Last year, when Poland announced its return to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, Eurofans joked that Poland would achieve its biggest success at JESC ever. Since the country had last participated, a rule had been added granting every participant 12 points.

But as it turned out Poland finished well clear of the bottom, even without the gifted douze points, coming 11th of 17 countries — a new high for the country.

And last Tuesday TVP confirmed that it will return to Junior Eurovision this November in the Republic of Georgia. JESC 2017 — get ready!

“Time to announce something!” they wrote with an exclamation point and smiley emoji. “Poland will once again participate in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.”

Last year Olivia Wieczorek proved to be a hit among fans, who praised her mature singing style, classy song and natural charisma.

She also proved to be a huge hit with our YouTube viewers, who have watched our interview with her more than 136,000 times.

TVP are probably fans of her too.

As TVP’s Information Center reported, a whopping 2.8 million viewers watched Olivia achieve her country’s best result at Junior Eurovision.

The broadcast had a 20% market share, making it the most watched show on state television that day — bucking the trend in other JESC participating countries.

Numbers dropped to an all-time low in the Netherlands and Italy, and countries from Israel to Bulgaria also saw major dips in viewers — potentially because of the show’s move from Saturday evening to Sunday afternoon.

Aspiring JESC 2017 singers in Poland will have until the 11th of September to submit their song. On the 15th of September TVP will stage a closed audition during which juries will choose the qualifiers for the country’s national final. The exact number of finalists remains unclear. The stakes get even higher on October 1 when TVP stages its national final to find Olivia’s successor for Tbilisi.

We should stress that this is an initial plan. As we saw with the adult selection for Eurovision 2017, TVP reserves the right to push things back if its selection of songs isn’t as strong as it hopes for.

Prior to their return in 2016, Polish television couldn’t stomach the contest. Its former director previously expressed his distaste for the programme, which, in his mind, forced children to grow up too quickly.

As he said: “We decided that such a project was not appropriate for public television. It’s dragging children into show business”.

But following some dramatic re-structuring and a new director in Jacek Kurski, the broadcaster’s tone changed. Kurski loves music competitions and threw his weight behind the country’s JESC participation.

Are you excited that Poland is back in the game? Who — if anyone — can fill Olivia’s very big shoes?

Read more Poland Eurovision news

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beccaboo1212
6 years ago

I bet Poland will find an entry that could lead to Warsaw 2018! 🙂

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago

I just love how Poland is perched for Eurovision contests. “Nie zapomnij” was my favorite entry last year, and I was so mad they removed the televoting because I wanted to have a voice in the final result. They should honestly bring back the televote and remove the juries all together. If you look at the past results of Junior Eurovision, the televote results aren’t affected by the typical patterns (a few years ago Croatia competed along with three other Balkan countries and only got one point from the public). If they really want to keep the juries–who, I shall… Read more »

Erasmus
Erasmus
6 years ago

Israel withdraw I’m afraid. Maybe will Croatia return, or maybe even San Marino.
I think we will have 18 countries.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago
Reply to  Erasmus

Israel has been offered to participate in Eurovision contests despite not being an EBU member with their new broadcaster, I don’t think they’ll turn down. I’d love Portugal to come back, following their big victory.

beccaboo1212
6 years ago

It’s already August, so I’m pretty sure Bulgaria’s about to (s)elect a new BNT leader. When BNT’s election gets out of the way, I have 100% pie Bulgaria will start their Junior Eurovision search. 😉

Meanwhile, I’m pretty upset about Israel withdrawing. This was probably because of the bad result in Valletta.

Now for the important question. Will televoting be able to return to Junior Eurovision this year?

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago
Reply to  beccaboo1212

Televoting needs to be brought back, otherwise interest in the competition will keep decreasing. As I suggested, if they really think the unnecessary juries are necessary, they should make it 50% televoting and 50% kids’ juries–that’s right, no adults involved in the “professional” voting.

beccaboo1212
6 years ago

We’ll have to find out! 😉

brunowskii
brunowskii
6 years ago

Does anybody know why Sweden and Azerbaijan have been withdrawing these last years?

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago
Reply to  brunowskii

Both were flopping year after year and both don’t like losing.

beccaboo1212
6 years ago

Hopefully Sweden and Azerbaijan return to Junior Eurovision next year! 😉

Erasmus
Erasmus
6 years ago

Prime minister of Turkey confirmed that they are not returning to ESC:(

Ewan
Ewan
6 years ago

is it true that israel have bowed out ? i don’t have any reliable sources for it but it’s been reported

Roy Moreno
Roy Moreno
6 years ago
Reply to  Ewan

I’m Israeli and I don’t know,I havn’t heard anything about it
But to be honest, even last year I havn’t heard anything about Israrl in JESC, not many people here actually care about it 🙁

azaad
azaad
6 years ago

Good to hear. How many countries are doing JESC this year?

beccaboo1212
6 years ago
Reply to  azaad

So far, 14 countries confirmed participation. When Bulgaria confirms, that’ll add up to 15. If Cyprus decides to participate then we’ll have 16 countries. And if it turns out that the rumors about Israel withdrawing are true, then the only other options for returning could be San Marino, Croatia, or ESC 2017 winner Portugal.

azaad
azaad
6 years ago
Reply to  beccaboo1212

thanks!