Bonjour party people! The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 will take place at the Palais Nikaïa in Nice on Sunday the 26th of November. And today host broadcaster France Télévisions confirmed the 16 participating countries.
The good news first. Germany returns after a one-year absence from the contest. This is the first year where all of the Big 5 countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are competing.
And Estonia will debut, marking its first participation in the 21 years of the contest.
Sadly Serbia and Kazakhstan have decided to withdraw. Kazakhstan’s withdrawal comes after five consecutive appearances, which included two silver medal finishes.
Junior Eurovision 2023: The 16 participating countries
🇦🇱 Albania (RTSH)
🇦🇲 Armenia (AMPTV)
🇪🇪 Estonia (ERR)
🇫🇷 France (France Télévisions)
🇬🇪 Georgia (GPB)
🇩🇪 Germany (NDR)
🇮🇪 Ireland (TG4)
🇮🇹 Italy (Rai)
🇲🇹 Malta (PBS)
🇳🇱 Netherlands (AVROTROS)
🇲🇰 North Macedonia (MKRTV)
🇵🇱 Poland (TVP)
🇵🇹 Portugal (RTP)
🇪🇸 Spain (RTVE)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom (BBC)
🇺🇦 Ukraine (UA:PBC)
JESC 2023 in Nice, France
Alexandra Redde-Amiel, Head of Variety, Games and Entertainment at France Télévisions, has promised a “unique and spectacular show” that celebrates this year’s contestants, who she calls “true musical heroes.”
“We are so proud to be organizing the Junior Eurovision in France for the 2nd time, in Nice at the Palais Nikaïa,” she said.
“Thanks again to Lissandro for making this 2nd victory possible! France Télévisions, and the entire French delegation, are looking forward to honouring the Contest more than ever, alongside the EBU and all the participating countries!”
“We can’t wait to create a unique and spectacular show with outstanding contestants – true musical heroes as we continue to spread music throughout Europe and the rest of the world, sharing our cultures and passions.”
“We look forward to welcoming you all on November 26. The show must go on!”
“Heroes” is the Junior Eurovision 2023 theme and slogan
This year’s artwork has a street art vibe and, according to the EBU, “brings modernity and speaks to all generations.” They said:
“France Télévisions have chosen ‘Heroes’ as the theme for the event. More than a slogan, it was decided to use a word that inspires and gives children incredible strength and will feature throughout the event.”
“The splashes, which will also feature each participating country’s flag, are made of a combination of paint, chalk, powder, and fireworks.”
“Through the artwork and slogan France Télévisions want to create a unique experience for the 21st Junior Eurovision Song Contest and convey an explosion of happiness in a world where children are the Heroes.”
I’m not a big fan of slogan and logo
Iceland, take notes from Estonia! All that teasing about a debut for nothing… and then Estonia comes through out of the blue. Excited for their first entry, even though the announcement of two adults writing and composing it leaves me quite bitter. I wish the young participants had more (or any) involvement in their entries.
The Estonian girl is the author of the song’s melody, only the words were written and the song was produced by professionals. The song is in Estonian.
Mans Zelmerlow will magically appear out of nowhere in the flag parade and then the whole cast will start singing Heroes in an epic rendition, marking Mans’s 1000th appearance at a Eurovision related event.
Friendly reminder that this song still doesn’t have any Platinum certifications outside of Sweden no matter how hard they’ve tried to push it through the years.
Thats because the public vote went to Il Divo. Italy should have taken the crown that year just like Finland should have this year.
Welcome to Eestonia . Really disapointing to see Serbia leaving , they were my favorite last year and it is sad the last preformance Serbia will have live on stage at the JESC will be from 2021 because Katarina was sick and could not preform live . I hope they will return and Montenegro and Kazakhstan too .
Kazakhstan withdrawal, is it allegiance to Russia? , or the fact they have tried and tried desperately to take part in the ESC without success ? If it’s the latter, then i feel for them, since Australia have been granted a place every year seems not fair to be honest.
EBU has not invited Khabar TV back , Khabar said they wish they were Competitors this year. Kazachstan is drifting from Russia over time , Russians just hate Kazakhs so much and treat them so poorly even in Kazakhstan and Finally Kazakhs have taken notice of this . Kazachstan one of the most successful JESC country would be So powerful at the ESC and win so EBU does not invite .
Should Sweden disqualify and Unite with russia, belarus and PKK and Make their own contest.
That is Carolina Putin’s (a Swedish Twitter who supports Kremlin) Biggest wish.
Well they were always jury favourites and came 2nd a few times, so definitely not ‘without success’. Hopefully they come back.
They withdrew due to lack of interest from the public, they didn’t even broadcast Eurovision 2022 and 2023.
Kazakhstan only tried to clean their image as a country, like Azerbaijan has done in the past.
Can’t be worse than the 2022 Esc logo. In motion it could be cool.
But it remains a useless and rigged contest like all the things the shameful Ebu does. Poor kids, of course they are heroes to accept to undergo this.
” heroes… of our time?
Woah ooooh.
Ooooh oh.
And we’re dancing with the demons in our minds.
I like the logo.
First time in how long that the current reigning ESC champ/ next years ESC host, is not in JESC
Since 2015 the same year Sweden withdrew.
In Sweden they follow Denmark’s anti-JESC policy and say that all children are winners and we won’t participate in JESC. I hope Sweden changes their minds so they won’t follow Denmark’s BS
Thats not what they said. They said they will return when JESC returns to what it used to be: kids having fun rather than trying to be adults. Its to much pressure on them.
Well the children used to do sport for example so they know there’s always a winner and a loser, but sport is pretty fair, you play better than your opponent and you win, it’s not the case unfortunately with the Ebu rigged contests.
So no need to infantalize them more to justify a non participation, it’s no more valid moreover in 2023.
But sport is also for fun. Its a way to make friends. No one says to take it seriously. In Nordic countries kids are treated like kids amd thats what they think JESC used to do as well. But now it has become to much of a copy of the real ESC and a focus on contest rather than fun
Not among the participants themselves, it’s the eurofans who made this contest toxic by taking it too seriously, the kids state of mind is different and healthy, they take this like an experience and a way to make friends from all over Europe, they are more clever than you think. Now there are countries that make kids singing adult songs in jesc, true and they shouldn’t imo, I find this misplaced and a bit vulgar. You have to find the middle ground according to the age of the participant you send, not infantalize too much a 14 years old kid… Read more »
Words
Yes SVT has a point. But DR doesn’t even want to return.
They are in a crisis after the 2014 contest went OVERBUDGET.
Also, there’s a lot of behind the scenes crap and pressure put on children in this competition. It’s understandable.
All these child beauty peagant, JESC and The Voice Kids shows are pushing kids grow faster and act adults way beyond what’s normal. I’m happy to see these kind of contests are started to be seen as toxic to child development.
You act like DR, LRT and LTV put together
They say it so unreasonably. Denmark’s MGP has declined in quality because they are in a crisis after the 2014 contest.
But Yle said they don’t want to participate in JESC because they don’t want to place children in an adult contest they dont even have a cooking show with kids MasterChef Jr ish because they want children to live their childhood
SVT hasn’t closed the door. They observe the contest. Same goes to NRK and RÚV so there is a possibility that they change their minds
“You act like DR, LRT and LTV put together”
I know you think it should have insulted me, but you are flattering me. Broadcasters in Northern Europe put priority on child development over cash grabs. My, my… so unreasonable of them!
I said Yle was reasonable but Lrt, Ltv and Dr are Karens
I saw wrong but I was going to say that Yle was reasonable because their statement is more constructive unlike LTV LRT and DR
Except when they kidnap the children of immigrant parents, triggering a global diplomatic crisis.
Norway and Sweden especially
That is a way more complex issue. Immigrants from poorer countries are usually the same people who lack general knowledge about how to properly raise children. I know many people in Lithuania complaining about Norwegian Bernavernet kidnappings, but those biological parents, who were separated from their kids, are usually incapable of delivering good parenting. For starters, most of them see nothing wrong with drinking alcohol in front of their minors or using physical or mental abuse against the minors when they do not act like static dolls. Despite the hate it received from Lithuanians, our parliament passed a very similar… Read more »
Family United is an organisation that says that Sweden kidnaps
Ahem, yes. And Amnesty International published a report in 2022 regarding the humanitarian situation in Ukraine and Russia. The report was publicly condemned for blaming Ukraine for not being able to protect its civilians from Russian-bought suicide drones and the crimes against humanity they committed and still commit. Let’s not forget about Pope Francis flirtation with Russia and calling Peter the Great and Catherine the Great big achievements for the great nation of Russians and Mother Russia. As if Pope Francis is unaware of what the tsardom of Russia caused the other nations that got usurped. All I am saying… Read more »
Welcome back folks to “Wiwibloggs Comment Sections”. If you’re joining us after the break, we are inquisitively examining how a conversation about Eurovision winning countries competing at Junior Eurovision has digressed into kidnapping immigrant children and humanitarian issues. Ah, don’t you just love the taste of an interaction snowballing out of control? Wait, you don’t? Well to put a more positive light on things, Estonia’s here, being the first Baltic entry at the contest since 2011.
That artwork is fugly
Happy to see Estonia on this list!
Sweden not returning after their ESC win isn’t that odd, they never send songs in Swedish in ESC and previous JESC results verify where they’d start landing once G:sson, Boström, Deb, Wrethov etc. wouldn’t be the ones writing their entry.
Azerbaijan never sent songs in Azeri
Sweden doesn’t participate because SVT is Anti-modernJESC like DR and NRK. I hope SVT changes their mind.
I gave up hope for Sweden singing at jesc. I don’t want an AntiJESC country to participate. SVT will do a DR and send poor songs to Eurovision anf focus on ESc only. They withdrew from EYM 2024 in Norway
That’s just an excuse for their poor results. In the early 2010s, they were sending to JESC the same exact type of disposable songs that they provide to the adult contest, and repeatedly graced the bottom of the leaderboard. G:son wrote their final song in 2014, they came 13th out of 16.
I am delighted by the news that Estonia will participate for the very first time. It ‘s a big surprise for me. I wish all the participants good luck in France and I am very curious to all the songs.
They have quite a talented girl too, whom recently covered this years estonian entry Bridges btw
Glad to see Estonia decide to debut this year! I hope they’ll send something good
ugly logo?
Bad taste ?
no