Today sees the only official Eurovision contest of a difficult year take place as the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020 gets underway this afternoon, live from Warsaw in Poland. Of course, things will be a bit different this year, with no audience and each country performing live from home, but we’re still hoping for the same Eurovision magic we have become accustomed to over the years!
Here’s everything #YOU need to know ahead of this afternoon’s show, as well as our coverage of the contest.
What’s the format?
12 countries will be taking part in Junior Eurovision this year, a drastic reduction on the 19 songs we saw in Gliwice in 2019, with a number of countries declining to join due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the 12 participants have all recorded performances for their entries from studio settings; 8 in their home countries, with Malta, Serbia and Ukraine all joining Poland in Warsaw. All stages have been set up in similar format to allow for fairness and equality.
The show will be hosted from TVP’s studios in Warsaw, with Małgorzata Tomaszewska, Rafał Brzozowski and returning 2019 co-host Ida Nowakowska-Herndon taking the reins on this year’s show.
The interval act for this year’s contest will include 2019 champion Viki Gabor performing her winning entry “Superhero” and the Eurovision 2019 winning entry “Arcade” with Duncan Laurence and Poland’s JESC 2018 winner Roksana Węgiel. Alicja Szemplińska is also set to perform her song “Empires” which was set to represent Poland in Eurovision 2020 earlier this year.
Voting will be decided in a 50/50 format between online voting and jury voting. Online voting is now open and #YOU can vote here for your three favourite countries. Jury voting will take place from each participating country, with the scores from both sets of votes combined to give the nation’s points in the contest.
For the first time, each spokesperson in the voting sequence will announce their 12 points first, before revealing the rest of the top ten, due to the smaller number of countries taking part.
Who is participating?
As above, 12 countries are taking part in Junior Eurovision this year. They are;
- 🇩🇪 GERMANY – Susan – Stronger With You
- 🇰🇿 KAZAKHSTAN – Karakat Bashanova – Forever
- 🇳🇱 NETHERLANDS – Unity – Best Friends
- 🇷🇸 SERBIA – Peter Aničić – Heartbeat
- 🇧🇾 BELARUS – Anita Pehtereva – Aliens
- 🇵🇱 POLAND – Ala Tracz – I’ll Be Standing
- 🇬🇪 GEORGIA – Sandra Gadelia – You Are Not Alone
- 🇲🇹 MALTA – Chanel Monseigneur – Chasing Sunsets
- 🇷🇺 RUSSIA – Sofia Feskova – My New Day
- 🇪🇸 SPAIN – Soleá – Palante
- 🇺🇦 UKRAINE – Oleksandr Balabanov – Vidkryvai (Open Up)
- 🇫🇷 FRANCE – Valentina – J’imagine
Germany are debuting at Junior Eurovision this year, whereas 7 countries from 2019 are sitting out this year’s contest; Albania, Australia, Ireland, Italy, North Macedonia, Portugal and Wales. Armenia were originally scheduled to take part, but withdrew early in November due to the ongoing crisis in the country.
When is it, and how can I watch?
The contest is set to get underway at 17:00 CET and can be viewed on your local national broadcaster if your country is taking part, or on Junior Eurovision’s livestream on YouTube HERE.
Matt, Roy, James and Sean will all be live straight after the contest to gauge your thoughts and share theirs on this year’s contest, as well as the new format, so make sure #YOU are subscribed to the ESC United YouTube channel HERE with notifications to not miss a second of the aftermath!
Who do #YOU want to win Junior Eurovision 2020? Share your thoughts on this year’s contest with us on social media, on our forum or below in the comments!
