The corporation will hold a casting, which will consist of a first part online and a second part in person. While the performer is being selected, the broadcaster will be looking for the best song to win the contest, which will be defended by the chosen artist or group during the aforementioned phases.
RTVE informs us that on 16 August the first phase of the selection process will open, an online casting on RTVE.es for any candidate, aged between 9 and 14, to send their video demonstrating their vocal and interpretative skills. The deadline will end on 15 September, which means that the country’s young talents will have almost a month to send in their applications. When this window open to the public closes, an assessment committee made up of RTVE professionals will select the most suitable performers
Participation requirements
In order to take part in the Junior Eurovision casting process, children must be between 9 and 14 years old, so their date of birth must be between 12 December 2007 and 11 December 2013. This process will involve minors, so, as the current legislation states, they will need a signed authorisation with the consent of both parents in a model that can be found at the end of the document of the rules, signed with the consent of both parents or the one who has parental authority over the minor, or their guardian, in accordance with the model attached at the end of these rules
Those interested must have Spanish nationality or permanent residence in Spain, and in the case of a group, at least 50 percent must meet this condition. The broadcaster clarifies that minors who are first-degree relatives of RTVE employees, or of people involved in the production of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, will not be allowed to participate in the contest. On the other hand, and this is a novelty with respect to the national selections of other countries, the candidates presented may not have a recording contract or any other type of contract that would prevent RTVE from exploiting their performance and image. The incompatibility of participating in the Spanish national team and participating in other European national finals is also highlighted.
The Process
As indicated by the broadcaster, this national final will consist of two phases, a first online casting (not face-to-face) open to any child who meets the requirements and a second face-to-face phase, where only those children who pass the first online casting phase will participate.
First phase (the online casting)
The first phase will consist of an online casting through RTVE.es, for which parents or legal guardians must access the website www.rtve.es/eurovisionjuniorcasting2022 and fill in the participation form and attach the signed authorisation and transfer of rights. In addition, for the competition phase, they must send a video in which the artist performs a song of their choice on an instrumental basis and another video of a song that has represented Spain at Eurovision or Junior Eurovision, on an instrumental or a capella basis, as well as three photos of the candidate. The deadline for submitting entries to the online casting will be from 16 August at 12:00 noon until 15 September 2022 at 23:59:59 pm.
Once the deadline closes, an assessment committee made up of RTVE professionals will select the candidates who best fit the call and will be contacted to prepare for the second phase.
Second phase (the face-to-face casting)
Once the online candidates have been selected, they will be invited to a face-to-face casting that will take place in Madrid at the end of September. Once this second test has been completed, the commission will have a maximum of 10 days to evaluate the finalists. RTVE will assign the candidate or group chosen to represent Spain at Junior Eurovision 2022 several song proposals, from which one of them will be selected as the RTVE song for Junior Eurovision 2022. The winning entry will represent Spain at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2022 organised by the EBU.
The candidate chosen to represent Spain at Junior Eurovision 2022 must record during October 2022 the song and the video clip of the song chosen for the Festival, which RTVE will deliver to the EBU by 4 November 2022. RTVE reserves control of the artistic direction and staging of the performance, styling and make-up and will be responsible for the travel, accommodation and meals of the Artist and a parent to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest venue. The child or children chosen to participate in Junior Eurovision will have to travel with a parent/guardian to Yerevan (Armenia), expected between 4 and 12 December 2022.
You can consult the complete document of the rules, as well as the annexes and other documents to be provided at the following link
This new method for designating our flag bearer will provide a platform that will give young artists in our country more tools and opportunities to disseminate their talent, adding more transparency and openness to the process, which used to be hermetic in previous years. The great euphoria and social phenomenon that has arisen among the new generations in our country after Chanel Terrero ‘s successful performance on the Eurovision stage will undoubtedly be an incentive for this call for artists to be multitudinous and a great success
In a very short time we will announce the rules of the process. The idea is that from mid-August until September all young people can send in their applications. Subsequently, a casting will be held, which this year will be internal.
María Eizaguirre (Director of Communication and Participation at RTVE)
The beginning of a long-term strategy
This announcement lays the foundations of a new long-term strategy of the broadcaster to increase the interest of the audience and young artists in Junior Eurovision. As María Eizaguirre told ESCplus, RTVE ‘s intention is to implement different measures to promote the children’s music format for future editions. These declarations, as well as reconfirming the corporation’s intention to participate regularly in Junior Eurovision in the future, encourage the return of televised pre-selections to choose our candidates for future contests.
This is undoubtedly a declaration of intent of RTVE ‘s great commitment to the European children’s festival, which represents an opportunity like few others to export young talent and provide new generations of artists with a springboard to reach a wider audience. The festival also highlights different values such as friendship, companionship, solidarity and cultural dissemination among children.
Although this year the casting is behind closed doors, we are working to ensure that the format evolves and develops in a different way in future years.
María Eizaguirre (Director of Communication and Participation of RTVE)
SPAIN IN JUNIOR EUROVISION
Spain is one of the countries with the best track record of results in the children’s festival, having finished in the top three positions in 5 of the 7 festivals in which it has participated to date, including one victory and two second places.
Spain ‘s participation in the festival is divided into two stages. The first and most mediatic was from 2003 to 2006, when RTVE decided to put an end to its streak of successful participations on the grounds that the festival promoted stereotypes that were not shared by the broadcaster and exploited the participants. During this period, Spain ‘s first and only victory to date in the festival was achieved by the Andalusian María Isabel and her well-remembered Antes Muerta Que Sencilla. Between 2003 and 2004, Spain’s Eurojunior pre-selection also took place, the result of RTVE and the production company Gestmusic’ s desire to replicate the success of the musical talent show Operación Triunfo with younger artists, resulting in a social phenomenon among young people that is still remembered today.
The evolution and modernisation of the festival and the continuous requests and wishes of Spanish fans led RTVE to return to the festival in 2019 after an absence of 13 years. In this way, Spanish public television resumed a streak of annual participation in the festival that extends to the present day and is now in its fourth year in a row. This return was a qualitative success thanks to the good general reception of our candidatures, highlighting the third places obtained by Melani Garcia and her lyrical pop Marte in 2019 and by Soleá and her danceable Palante. Despite the fact that the time of broadcast of the festival and the new patterns of television consumption make it impossible to obtain the audience figures of yesteryear, it is a real commitment to music, young talent and diversity and raises a lot of interest in the digital sphere, especially among young people.
At the last Junior Eurovision Song Contest, held last Sunday 19 December live from La Seine Musicale in Paris under the slogan Imagine, we were represented by the winner of the last edition of La Voz Kids, Levi Díaz. His song Reír (Laugh) got a 15th position with 77 points. Will we manage to win the coveted crystal microphone of the festival this year?
JUNIOR EUROVISION 2022
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2022 will be held in Yerevan, Armenia, on Sunday 11 December. The Karen Demirchyan Complex will host the show in which artists aged between 9 and 14 from different European countries will compete for the coveted crystal microphone, the trophy for winning the Eurovision Song Contest.
The organisation of the show by Armenian public broadcaster ARMTV follows the victory of Malena and her “Qami Qami” on stage in Paris on 19 December, which sparked a collective euphoria in her homeland and made the whole country look forward with great enthusiasm and responsibility to the challenge of organising the festival, which promises to be more special than ever as it celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2022. It will not be the first time that Armenia has hosted a Junior Eurovision, having had the opportunity to do so in 2011, also at the Karen Demirchyan Complex.
So far, 14 European broadcasters have already confirmed their participation in the festival, however, the ambition and efforts of the organisers predict an even higher final number, with the aim that this 20th edition of the children’s contest will be remembered as one of the most spectacular in its history.
I want one of the following to represent Spain this year.
* Álex Vizuete
* Alfonso Ortiz
* Carmen Ranea
* Fran García
* Guillermo Moreno
* José David Giménez
* Rubén Franco
* Shariff Ardá
* Soleá Fernández Moreno AGAIN!