They say three’s a crowd. And when it comes to the hosts of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021, three has suddenly become the in-crowd. This year’s hosts are Carla, France’s Junior Eurovision 2019 singer; Élodie Gossuin, Miss France 2001, famed among Eurofans for her viral Eurovision 2016 points delivery; and Olivier Minne, the host of Fort Boyard and the author of books including, Louis Jourdan: le dernier French lover.
On top of the hosting announcement, France Télévisions also revealed the commentators for the French broadcast. Recognising the importance of Junior Eurovision in the constellation of France at Eurovision, they will be Stéphane Bern and Laurence Boccolini — the same commentators for France at the adult contest.
Below you can read the official bios, as delivered by the team at France Télévisions.
Junior Eurovision 2021 hosts
Carla
If the life of Carla were a musical comedy, it would be called “The Sound of Music”. Raised by a voice teacher and a trumpeter, she was surrounded by music from a young age. It was through covering Edith Piaf’s “Milord” at the age of five that Carla discovered her gift and her passion for singing. When she was eight years old, she performed “Des étoiles en scène” (Stars on Stage) in the city of Drap for a contest that she would go on to win two years in a row.
Identified by a casting director at the age of 14, Carla proceeded to the 2018 finale of The Voice Kids. The year 2019 saw her artistic career take-off: she joined the band Les Petits Canailles, with whom she revisited the hits of 60s radio program Salut Les Copains, before defending the French colors at Junior Eurovision. The sugary pop of her song “Bim bam toi” vaulted her to 5th place in the contest, leading to tens of millions of views on YouTube, the first Golden TikTok award in the world, and the signing of her debut album, L’Autre moi, released in June 2020.
Élodie Gossuin
Élodie Gossuin, born on December 15, 1980 in Reims, is a French TV show host and model. After being crowned Miss France 2001, then Miss Europe, and placing 10th at the Miss Universe competition, the blond star became the muse of the great international hair salon Lucie Saint-Clair in 2003. As if she weren’t already occupied on several fronts, Élodie entered politics and was elected to the Regional Council of Picardie in 2004.
She has also made her way in broadcasting, most notably by hosting the talk show Touche Pas à Mon Poste (Don’t Touch That Dial) with Cyril Hanouna on France 4 in 2010 and by appearing in Fort Boyard, in which she played one of the new characters on the show in 2015.
She has also been the spokesperson for the French Eurovision jury on multiple occasions.
In 2020, Élodie was a member of the jury for the Eurovision selection show that chose Barbara Pravi.
Every day for seven seasons, Élodie Gossuin wakes up listeners as co-host of the RFM radio morning show, Le Meilleur des Réveils (The Best Wake-up).
Olivier Minne
Olivier Minne is a journalist, writer, television host and producer, promoting artists and live performances.
Along with talk shows, scientific and cultural magazines, and entertainment programs in the 1990s, he has also hosted several major live shows, such as Fête de la Musique — for three years in a row, and in front of over 200,000 people. He hosts the legendary program Fort Boyard on France 2 every summer, and the daily game show Tout le monde a son mot à dire.
In his role as producer, he began rebroadcasting classic plays during prime time over fifteen years ago, each airing for a single evening.
While this is the first time he’ll be joining the ranks of Junior Eurovision, he presented Eurovision Song Contest to France for three seasons, beginning in 1995, modernizing the contest’s way of commentating by injecting humor and irony.
Regarding music, he produced the album Mademoiselle Maya en ut intégral, a throwback to the Belle Époque, and the album Peintures à l’eau, by Jean-François Varlet.
Olivier has written three books: Louis Jourdan: le dernier French lover, Speakerines, and Une histoire de femmes à la télévision, and the novel Un château pour Hollywood.
France’s Junior Eurovision 2021 commentators
Stéphane Bern
It is difficult to box Stéphane Bern into a single line of work as his commitments are so varied: at once a journalist, writer, television presenter, radio host, producer, and actor, he is samples all the opportunities offered by the media.
An assistant editorialist for Paris Match, Bern is also a radio host, presenting Historiquement Vôtre (Historically Yours) alongside Matthieu Noël. As a television host, every year he commentates on the grandest royal events and hosts some dozen episodes of the documentary series Secrets d’Histoire (History’s Secrets), a prime-time broadcast on France 3. He also hosts the TV series Le Village Préféré des Français (The favorite Villages of the French) and, since 2015, the great annual events Eurovision and Eurovision Junior.
Stéphane Bern has published over thirty books and was appointed by the French president as an advisor on national heritage. Every year, as founder of the Fondation Stéphane Bern, housed by the Institut de France, he delivers both a history and a heritage award.
Laurence Boccolini
“I began my radio career at the age of 16 on FM radio. After having spent more than 30 years working for different French radio stations, I hosted Le Maillon faible (The Weakest Link) and Money Drop, two major moments in my television career. In 2019, I accepted an invitation from France Télévisions, and I was able to host Mot de passe (Password) in the mornings as well as several prime-time slots of Comiques préférés des Français (Favorite Comedies of the French).”
“Then came a real opportunity: presenting En route pour l’Eurovision (On the Road to Eurovision) and the semi-finals before meeting up with Stéphane Bern in Rotterdam to host Eurovision 2021! Happy! All of these countries together, on-air live, with a single goal: to bring home the prize for the best song! Who could ask for anything more iconic? I am already captivated by the idea of going to Turin next year to commentate the next contest.”
“But above all, I would like to bid welcome to the 19 countries who will compete for Eurovision Junior. We are very proud of Valentina, who managed to bring home the trophy last year. But now the show must begin, may the best
(junior) song win!”
Are you excited about this year’s hosts? Are you pleased to see JESC star Carla in the mix? Let us know in the comments box down below!
I am going to Paris to see the show live and I am looking forward for that. I like the hosts and wish them good luck. I think France is preparing a great show on 19th of december, I can ‘t wait !!
Elodie!
She just seems like such a great person.
Very keen to watch this years junior and interesting to see what France will give us
queen Carla
Greece just released the names of the 5 candidates participating in their national selection!
oh wow. do you have a source/website where i can check them out?
Wiwibloggs just posted an article about them.
https://wiwibloggs.com/2021/11/17/greece-5-finalists-for-eurovision-2022-internal-selection-revealed/267237/
France bringing the A game, we stan
Sounds really promising. It could be the best junior edition since 2004…
I believe Valentina, last year’s winner, is also joining them in the booth? Also! Malena has been officially confirmed as the Armenian representative, meaning we now know all the participating artists (I was getting nervous too, as it’s been radio silence from the Armenian broadcaster until now and with a recent spike in tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan flaring up again, I was worried they’d pull out late yet again).
That’s great! I hope she has an amazing song again. There are a few this year that I really like but no clear winner like Say Love, Superhero and J’Imagine.
It’s a toss-up between Italy and Portugal for me at the moment. I also really enjoyed Ireland’s song.
really? poland is so obviously a clear winner to me (and no Joe, I’m not polish)
Never said! Poland’s up there but I couldn’t call anything a clear winner. You could name any of Italy, Spain, France, Poland, Portugal, or even Ukraine or Azerbaijan as a “clear winner” and I’d be inclined to agree.
That’s fair. Just nothing has grabbed me yet as much as Somebody did
Georgia’s a fun one, I see it doing well. But honestly, it’s hard to tell who WON’T do well. Except Malta. I don’t have much hope for Malta.
-three presenters
-more French spoken than usual
-three Imagine songs performed (one as the German entry, another one as one of the interval acts, another as the common song)
zena co-hosted junior eurovision 2018 and represented belarus in 2019
rafal co-hosted junior eurovision in 2020 and represented poland in 2021
soooooooo we’ll see carla in france’s nf next year and maybe she’ll win?? just a thought
She seems lovely and we already know she can perform so I’m all up for it!
Has Carla reached the minimum age (16) to be able to participate in the Grown-up contest?
Had to check. Yes, she’s already eligible.
During the press conference, it was asked by a journalist to the four French JESC candidates if they were keen to enter the adult contest later when they would be older and they all answered with a yes, why not !
Elodie for 2022. Hehe jk
Depends on the song.
Since her jesc participation I think the same moreover she has always done since that songs pretty jesc/esc friendly imo, so it would be a great idea. She is already well known by the eurofans, she is really liked I guess as she has the record of streams and views for a jesc song, and even a tik tok trophy.