Overview/About. The 20th Junior Eurovision Song Contest took place in the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex, in Yerevan, Armenia, on Sunday 11 December. It was won by Lissandro from France with his song ‘Oh Mamam’.

Hosts: Iveta, Garik and Karina. Eagle-eyed Eurovision fans will recognise Iveta from the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest, where she represented Armenia with her electro-pop classic LoveWave.

The singer-songwriter will be joined by actor, writer, and comedian, Garik Papoyan.

Often described as the ‘funniest guy in Armenia’, Garik wrote Not Alone for Eurovision participant Aram Mp3, which went on to finish 4th for Armenia in Copenhagen 2014.

Completing our talented trio is 16 year old Karina, who most fans will recognise from Junior Eurovision 2019, when she represented Armenia with the song Colors of Your Dream.

They will be joined by Eurovision’s first AI host… Robin The Robot!

Robin is already a superstar in Armenia, and for good reason – as an AI robot, Robin can generate and share feelings. They provide emotional support to hospitalised kids in their recovery phase, can play with them, and will assist in overcoming the difficulties of their treatment.

Robin The Robot will also introduce the Rehearsal Roundups on Thursday 8 and Friday 9 December.

Interval Acts: 11 Champions & Rosa Linn. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Junior Eurovision, all the previous Contest winners were invited to take part in the celebrations in Yerevan, with 11 acts accepting the invitation.

The 8 participants unable to join us in Armenia will have their songs performed by the Tavush Diocese Children’s Choir, with our recently announced host Robin the Robot guiding us through the history of the Contest.

Also performing, are two familiar Armenian faces…

Rosa Linn represented Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Turin earlier this year, and has since seen her song Snap become an international hit. The track, which placed 20th at the Grand Final in Italy, has broken international records by becoming one of the most streamed Eurovision songs of all time, picking up multiple platinum plaques across the planet along the way.

Recently Rosa performed a new version of Snap on The Late Late Show with James Corden in the United States, and will rework the song to include traditional Armenian instruments for her Junior Eurovision performance.

Joining Rosa Linn on stage will be Junior Eurovision 2021 champion Maléna, who will perform her brand new song Can’t Feel Anything. 

Participants of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2022 (Gallery):

Prior to the contest, a digital compilation album featuring all the songs from the 2022 contest was put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by Universal Music on 30 November 2022.

Production.

Visual design. The reveal of the contest’s theme art had been delayed due to the September clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In a press release, AMPTV stated that “preparations for the contest are ongoing, and according to the schedule, it was no longer possible to change the deadlines”, while expressing hope that the contest would be held in peaceful conditions. The theme art and slogan for the contest, “Spin the Magic”, was later revealed on 26 September 2022. The artwork features an Armenian-styled spinning top as the main motif.

Postcards. Contestants were featured in “postcard” video introductions, set in different locations across Armenia. Each began with a short clip of the upcoming performer using the Armenian-style spinning top on a particular piece of structure. Following that, a stream of light in the colours of the upcoming country’s flag emanated from the structure and traveled to the Karen Demirchyan Sports and Concerts Complex, signalling the start of the upcoming performance.

Contest overview. The event took place on 11 December 2022 at 19:00 AMT (16:00 CET). Sixteen countries participated, with the running order published on 5 December 2022. All the countries competing were eligible to vote with the jury vote, as well as participating and non-participating countries under an aggregated international online vote, eligible to vote. France won with 203 points, also winning the jury vote. Armenia came second with 180 points, with Georgia, Ireland, and the United Kingdom, who won the online vote, completing the top five. Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia, Kazakhstan, and Malta occupied the bottom five positions.

The opening of the show featured the traditional flag parade, with all participants performing the common song “Spin the Magic”. During the interval, Maléna performed her new single “Can’t Feel Anything”, followed by Rosa Linn performing “Snap”, with which she represented Armenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Closing the interval, ten previous Junior Eurovision winners performed their winning songs, for the occasion of the 20th edition of the event, alongside Maléna: Bzikebi (2008), Ralf Mackenbach (2009), Vladimir Arzumanyan (2010), Candy (2011), Gaia Cauchi (2013), Vincenzo Cantiello (2014), Destiny Chukunyere (2015), Mariam Mamadashvili (2016), Viki Gabor (2019), and Valentina (2020). The other eight winning songs were performed by the Tavush Diocese Children’s Choir.

As the event began, the United Kingdom’s Freya Skye was unable to sing live for the rehearsal that was filmed before the voting opened for medical reasons, and playback was used. The issue continued into the jury show, where footage from the first rehearsal was used as a replacement. During the jury show, camera and in-ear device issues were reported for Serbia’s Katarina Savić, who was allowed to perform again after the scheduled final performance of Ukraine’s Zlata Dziunka. On the day of the contest, Savić did not perform live due to medical issues, and footage from her jury show performance was used instead.

Active EBU members. 

• 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan – In January 2022, Eldar Rasulov, a member of Azerbaijani delegation, stated that the country must participate regardless where the contest is held in response to rumours that they would withdraw due to the upcoming contest being held in Armenia. However, the country ultimately did not appear on the final list of participants.
• 🇩🇪 Germany – In August 2022, German broadcaster NDR confirmed that they would not be participating in 2022 due to a creative break and partial travel warnings for Armenia issued by the Federal Foreign Office. NDR and Kika would, however, still broadcast the contest, with a view of returning in 2023.
• 🇸🇮 Slovenia – In May 2022, Slovenian broadcaster RTVSLO initially stated that it was considering a return to the contest. However, the country did not end up participating. Slovenia last participated in 2015.

Active EBU member broadcasters in Australia, Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, Norway, Romania, San Marino, Sweden and Wales (which would still participate as part of the United Kingdom) also confirmed non-participation prior to the announcement of the participants list by the EBU.

Non-EBU members.

• 🇷🇺 Russia – Despite having initially confirmed their participation on 13 February 2022, all EBU members from Russia announced their withdrawal from the union on 26 February, in response to their exclusion from the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. On 26 May, the EBU made effective the suspension of its Russian members, causing Russia to indefinitely lose broadcasting and participation rights for future Eurovision events, including Junior Eurovision. The Russian selection process for the 2022 contest was therefore cancelled, with the Russian broadcasters instead devising an alternative competition similar in format to Junior Eurovision, titled Nashe pokoleniye (English: Our Generation), which was held on 18 November 2023, with 13 countries participating.

Broadcasts.