On Sunday 29 November, 12 countries will compete via the medium of song for the Junior Eurovision 2020 crown. However, unlike its sister contest in May, fans can vote for their favourites in advance. Here’s how!
Junior Eurovision 2020 voting on www.jesc.tv
Whether you’re cuddling penguins in Antarctica or running with lions on the African savannas, you can vote in Junior Eurovision 2020. Voting is open to anyone in the world, once you have an internet connection and a device capable of logging on.
To do so, fans must visit the official Junior Eurovision website — junioreurovision.tv or www.jesc.tv. Once there, users can vote for their favourites, but only after they have watched previews of all 12 competing entries. Due to the pandemic, this footage will come from the pre-recorded final performances rather than rehearsals.
Upon completing the recap, viewers can vote for 3 acts. Note, the option to vote for 4 or 5 acts has been removed for 2020. No geographic restrictions apply, so fans can vote for their own country if they so desire.
But when can you vote?
Junior Eurovision 2020 Online Vote: Phase 1 — Friday 27 November
The first phase of voting begins at 20:00 CET on Friday 27 November. This round of voting will remain open throughout Saturday, closing at 16:59 CET on Sunday 29 November — just before the contest’s opening credits roll.
Junior Eurovision 2020 Online Vote: Phase 2 — Sunday 29 November
The second round of voting takes place during the live broadcast. The window will open after the last country, France, has performed. Phase two will last for approximately 15 minutes.
You can vote a total of two times — once during Phase 1 and again during Phase 2.
How the final result is calculated
The online vote will make up 100% of the public vote — it’s not possible to vote by phone or SMS.
As with Eurovision, the public decides 50% of the points with the remaining scores coming from jury panels in each country. The JESC 2020 juries will include three music industry professionals and two children aged ten to 15. They’ll dish out a total of 696 points (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12 points times 12 participating countries).
The audience will also have 696 points to allocate. However, the distribution will be based on the percentage of points received. The official Junior Eurovision 2020 Media Briefing document gives the following example:
If a song gets 20% of the votes, it receives 20% of the available points (20% from 696 points = 139 points).
A History of Online Voting at Junior Eurovision
The online vote was first introduced at Junior Eurovision 2017. Then the public rowed behind the Netherlands, only ranking the overall winner Russia sixth.
One year later, the tables were turned. In 2018, the jury scores were wiped away by the public, with Poland, France and Kazakhstan hoovering up points. The former two ended up taking the gold and silver positions. Poland, France, the Netherlands and Kazakhstan were also popular in the 2019 vote, along with a returning Spain.
Prior to the arrival of online voting, there had almost always been some form of televote since the contest first took place in 2003. The only exception was in 2016 when the result was solely determined by a variety of jury types.
What do you think of the system? And what countries will get your vote? Let us know in the comments below.
Follow all of our Junior Eurovision 2020 news.
España
Vamos solea palante
How can I watch JESC 2020 from America?
they are doing a live stream on youtube.
Plus voting before the actual show, where someone’s performance could be a total crap. That’s just ridiculous.
Hope the smaller countries won’t be overshadowed
I wish the voting wasn’t open before the show. People vote for wrong reasons now, because it’s the performance that should be voted for, not anything else. Also, the official snippets are now out and at least three countries (France, Belarus and Russia) use playback there. Perhaps Georgia too. What’s going on?
Spain, Ukraine and Belarus. My top 3.
I have the feeling that Poland or France are winning this year though.
Am I the only one who notices the sound is worse in some of these performances? That’s not fair if you ask me.
Definitely. Some of the clips sound suspiciously perfect vocally…whereas some countries (like the Ukraine) sound like genuine live efforts with imperfections.
The show will be watched mostly by Poles since it’s the hosting nation so i hope that does not mean they will get the most votes. Either way, the jury voting will balance the voting.
I hope either Spain or France wins and host a Eurovision show decades since 70s.
This whole contest is for children…so shouldn’t the adults just step back and let the children vote? Otherwise, what is even the point of the whole thing? Adults have enough power in this world.
Understand the sentiment but is it really? How much of the viewing audience is children? I mean, I watch JESC with my kids but I don’t imagine that it is the norm.
Hi I’ll be watching JESC2020 without hearing the songs first so it will be my first time hearing them. I’ll be commenting here my thoughts when the final starts
People are suspicious of the online voting but in practice, it has actually been pretty reflective of the best songs of the year each time it’s been used (much more so than some ridiculous jury voting at JESC).
It’ll be interesting this year as Poland does not have a strong song so if it were to win the online vote, it’d be hard to justify it by any other means rather than the amount of Poles who voted.
I mean, voting for your own country still very helps countries like Poland and Spain with lots of local fans However, being able to vote for several entries somehow balances it, just a bit So why would they cancel the option to vote for 4 or 5 entries? They should let us vote for 4 or 5 as well as long as voting for your own country is a thing That’s my opinion at least For now, I know I’m gonna vote for Belarus and Kazakhstan Who will be my third vote? Depends on the performances I guess Either Spain,… Read more »
Well, most years I stand by my Celtic duo of Ireland and Wales, but seeing as neither of them are in it this year, my votes’ll be divvied up between Germany, Spain, France, and Kazakhstan. I think it’s a pretty open field. Poland’s definitely got an advantage, but considering how few entries there are, the juries could swing things possibly more than usual. (Then again, Poland only came seventh with the juries back in 2018 and they still won, so who even knows?).
I think, if Poland wins it again (would be deserved if there would be a different voting system because the song from Poland is very good and Alicja Tracz is amazing too) the chance is very high that a lot of countries will leave the JESC and that would be THE END OF JESC.
It all depends. Spain and France have become very popular on social media as well, and anyone who’s been on the internet long enough knows there are plenty of Russians online.
Jury : poland 5th place 100 points
Televote: poland 1st with 40% of the votes
End result poland 1st with 379 points
France should win the JESC 2020
But Poland is also not bad. I mean I won’t be mad if they win again because the song is really good and catchy and Alicja is very cute
Winners of Junior Eurovision Song Contest: 2018: France – Angélina – Jamais sans toi 2019: Poland – Viki Gabor – Superhero (Actually deserved) 2020: Anyone else but Poland… No, but really, Poland will probably again end up winning nevermind what they send. EBU srsly needs to change this voting system. Atleast remove the voting for your own country part, atleast then your wins would be actually deserved, because every other country voted for your song and thought it was the best. In addition, there are many ways to cheat the system such as to vote as many times as you… Read more »
I’m from Poland and I’m honestly disappointed that they haven’t changed this faulty voting system this year. But to be fair, I find Poland 2018 to be a wonderful winner, better than Poland 2019. “Anyone I want to be” gets better every time you listen to it and “Jamais Sans Toi” gets boring really quick.
This is why Poland can’t host ESC
I don’t have a problem with the online voting itself. It’s really easy especially for kids who are watching the contest. I have a problem with voting for your own country feature. Is it really that hard to change it? We all know that Poland is gonna win it, if not win the entire contest again if jury doesn’t put them very low. Why won’t you change it EBU? Why? Just why? That’s all I’m asking, just why?
You can vote for two other countries other than yours so that at least can help spread the vote out, unless everyone votes for the same three countries.
this song contest have the worst voting ever. Everyone understand that Poland will win for a 3rd year in a row. No one watches it anymore. Except millions of poles and thats why Poland always win. it was popular in Belarus but they are in war with their crazy dictator so i hope the song the regime chose comes last.