adult Eurovision in the years prior, but they stopped doing that since 2022 and didn't broadcast Liverpool 2023 either. Prior to Yerevan 2022, officials at Khabar stated that their result in JESC2022 would have a big impact on whether they debut in Eurovision 2023. And of course this was their first time outside the top 10 - quite far outside the top 10 in fact. It's not known exactly why they decided to withdraw from the contest, with some people suggesting that they pulled a hissy fit after flopping in one contest, but their official statement mentioned "internal conditions" and "creating the best conditions for participation in the Competition in 2024" as their reasons for withdrawal. So it may be an issue of low viewership, lack of funding and/or reevaluating their strategy on how to stop sending ballads year after year. Regardless, they did state that they aim to broadcast the show from Nice, and we may well see them return (at least to the junior contest) in 2024.
Returnees/debutants: probably Azerbaijan?
Azerbaijan wasn't in JESC2022 because, well, Armenia. But now it's back in France, and they were in France last time around, so it should be fine for them to participate again. Although given their new head of delegation, it remains to be seen 1. whether they will participate, and 2. if they do, whether they will find local composers for their JESC entry. On 24/6, Azerbaijani Eurovision fan site 12xal reported that Ictimai have not yet made a decision on participation, although said decision will be made "in the coming days".
As mentioned earlier, no Iceland this year. Although in my video of this, I did mention the Faroe Islands. I used Wales as an example, saying that the Welsh broadcaster, S4C, is also not in the EBU like the Faroese broadcaster KVF. It turns out that that's not correct. S4C is under the "United Kingdom Independent Broadcasting" group, or UKIB, alongside broadcasters like Channel Four, STV and ITV. Therefore the Welsh broadcaster is in the EBU (as is the Scottish one), and as I wrote elsewhere, permitting broadcasters of non-sovereign states to enter the EBU independent of their country, such as in the case of the Faroe Islands, would open a whole new can of worms that I think the EBU simply doesn't want to deal with right now. So tough luck to the Faroe Islands.
At this point, the only country which (to me) has a realistic prospect of debuting at the contest in Nice is Estonia. They are the only Baltic country to have never taken part in the contest, and had previously said that they do not participate due to lack of funding, but also do not rule out debuting in the future. ERR have not made any statements regarding Junior this year so far, and until they do, I would point to them as the most likely debutant at this point, after Iceland said no.
So TL;DR: Azerbaijan's probably coming back, Estonia might debut, but even that's questionable. On a more positive note...
Participating Countries (so far): Armenia, France, Georgia (Anastasia Vasadze), Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, North Macedonia (Tamara Grujevska), Poland, Portugal (Júlia Machado), Spain, Ukraine, United Kingdom (+ Albania, Serbia)
Albania and Serbia haven't officially confirmed yet, but since they were also in Yerevan and we haven't seen much of a funding crisis from them, it's extremely likely that they will continue to take part. Alexandra Redde-Amiel, the French head of delegation and producer of JESC2023, said at the 10/5 press conference that at that time they did not have the exact number of countries taking part yet, but that they would know by the end of May or beginning of June. So the country list is already set in stone at this point.
With Armenia, France, Italy, and the UK, there's not much to talk about. They're almost certain to use an internal process, and there isn't much point in speculating who will be chosen since we usually don't get selection shortlists. France is probably using some song co-written by Barbara Pravi. She's like the Giga Kukhianidze of France at JESC.
Anastasia Vasadze was selected through the national final named "Ranina". It concluded on 10/6, and the final consisted of 5 candidates. Anastasia's song will likely be released maybe a month before the contest, so around late October. Giga Kukhianidze will likely continue to be involved in the songwriting process, perhaps even Iru. For now, here's Vasadze's performance at the final of Ranina:
Germany is also going internal. It is perhaps surprising that this was the case, given that they had previously used a national final. In 2021, it was named "Junior ESC – Wer fährt nach Paris?", and featured 3 singers (but no jury vote). In 2020, it was named "Dein Song für Warschau", and featured 5 singers (but no public vote). On 25/5, KiKa (the German children's broadcaster) announced that for the first time they would select their candidate internally. It is not known when the candidate or their song will be announced.
Ireland is returning to their national final, to be hosted by Irish-language broadcaster TG4. Initial submissions for the national final ended on 15/2, and the second round of submissions ended on 31/3. It is not known when the national final will take place yet, but it is likely the winner will receive a song, as opposed to them needing to bring their own song.
Malta is returning to their national final MJESC, full name Malta Junior Eurovision Song Contest. The semi-final will take place on 5/8, while the final will take place on 12/8, with voting split into 20% televoting and 80% jury. This does not select the song however; the contestants take part in the national final by covering other songs, and the song for JESC2023 will then be selected through a open call to composers. The final selected song will be announced on 15/9.
The Netherlands will return to their longstanding national final Junior Songfestival. It will take place in Rotterdam on 23/9, to be hosted once again by Matheu (NL JESC2019) and Stefania. There will be 4 acts, and if it follows the previous pattern, those 4 acts will be four out of a soloist, a duet, a girl group, a boyband, and a mixed group. 24 singers were selected from 51 in early June, and groups will be formed by AVROTROS. The nine finalists were announced on 16/6, with all of them being 11 or older. The grouping will be announced in due course.
North Macedonia stands out for being the only country to take part in Junior Eurovision this year but not adult Eurovision. They have compensated for this by being the first country to announce their candidate for Nice: a 12-year-old named Tamara Grujevska. On 16/5, Tamara was announced as the Macedonian representative in Junior Eurovision 2023, and was selected after a series of live auditions. She has already won multiple awards and contests, such as the "Skoljkice" in Serbia. Cheryl Porter also provides her with online vocal coaching lessons. It is not known when Tamara's song will be released yet, however MRT have announced that Robert Bilbilov will be involved in writing the Macedonian entry. Bilbilov had previously co-written "Green Forces" (NM JESC2021) and "Proud" (NM ESC2019). For now, here is one of her songs:
Poland will return to their national final Szansa Na Sukces, which was previously used for adult Eurovision, but has served as the JESC national final since 2021. The casting for the national final took place on 13-14/5, although it is not yet known when the national final itself will take place.
Portuguese participation in the contest in Nice was officially announced on 20/6, in a short clip featuring Nicolas Alves in an Instagram post by the official Festival Da Cancao Instagram page. On 25/6, the final of The Voice Kids Portugal took place, and the winner was Júlia Machado. As a general rule, the coach of the selected TVK candidate will co-write the Portuguese JESC entry song. For example, Carolina Deslandes was Nicolas Alves' coach in The Voice Kids, and she then co-wrote "Anos 70". As Machado is young enough to take part in Junior Eurovision, her coach Fernando Daniel will now co-write the Portuguese JESC entry for 2023. Fernando Daniel had already previously been involved with Portugal at Junior Eurovision, as he had coached Simão Oliveira back in 2021 and went on to co-write "O Rapaz". In the meantime, here is one of Julia's performances at The Voice Kids:
Spain will once again be using a casting process to select their candidate for Nice. The application opened on 30/5, and will close on 26/6. The casting itself will take place in early July. The song will be internally selected, and announced within 10 days of the casting. On 22/6, RTVE announced a deadline extension to 3/7.
On 17/6, UA:PBC opened submissions for the Ukrainian JESC national final. The submissions will be open until the 9th of July. In contrast to previous years, young singers are not required to have their own song to apply for the preselection, and ones lacking a song will be given one from UA:PBC based on style and vocal qualities. Original songs must be at least 60% in the Ukrainian language. The national final will be organized in collaboration with producer Svitlana Tarabarova. Live castings will take place on 13/7, and the 5 finalists will be chosen by a group of 3 music professionals. The national final itself is expected to be held online in October, same as last year. The jury for the national final will be determined by online voting, also as in 2022.
We don't have any info from Albania or Serbia yet, but Albania will most likely run a little national final called "Junior Fest", while Serbia will probably continue with an internal selection involving live auditions. Those two are the only countries from 2022's 16 who have not made any statements at all regarding Junior Eurovision.
So that's all we know about Junior Eurovision 2023 so far as of June. If you'd like to see me narrate part of this blog post, here's the video (with some outdated info):
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