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The Junior Eurovision Song Contest is an annual contest organised between member countries of the European Broadcasting Union for children aged between 9 and 14 (8 and 15 between 2003 and 2006, 10 and 15 between 2007 and 2015). The contest has been broadcast every year since its inception in 2003, and is based on the Eurovision Song Contest, one of the longest-running television programmes in the world. The contest's winner has been determined using numerous voting techniques throughout its history; centre to these have been points awarded through jury voting or public voting. The country awarded the most points is declared the winner.
As of 2024[update], twenty-two contests have been held, with one winner each. Twelve different countries have won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. The country with the highest number of wins is Georgia, with four wins. France is the country, that have won three times. Five have won the contest twice: Armenia, Belarus, Malta, Poland (first country to win two years in a row and the first country to win on home soil), and Russia, and five have won the contest once: Croatia, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Ukraine. Both Croatia and Italy achieved their wins on their debut participation in the contest. The first repeat winner was Belarus, completed in 2007, while the first country to win three times was Georgia, completed in 2016. North Macedonia is the country with the longest history in the contest without a win, having made eighteen appearances since their debut in the inaugural contest in 2003.
Winning the Junior Eurovision Song Contest provides an opportunity for the winning artist(s) to capitalise on their success and surrounding publicity by launching or furthering their career. Some artists from Junior Eurovision have progressed later in their careers to participate in national finals for the Eurovision Song Contest or the main event proper, including Molly Sandén, Nevena Božović, the Tolmachevy Sisters, Lisa, Amy and Shelley (later known as OG3NE and Ogene), Stefania Liberakakis, Destiny Chukunyere, and Iru Khechanovi.[1]
Unlike the Eurovision Song Contest, the winning broadcaster of the previous year's Junior Eurovision Song Contest does not automatically receive the right to host the next edition, and until 2012 it was not tradition that the previous winning country hosts the next edition of the contest. This has been applied though since 2013, with only the 2015, 2018 and 2024 editions being held in a different country than the previous winner.
- ^ van Eersel, Dennis (14 January 2020). "Artists that went from Junior Eurovision to the adult Eurovision". ESCDaily. Retrieved 14 December 2022.