Lo Junior Eurovision Song Contest (anche solo Junior Eurovision, Junior ESC e spesso abbreviato in JESC; in francese: Concours Eurovision de la Chanson Junior), è una competizione canora di importanza internazionale organizzata ogni anno dall’European Broadcasting Union (EBU-UER, l’Unione Europea di Radiodiffusione) a partire dal 2003. Stati Uniti, Nuova Zelanda, Singapore, Germania, Finlandia e Argentina trasmettono l’evento, ma non partecipano alla gara.
Tutte le edizioni dello JESC sono state trasmesse in formato 16:9 widescreen e in alta definizione e come l’ESC hanno avuto anche un CD con le canzoni dell’edizione. Tra il 2003 e il 2006, sono stati prodotti dei DVD con l’intera edizione del concorso, anche se è stata poi cancellata la produzione per lo scarso interesse.
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Junior Eurovision Song Contest |
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| Also known as | Junior Eurovision JESC Junior ESC |
| Genre | Song contest |
| Created by | Bjørn Erichsen |
| Based on | MGP Nordic |
| Presented by | List of presenters |
| Country of origin | List of countries |
| Original language(s) | English and French |
| No. of episodes | 17 contests |
| Production | |
| Production location(s) | List of host cities |
| Running time | 1 hours, 45 minutes (2003) 2 hours (2009–2013) 2 hours, 15 minutes (2005–2008, 2017) 2 hours, 30 minutes (2014–2016, 2018–present) |
| Production company(s) | European Broadcasting Union |
| Distributor | Eurovision |
| Release | |
| Picture format | 576i (SDTV) (2003–present) 1080i (HDTV) (2008–present) |
| Original release | 15 November 2003 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Eurovision Song Contest (1956–2019; 2021–) Eurovision Young Musicians (1982–) Eurovision Young Dancers (1985–2017) Eurovision Dance Contest (2007–2008) Eurovision Magic Circus Show (2010–2012) Eurovision Choir (2017–) |
| External links | |
| Official website | |
| Production website | |
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest (French: Concours Eurovision de la Chanson Junior), often shortened to JESC, Junior Eurovision or Junior EuroSong, is a song competition which has been organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) annually since 2003 and is open exclusively to broadcasters that are members of the EBU. It is held in a different European city each year, however the same city can host the contest more than once.
The competition has many similarities to the Eurovision Song Contest from which its name is taken. Each participating broadcaster sends an act, the members of which are aged 9 to 14 on the day of the contest, and an original song lasting between 2 minutes 45 seconds and 3 minutes to compete against the other entries. Each entry represents the country served by the participating broadcaster. Viewers from the participating countries are invited to vote for their favourite performances by televote and a national jury from each participating country also vote. The overall winner of the contest is the entry that has received the most points after the scores from every country have been collected and totalled. The current winner is Viki Gabor of Poland, who won the 2019 contest in Gliwice, Poland with “Superhero”.
In addition to the countries taking part, the 2003 contest was also broadcast in Estonia, Finland and Germany (who would not debut until the 2020 contest), followed by Andorra in 2006 and Bosnia and Herzegovina (from 2006 to 2011), however these countries have yet to participate. Since 2006, the contest has been streamed live on the Internet through the official website of the contest. Australia was invited in the 2015 contest, while Kazakhstan was invited in the 2018 contest, making it the only major Eurovision event to feature multiple associate member broadcasters.
In a Nutshell. The Junior Eurovision Song Contest began in 2003. The Contest was based on a Scandinavian song festival for children, Melodi Grand Prix Nordic. The EBU picked up the idea for a song contest featuring children and opened the competition to all EBU member broadcasters, making it a pan-European event.
The first contest was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in November 2003. 16 countries competed, with Croatia’s Dino Jelušić taking the title with his song Ti si moja prva ljubav (You Are My First Love). The second competition was organised in Lillehammer by Norwegian broadcaster NRK after the United Kingdom, and later Croatia, declined to host the contest. Since 2004, broadcasters had the right to bid to host the competition. This took the pressure off the young performers since the winning country would not necessarily have to stage the contest the following year.
Over the years, a total of 39 countries has competed in the competition. This includes Serbia and Montenegro which participated for one year only, in 2005, prior to the dissolution of the country. Serbia made its debut as an independent country in 2006 and Montenegro followed in 2014.
Since 2014, the winners of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest have made guest appearances at the Eurovision Song Contest. However, in order to participate all performers must be aged 16 or older. Over the years, several young singers have made the leap from the Junior Eurovision Song Contest to the Eurovision Song Contest. You can read more about those singers here.
Initially, the winner of Junior Eurovision was decided by televote. But from 2008, the winner was chosen through a combination of 50% televote and 50% national jury vote. In 2016, the winner was decided solely through the use of juries and an expert panel. 2017 saw the return of the public vote that accounted for 50% of the final result, the current voting system in place today.
Facts & Figures. Only 16 years old, the Junior Eurovision Song Contest already has a rich history with some pretty amazing facts and figures. On this ever-expanding page, we share with you the ones you should.
- Poland won the 2018 Junior Eurovision Song Contest and hosts the Contest in 2019.
- The first Junior Eurovision Song Contest took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, in November 2003.
- Georgia won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest a record 3 times in total (2008, 2011, 2016).
- Belarus, Russia and Malta have each won the Contest twice.
- The highest number of participants was in 2018 with 20 countries.
- Armenia has the strongest overall record with seven top 3 finishes. Armenia has never been outside the top 10.
- Some singers have graduated from Junior Eurovision to the Eurovision Song Contest including the Tolmachevy Sisters (Russia 2006, 2014) and OG3NE (The Netherlands 2007, 2017).
- The Netherlands, Ukraine, Malta and Belarus have hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest on more than one occasion.