When the EBU confirmed the competing acts for Junior Eurovision 2020, some fans were disappointed that only 13 countries had confirmed. But now the EBU has revealed that they are prepared to accept a few late entries if any broadcasters have a change of mind.
The news has been reported by Eurovision news site ESCplus. They cite the EBU’s Senior Communications Officer (unnamed) who shared the information.
The spokesperson revealed, “The list of participating broadcasters we released [on Tuesday] isn’t necessarily the final one – indeed, we would welcome other nations coming on board to JESC 2020, up to our maximum of 20 broadcasters.”
At the moment, there’s no specific deadline for broadcasters wanting to join, but the EBU spokesperson said that “commonsense probably dictates that if additional broadcasters do want to come on board, then we’d like to hear from them sooner rather than later!”
What is keeping broadcasters away from Junior Eurovision 2020?
When the list of 13 confirmed countries were revealed, it was also clear that seven broadcasters who had participated in 2019 were not planning to return. Taking this year off will be: Albania, Australia, Ireland, Italy, North Macedonia, Portugal and Wales.
Most of these broadcasters have given a reason for not participating, and most have specifically referred to concerns surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.
In response to the pandemic, Junior Eurovision 2020 will not require any of the competing acts to travel to the host venue in Warsaw, Poland. Instead the acts will perform their songs from a TV studio in their home country, all using a standard set-up to keep a level playing field.
So with this change to the contest, Junior Eurovision 2020 might be more realistic for broadcasters who were reluctant to travel to Poland. Broadcasters in this situation may be happy to return to a remotely hosted Eurovision.
However, in some countries, there are still restrictions on how people can interact, including in the workplace. The Australian state of Victoria — which has fielded three previous Junior Eurovision acts — is still under restrictions, including lockdown in the city of Melbourne.
As well, the current Melbourne-based production of The Masked Singer Australia was temporarily shut down after several dancers on the show tested positive for Covid.
With this sort of situation in mind — and especially considering the unpredictability of the coronavirus — some broadcasters might not want to take a risk at the moment.
But while we’re not expecting all seven non-confirmed broadcasters to change their mind, the new situation might be enough to convince a few to RSVP for Junior Eurovision 2020.
What do you think? Will we see more countries at Junior Eurovision 2020? Which countries would you like to see in the contest? Tell us your thoughts below!
I’d say Covid, prioritising ESC 2021 and the increasingly controversial Polish government are all factors
I think Covid is the main reason, some broadcasters may choose to whitdraw from Eurovision too (Albania being the first, as they’re showing interest only for FIK 2020, but not for ESC).
I don’t think many countries are involved in political questions anyway
If ESC 2021 goes ahead, and broadcasters want to take part in that but are facing limitations in resources, they might bypass JESC.
I hope you’re right, but for example Albania is oranizing Festival i kenges, but in the rules it is not mentioned the songs have to be released after September 1st, meaning they probably don’t mean it to be a selection for ESC. So (unless they won’t select Arilena internally, which I find unlikely) Albania is probably going to whitdraw.
The question asked ‘what is keeping non participants away?’ Could it be protocols for child employment, putting too much pressure on a child to perform in front of (I don’t know the exact number) tv audience, the lasting psychological affect into adulthood of being teased at school for coming last, placing pressure on a child to look good, I could go on.
That might be true, or might not…but it doesn’t really address the question being asked this year. Which is about withdrawals of countries that have participated in previous years. Why would they suddenly consider your points now?
I really hope for more country ‘s to participate in this year Junior Eurovision. I think there is no reason for the country’s who said not to take part this year to stay at home. I hope that they will change their mind.
Mark this post: Eurovision 2021 will be remote.
How have the EBU allowed late confirmations, yet they didnt allow the 2020 eurovision artists to send the same songs???
How are pears and apples not the same thing?????
I hope that belgium will return with an azing singer and song! Let’s hope all together!?
Italy hasn’t said anything, so now’s there chance to pull a Latvia 2011 and Ukraine 2018 by joining the 2020 list. 😀 #ItalyForJuniorEurovisionSongContest2020
Italy’s broadcaster Rai Gulp hasn’t said anything, so I’m assuming they’ll participate. Portugal would participate only if JESC still happens, so I’m also aware they’ll reconsider participation thanks to the new format requiring contestants to sing at empty auditoriums in their own countries. 🙂
It’s not that common to have last minute additions in jESC these days (last time it happened was back in 2018 with Ukraine) after the reveal of the participating countries’ list… but we’ll see if that happens this year
Great! That could be enough for Albania. Italy and Portugal to participate!
Thank you for this article and for the clarification about Australia, I still hope some broadcasters will change their mind quickly if of course the restrictions and the pandemic situation in their countries are compatible with the facilitated conditions edited by the Ebu to participate this year .
No but seriously they should’ve said this earlier to avoid everyone leavening JESC.
I looked into articles about local TV productions in Wales, particularly S4C’s efforts to continue producing content within the limits set by health guidelines as well as a broader set of protocols for child employment as a whole. It looks like the Welsh TV industry will need a lot of help from the government to keep itself afloat, not just restarting productions of Casualty, Pobol y cwm, and Doctor Who in Cardiff but all other aspects of programming. Right now, S4C is allocating their resources on producing current affairs program with the rest being supplied by BBC Cymru. From what… Read more »