In recent weeks, there has been a few stories hanging around, when it comes to the upcoming junior contest, to be held in Yerevan, Armenia. Among those news are Germany’s unfortunate withdrawal, Kazakhstan’s selection for the contest and even the return of the United Kingdom to the contest. Other than that, there are also the other countries, who are also making their preparations for the contest, which we’ll have a quick look at for now.
Poland
Poland is getting well underway with their preparation, the country will once again use the format of “Szansa na sukces” to select their entry. This selection method has proven to be very succesful for the country, and has remained Poland’s way of picking their participant for the last 3 editions, which included a victory on home soil in 2019 and a second place finish last year by Sara James – who is currently even taking part in AGT – and her song “Somebody“.
Starting next week, a show will be held every weekend, with a total of 3 semi-finals taking place and a final at the end of the month, to decide who will be the next child star for Poland. The themes have been revealed for each semi-final and will be featuring the following:
- Semi-final 1: September 4th – Worldwide hits – Jury: Cleo (ESC 2014) & Sara James (JESC 2021)
- Semi-final 2: September 11th – Polish JESC songs – Jury: Lanberry (JESC 2018 & ’19 composer) & Viki Gabor (JESC 2019)
- Semi-final 3: September 18th – ESC hit songs – Jury: Ala Tracz (JESC 2020), Michał Wiśniewski (ESC 2003 & ’06) & Ida Nowakowska (JESC 2019 & ’20 Host)
- Final: September 25th – a song from the semi-finals AND an original song
Source(s): TVP.pl (In Polish)
Spain
Another country that is already fully on the lookout for their act, is Spain. The country will once again go with an internal selection, as has been the case since the country returned in 2019. The national broadcaster (RTVE) has prepared and revealed their full plan, when it comes to searching for the next young Spanish star.
To put it as simple as possible, the main selection will consist of two parts. The first part is already ongoing, and will be until the 15. September 2022, and will end at the moment that the clock passes midnight of that date. Any eligible artist, can take part in the online casting. Part two will then consist of a face-to-face consultation, which will take part at the end of September, in the city of Madrid. All of October will then act as a working month, in preparation for the upcoming contest in Yerevan, Armenia.
Source(s): RTVE.es (In Spanish)
The Netherlands
Lastly, we finish off with The Netherlands. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the junior contest, the Dutch has announced that their national final will be in fact presented by two past Dutch entrants. It’s not only the Junior Eurovision that will celebrate it’s 20th anniversary this year, but The Netherlands will also be celebrating, by picking their 20th entry this year. The country of The Netherlands is in fact the only country in this competition, to have participated every year since it all started back in 2003.
The national final will be hosted by Matheu (JESC 2019) and Stefania (JESC 2016 & ESC 2020-21), who will guide and help viewers to decide, who will be the 20th Dutch representative, when the show takes place on the 24th of September 2022
Four acts will compete in order to represent The Netherlands in Yerevan, Armenia. The line-up will consist of the following acts:
Source(s): NPO – zapp.nl (In Dutch)
As #YOU can see, the upcoming Junior edition is slowly shaping up, so are #YOU looking forward to the live show from Yerevan, and what country at this point are #YOU mostly interested in?
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