The public broadcaster will not take part in the EBU’s minor competitions, at least for the time being, although the possibility of participating in them has been considered. The Eurovision Song Contest for Young Musicians will be held next July in Montpellier, France.
Televisión Española did not appear last February in the final list of the Eurovision Song Contest for Young Musicians. Our website, ESCplus, has been interested in the public broadcaster’s reasons for not participating in this Eurovision event. We have contacted the management of the broadcaster to obtain explanations about this fact.
From the general content management of Radio Televisión Española they inform us that RTVE does not plan to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 for Young Musicians, blaming this non-participation on two reasons, firstly, that the programme “Clásicos y Reverentes”, broadcast between 2017 and 2018 on La 2, is no longer on air, therefore, the public broadcaster would not have a selection format to choose the Spanish candidate for the contest.
“We are not going to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest for Young Musicians 2022, some years we did participate because it was broadcast in the programme Clásicos y Reverentes, but this programme is no longer on the air. “
RTVE
On the other hand, the public broadcaster refers us to the latest reflections of the EBU regarding the organisation’s minor competitions, Eurovision for Young Musicians, Eurovision for Young Dancers and Eurovision for the Choir. They also confirm that in future editions RTVE will reconsider its participation in the contest to see if it can fit it into its programming.
“We are also informed that UER is reconsidering these formats due to their low participation. All this does not imply that, in other editions, if they are held, RTVE will reconsider its participation as a reinforcement of its support for music, as can be seen in its programmes through its different platforms”
RTVE
The broadcaster confirms that at the moment its priorities in terms of competitions are three, Eurovision Song Contest, Junior Eurovision Song Contest and Benidorm Fest, and that they prefer to focus its efforts on making its participation in these formats as effective and with the greatest possible resources.
THE 2022 CONTEST
The city of Montpellier, a city in the south of France with 300,000 inhabitants, will host the music contest. France TV already hosted Junior Eurovision last December in Paris, the French capital. With this new move, the broadcaster seems to confirm its intention to host all the events of the Eurovision family.
The last edition of the festival for young musicians, which was to be held in Zagreb in 2020, had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The list of countries competing in the 2022 edition of Eurovision Young Musicians 2022 has been announced. Austria will return to the competition after not competing in the 2018 contest in Edinburgh, while twelve countries have opted not to compete in this year’s edition.
The competing countries are:
- Austria – ORF
- Belgium – RTBF
- Czech Republic – CT
- France – FTV
- Germany – WDR
- Norway – NRK
- Poland – TVP
- Sweden – SVT
THE VARIOUS SELECTION PROCESSES
Belgian public broadcaster SVT has published details of its national final call for entries for the competition. They are organising a national selection, divided into two stages: a pre-selection on the basis of a video and the selection on the basis of a performance in front of a jury.
Belgian instrumentalists, singers or classical singers between 12 and 21 years of age must send a video of their performance before 15 Marchto the form provided or to [email protected].
Norway, led by the NRK, will hold the national final of its “Virtuos”, a kind of Norwegian Prodigy, on Sunday 3 April. Alma Kraggerud, violin; Sytske Pas, horn; Bjørg Pas, violin and Sanne Suh Berger, piano will fight for the country’s flag in France. The winner receives the Norwegian Soloist Award and is sent to the international final, Eurovision Young Musicians, in Montpellier in July.
HISTORY OF THE EUROVISION YOUNG MUSICIANS
The Eurovision Song Contest for Young Musicians is a biennial festival organised by the EBU and was first held in 1982. The first edition took place in Manchester, and it was Germany that was crowned the winner thanks to the young pianist Markus Pawlik.
Inspired by the BBC’s successful “Young Musician of the Year” competition, the festival looks for the most virtuosic young musician from all over Europe, who is chosen by a jury of international experts.
Ivan Bessonov from Russia was the latest winner of the festival held in Edinburgh in 2018. Performing the third movement of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, the young Russian managed to win over the jury.
Zagreb was to be the next venue for the festival in 2020, but the health crisis forced the EBU to cancel the competition and postpone it until the next edition in 2022.
SPAIN AT EUROVISION YOUNG MUSICIANS
Spain made its debut at the 1988 edition held in Amsterdam, but failed to qualify for the final. In 1992 was the first time that Spain managed to qualify with Antonio Serrano and his harmonica, achieving a second position.
In 2004, after poor results and failing to qualify for the final round, TVE decided to withdraw from the contest. It was not until 2018 that the festival returned, and the young violinist Sara Valencia was in charge of representing Spain in the edition held in Edinburgh.
In 2020 Spain withdrew from the festival. It was not until the announcement of the participating countries by the EBU that we learned that Spain would not participate in the Eurovision Song Contest for Young Musicians.
TVE was still debating and considering its participation in the festival until the last minute, but the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic prevented the public broadcaster from making a decision.