Junior Eurovision 2023: What We Know So Far (September 2023)

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're starting to get more information now, so let's take a look at what we know so far about Junior Eurovision 2023, two 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: Olivier Minne, Laury Thilleman, Ophenya

The first two of these hosts were announced during a press conference on 27/9. The latter was revealed in a blog post by RTVE, the Spanish broadcaster.

Olivier Minne had already hosted in 2021, having been the English-speaking host (a role which he will probably reprise). Laury Thilleman is a presenter, model, journalist among other things, who has recently presented such shows on France Televisions as Victoires de la Musique and Fête de la Musique. Ophenya is a French TikToker with more than 6 million followers. In addition to stage hosting duties, she will accompany the participants in the green room.

Date: 26th of November

Interesting to note that this is the first November contest since 2020. 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.

Theme & Slogan: Heroes

The slogan 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:

This new graphic was posted for the first time when the list of participating countries was announced. Some had suspected usage of AI to design the graphic, however some graphic designers pointed out that accompanying this would be a movable 3D graphic, and it would not make sense to generate a still image using AI and then trying to animate that. Furthermore, the version with AI-looking defects was not the official HQ version. More moving graphics were posted on 25/9, when the intro logo to the Albanian national final performance was posted on the official Youtube channel.

Stage Design: revealed on 27/9:

The 30m centrepiece features a 12m-high screen in the shape of wings, which "reflects the desire to fly away, create and imagine".

Interval Acts: Amir

At the press conference on 27/9, it was announced that discussions are underway with big international artist. So far, Amir (France 2016) has been confirmed.

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. On 4/9, it was announced that Ana Maria Bordas from RTVE had joined the Steering Group for JESC.

Non-participating Countries: Denmark, Norway, Sweden (SVT), Finland, Iceland, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Switzerland, Lithuania, Czechia, Slovakia, Kazakhstan, Austria, Luxembourg, Moldova, Belgium, Latvia, San Marino, Romania, Israel, Cyprus, Australia, Azerbaijan, Serbia

Reasoning for the various countries can be found in the previous blog post. Countries in italics had taken part in the contest at least once in the past two years.

Participating Countries: Albania (Viola Gjyzeli), Armenia, Estonia (Arhanna Sandra Arbma), France, Georgia (Anastasia Vasadze), Germany (Fia), Ireland, Italy, Malta (Yulan Law), Netherlands (Sep & Jasmijn), North Macedonia (Tamara Grujevska), Poland (Maja Krzyżewska), Portugal (Júlia Machado), Spain (Sandra Valero), Ukraine, United Kingdom

The participant list was announced on 29/8, noting as above the withdrawals of Kazakhstan and Serbia, the non-participation of Azerbaijan, and the debut of Estonia, being the last Baltic country to debut at the junior contest.

With 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.

RTSH confirmed on 5/7 that Albania would once again return to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Furthermore, they would also return to the national final "Junior Fest", but this year it would be influenced by the music creation platform "Talent", which encourages the creativity of young Albanian artists. On 20/7, submissions were opened, and stayed open until 25/8. On 3/8, RTSH posted a new trailer for Junior Fest 2023. In addition to a logo change, a slogan was introduced for the first time - "Bëhu Hero I Vetvetes!", which translates to "be your own hero". An Instagram account @junior_fest_rtsh was also created for the JESC national final. The studios would also open a few days before the national final, so contestants could have rehearsals. Contestants will also have their own vocal coaches. On 30/8, the 16 participants of the national final were revealed. On 22/9, the national final took place at the Pyramid of Tirana and was broadcast live. The eventual winner would be Viola Gjyzeli, with the song "Bota Ime" or "my world". Viola will now represent Armenia in Nice.

On 4/7, AMPTV announced that they will once again select their next representative via an open call. Candidates can apply solo, as a duo, or a group not exceeding 6 members, but they must cover two songs. The deadline for submissions was 23/7, after which there will be two rounds of auditions, the second one being live and judged by a professional jury. Last year, the jury involved such names as David Tserunyan (longtime Armenian head of delegation) and Rosa Linn. This year, the committee consists of Tserunyan, other longtime members of the Armenian delegation, Sona Rubenyan (part of Garik & Sona, Garik being Garik Papoyan who co-hosted JESC2022 and wrote Aram MP3's Eurovision song), as well as Malena and her producer Tokionine, as revealed in an Instagram story on 4/8. On 8/8, it was reported that the pre-final selection stage was complete, and 20 young singers were selected to compete to represent Armenia in Nice. One particular name of note is Sati Sargsyan, who performed Tattoo by Loreen at the auditions with very strong vocals and is strongly speculated to be selected for JESC2023. Owing to the recent conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, during the press conference on 27/9, Martin Osterdahl commented that the EBU is monitoring the evolution of the situation and whether Armenia will still participate in JESC2023. The Armenian head of delegation was also present at that press conference, which suggests likely participation, however it is too early to tell.

Estonia will debut at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2023. In addition, less than an hour after the announcement of the list of countries, ERR revealed that their representative will in fact be 11-year-old Arhanna Sandra Arbma, who had won the "Tähtede Lava" song contest in 2022. In addition, it was revealed that the lyrics to Arhanna's song was written by Leelo Tungal and will entirely be in Estonian, while the song was produced by Karl-Ander Reisman, a co-author of Hope (Estonia ESC2022).

On 27/9, in addition to announcing the stage design and hosts, it was revealed that Zoé Clauzure will be the host entry, with the song "Coeur", which was written by Noée and Jérémy Chapron and Julien Combal, who had also worked with Valentina and Carla. The disco pop song talks about bullying at school. It was also announced that Stéphane Bern and Carla will return to commentate on the show for France Televisions.

Anastasia Vasadze was selected through the national final named "Ranina". It concluded on 10/6, and the final consisted of 5 candidates. On 12/9, GPB unexpectedly announced that Vasadze will be joined by Oto Bazerashvili and Nikoloz Kharati for JESC2023. The two boys had previously been finalists in Ranina 2022. This marks the first non-solo act for Georgia at JESC since 2015. On 29/9, GPB reported that the Georgian entry is currently being recorded, and that the music video will be filmed in the next few days. The song was written by Betkho and composed by Mebo Nutsubidze, produced by Giorgi Asanishvili, and will be half-English and half-Georgian. This means that for the first time since 2019, Giga Kukhianidze, known for composing many of Georgia's winning and/or successful entries, will not be taking part in the composition. The songwriters commented that the song was built on the slogan "Heroes", and "has a part that makes you feel like a hero".

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. On 23/8, Eurovision.de revealed that instead of a direct internal selection or a televised national final, there will instead be an online vote for the German representative in Nice. The vote will take place on kika.de , and the five candidates will be announced on 8/9 upon which voting will also start. Voting will close on 17/9, the day after which the winning candidate (also decided by 50% jury voting) will be announced. Only people from Germany, Austria and Switzerland were able to vote however. The five candidates were presented with performance videos, as well as a minute-long live singing clip of a demo. Only the winning candidate will receive a music video and proper studio version of the track. On 18/9, it was announced that Fia had won the online selection with her song "Ohne Worte" (without words), which she had partially performed with sign language. It is not yet known when the studio cut of the song will be released; regardless Fia will represent Germany in Junior Eurovision 2023. On 29/9, it was announced that Consi will return to commentate on JESC for a fourth year.

Ireland is returning to their national final Junior Eurovision Eire, 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. The national final started broadcasting on 3/9, and there will be four qualifying rounds, one semi-final and a grand final on 8/10. On 21/8, it was announced that Louise Cantillon and Darragh O Caoimh will return as presenters of the national final, while Aindriu de Paor will be one of the judges, replacing Chris Greene. Niamh Ni Chroinin remains as a judge as well. As with the previous editions, contestants perform Irish cover versions of well-known songs.

Italy is returning to an internal selection. As reported on 7/7, the contest will this year be broadcast on Rai 2 as opposed to Rai 1. Mario Acampa will return as the commentator. The announcement of the Italian representative will be made in September, and will (apparently) be unrelated to "The Voice Kids". The choice will, according to Eurofestival News, likely be made by Antoniano di Bologna.

Malta returned to their national final MJESC, full name Malta Junior Eurovision Song Contest. The "Live Show" took place on 5/8, while the final took 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. On 3/7, the 24 semi-finalists were announced, 8 of which had already appeared previously on MJESC. These semi-finalists then went through two semi-finals which took take place on 22/7 and 29/7, but the finalists were only determined at the Live Show. On 12/8, the final took place, and Yulan Law was revealed to be the winner of the national final. Yulan had previously attempted to represent Malta in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Song submissions opened on 17/8, and will close on 31/8. The final selected song, which must be in English and/or Maltese, was going to be announced on 15/9, however as of writing this segment it has not yet taken place.

The Netherlands returned to their longstanding national final Junior Songfestival. It was hosted once again by Matheu (NL JESC2019) and Stefania (Greece 2021). The nine finalists were announced on 16/6, with all of them being 11 or older. The grouping was announced on 1/7, and there were a solo singer, a duet, and two trios. Snippets of their songs were released on 14/7, and the first full song was posted on 18/7, while the final song was posted on 26/7. On 23/9, the national final took place. Sep & Jasmijn were eventually victorious with their song "Holding On To You", getting 12 points from the public, the kids jury and the professional jury. The duo will now represent the Netherlands in Nice.

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:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amVUYWzqmBY

On 15/9, amidst speculation of North Macedonia returning to adult Eurovision, the Twitter account "Macedonia in Eurovision" posted a photo of Grujevska in the studio with Robert Bilbilov and Darko Dimitrov.

Poland returned to their national final Szansa Na Sukces, which has served as the JESC national final since 2021. The casting for the national final took place on 13-14/5, where the participants of the three qualifying episodes were selected. On 25/8, the semi-final jurors were revealed, and included Viki Gabor, Sara James, Roksana Wegiel, among others. The first semi-final took place on 3/9. The final of Szansa Na Sukces took place on 24/9, and Maja Krzyżewska came out on top with the song "I Just Need A Friend". Maja will now represent Poland in Nice.

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. It was revealed on 9/8 that the composers of Julia's song for JESC are Aurora Pinto, João Direitinho, Fernando Daniel and Twins (co-writer of Ai Coracão). On 22/9, the composers revealed that the song “has a universal message” as “there is a place where you can feel at home and no one is alone in this fight. Although there is a lot of talk about this theme, it’s still something that affects a lot of people across several generations”. Julia added that the song is a reflection of her own journey and a "support anthem" for the younger generation. It was later announced that Machado's song will be released on 9/10. Some images from the Festival Da Cancão Instagram page revealed that the music video will involve Machado standing in front of a large white light on a black background doing various poses.

Spain once again used a casting process to select their candidate for Nice. On 7/7, it was announced by RTVE that Sandra Valero, an 11 year old from Valencia, will represent Spain in Nice. The casting video was also shared online, which featured very strong vocals from Valero singing "Parte De Tu Mundo" from the Spanish version of "The Little Mermaid". It was announced on Twitter on 29/7 that RTVE had received more than 60 songs. Earlier, Valero also said that she would like to sing some sort of ballad that "has its rhythm". On 15/9, it was announced at a press conference that Valero's song will be titled "Loviu". The song was composed by Luis Ramiro, Alejandro Martínez Valderrama and Funambulista, and was produced by David Parejo Martín. The song is described as "catchy, international and with many staging possibilities". "Loviu" will be released on 3/10.

On 17/6, UA:PBC opened submissions for the Ukrainian JESC national final, which closed on 9/7. The national final will be organized in collaboration with producer Svitlana Tarabarova, who had been a JESC juror in 2017 and was also on the shortlist of potential jurors for ESC2023. The five finalists were announced on 24/7. The jury for the national final will be determined by online voting, same as in 2022. On 30/7, UA:PBC announced that German Nenov will return as the creative director for the Ukrainian entry for 2023. He had fulfilled this role in the two years prior, and was also the general creative director for (adult) Eurovision 2023. On 15/8, UA:PBC uploaded a video, which revealed that three of the five finalists did not have their own song, and thus new songs were written in collaboration with the aforementioned producer Svitlana Tarabarova. On 31/8, the running order of the national final was announced, as well as the date which is 1/10. The national final will be presented by Timur Miroshnychenko and Anna Tulieva. On 17/9, the online voting ended, and it was revealed 3 days later that Ihor Kondratyuk, Jerry Heil and Alyona Alyona will be the jurors for the national final, and will take up 50% of the vote. On 23/9, the 5 songs in the national final were released. The national final itself will take place on 1/10, and will be in an online format as in 2022.

So that's all we know about Junior Eurovision 2023 so far as of September. Here's the video I recorded actually on 1/10:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtRu_gZQ8HU