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Junior Eurovision Song Contest
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The 'singing girl' who was featured in every logo of the contest before it was retired in 2008. [1]
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest (French: Concours Eurovision de la Chanson Junior),[1] 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 minutes 30 seconds and 2 minutes 45 seconds in length[2] to compete against several other entries. Each entry represents the country the participating broadcaster serves. Viewers from the participating countries are encouraged to vote for their favourite performances through televoting (though some broadcasters may not screen the contest live and therefore a back-up jury is used). The ten entries that have received the most votes in each country are awarded points ranging from 1 to 12. The eventual winner of the contest is the entry that has received the most points after all scores have been collected.
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[3], 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.[4]
Viewing figures tend to vary each year depending on which countries are participating though it tends to attract around 25 million viewers each year. The contest has also been screened in countries that have not taken part including Germany, Finland, Estonia, Australia[5] and Israel.[6] Since 2006 the contest has been streamed live on the Internet through the official website of the contest[7] using Octoshape P2P technology.
Origins and History
The origins of the contest date back to 2000 when Danmarks Radio held a song contest for Danish children that year and the following year. [8][9] The idea was extended to a Scandinavian song festival in 2002, MGP Nordic, with Denmark, Norway and Sweden as participants.[10][11] 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 working title of the programme was "Eurovision Song Contest for Children",[12] 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.[5] ITV then announced that due to financial and scheduling reasons, the contest would not take place in the United Kingdom after all.[13] It is also thought that another factor to their decision was the previous years' audience ratings for ITV which were below the expected amount.[14]The EBU approached Croatian broadcaster HRT, who had won the previous contest, to stage the event in Zagreb;[15] though it later emergered that HRT had 'forgotten' to book the venue in which the contest would have taken place.[16] 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. [16]
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.[17]
All contests have been broadcast in 16:9 widescreen and in high definition.[18] All have also had a CD produced with the songs from the show. Between 2003 and 2006, DVDs were also produced of the contest though this ended due to lack of interest. [19]
The winner of the contest is decided by a televote. Between 2003 and 2005 viewers had around 10 minutes to vote after all the songs had been performed. Since 2006 the televoting lines have been open throughout the programme[20] and profits made from the televoting during the 2007 contest were donated to UNICEF. [21]
In total, four countries have won the competition: Croatia, Spain and Russia have each won once while Belarus have won twice.
Prior to 2007, a participating broadcaster's failure in not broadcasting the contest live would incurr a fine. Now broadcasters 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.[22]
Format
The format of the contest has remained relatively unchanged over the course of its history in that the format "consists chiefly of successive live musical televised performances by the artists of the national songs entered by the participating broadcasters."[2] The EBU claims that the aim of the programme is "to promote young talents in the field of popular music, by encouraging competition among the children performers."[4]
The programme is always screened on a Saturday night in late November/early December at 2015 CET and lasts approximately 2 hours 15 minutes, ending at 2230 CET.
Malin Reitan representing Norway in the 2005 contest with Sommer Og Skolefri
Traditionally the contest will consist of an opening ceremony in which the participants are welcomed to the event, the performances of the entries, a recap of the songs to help televoting viewers decide which entries to vote for, an interval act usually performed after the televoting has closed, the results of the televoting or back-up jury voting announced by children aged 10 to 15 (the single exception to this being the 2005 contest when the Spanish results were announced by a puppet voiced by an adult) which is then followed by the declaration of the winner and a reprise of the winning song. At various points throughout the show, networks may opt out for a few minutes to screen a commercial break.
The contest always features presenters (usually one man and one woman though the 2006 contest was a noteable exception to this) who regularly appear on stage and with the contestants in the green room. The presenters are also responsible for repeating the televoting results immediately after the spokesperson of each broadcaster to confirm which country the points are being given to. In the 2004 and 2005 contests the presenters would speak in both English and French as there were French speaking broadcasters taking part. Only English was spoken from 2006 onwards as all French speaking broadcasters had withdrawn (Belgium is now only represented by the Dutch language broadcaster VRT). Technically, however, broadcasters have the right to announce their votes in French.[2]
Despite the Junior Eurovision Song Contest being modelled on the format of the Eurovision Song Contest, there are many distinctive differences that are unique to the JESC. For instance, writers of the entry aged between 10 and 15 must appear on stage during the performance of the song.[2] Although the main vocals must be sung live during the contest, backing vocals may be recorded onto the backing track.[2] Each country's entry must be selected through a televised national final (unless circumstances prevent this and permission is gained from the EBU).[2] Since 2005 every contestant has automatically been awarded 12 points in a bid to prevent the infamous "nul points" situation happening to the younger contestants.[23][24]
The winners of each contest will receive a trophy and a certificate.[2] Unlike the Eurovision Song Contest, the winning country does not receive the rights of hosting the next contest.
Entry restrictions
The song must be written and sung in the national language (or one of the national languages) of the country. Performers must be a national of that country or have lived in the country they are representing for at least two and a half years. The song submitted into the contest cannot have previously been released commercially.[2] The rule stating that children-performers also must not have previously released music commercially was active from 2003 to 2006[25] and was dropped in 2007 thus allowing already experienced children-singers and bands in the competition.[2] From 2008 onwards, adults will be allowed to assist in writing entries.[26] Previously, all writers had to be aged 10 to 15.
Organisation
The contest is produced each year by the European Broadcasting Union. The Executive Supervisor of every contest has been Svante Stockselius who also heads the "Steering Group" that decides on the rules of the contest, which broadcaster hosts the next contest and over-sees the entire production of each programme.[27] Steering Group meetings tend to include the "Heads of Delegation" whose prinicpal job is to liaise between the EBU and the broadcaster they represent. It is also their duty to make sure the performers are in a stress-free environment during their time in the host city and are never left alone without an adult.[2]
Participation
- Further information: List of countries in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
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.
Up to and including the 2007 contest, a total of 27 members of the EBU have taken part in the contest.
Participation since 2003: Entered at least once Never entered, although eligible to do so Debut entry intended, but withdrew before final
Debut 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 |
Withdrawal of nations
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). [12] 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.[29]
- 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. [30] [31]
- 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 [32] while RTS of Serbia has participated each year since 2006.[33]
- Denmark, Norway and Sweden withdrew from the 2006 contest claiming that the children were too pressured by the contest.[34] 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. [35] 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. [36][37]
- ITV in the United Kingdom recorded lower than expected viewers for the first contest in 2003. [14] 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.[38]
- RTBF of French speaking Wallonia in Belgium left the contest in 2006 after co-hosting the 2005 edition with Flemish broadcaster VRT. They claimed that continuing with the contest was not in their interests financially.[39] The viewing figures for the 2005 contest for RTBF were also low.[38] Belgium continues to be represented at the contest by VRT.
- 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 previously had to screen the event live and on a channel available to the majority of the public however this rule was scapped in 2007.[40]
- 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."[41][42] As they had withdrawn after the participation deadline set by the EBU, TVE still had to pay the participation fee. [43]
- BHRT of 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.[44] They were once again included in the list for 2008 participants before withdrawing again.[45] This was well past the withdrawal date and they will still have to pay the participation fee.
- IBA of Israel was confirmed as a participant in the 2008 contest [46] before later withdrawing for financial reasons.[47]
Winners
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.[48]
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 independent jury that are not connected to any of the participating nations. This would act as an 'extra country' in the voting system.[49][48]
The EBU invited broadcasters to bid for the rights to host the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2009. Belarus, Serbia and Ukraine were bidders for this edition.[50] TV4 of Sweden had also submitted a bid but later decided to withdraw from the contest completely.[51] NTU of Ukraine won the rights to the 2009 contest and will host it in Kiev.[52]
References
External links
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