France and its capital Paris is ready to welcome the 19th edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest! They were looking forward to it after 43 years since the last Senior Eurovision hosted in the country, in Paris in 1978 and today is the biggest day as dreams come true at Christmas time!
From the spectacular stage of La Seine Musicale, located on the “Seguin Island” in the Seine river in Paris, the most magical moment of the year will start at 16:00 CET with the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 under the slogan Imagine, the same title as the song with which Valentina won last year, “J’Imagine”.
A total number of 19 countries will participate at this year Junior Eurovision Song Contest, giving their best to win the crystal microphone trophy!
| COUNTRY | ARTIST | SONG |
|---|---|---|
 01 GERMANY | Pauline | “Imagine Us” |
 02 GEORGIA | Niko Kajaia | “Let’s Count The Smiles” |
 03 POLAND | Sara James | “Somebody” |
 04 MALTA | Ike & Kaya | “My Home” |
 05 ITALY | Elisabetta Lizza | “Specchio (Mirror On The Wall)” |
 06 BULGARIA | Denislava & Martin | “Voice Of Love” |
 07 RUSSIA | Tanya Mezhentseva | “Mon Ami” |
 08 IRELAND | Maiú Levi Lawlor | “Saor (Disappear)” |
 09 ARMENIA | Maléna | “Qami Qami” |
 10 KAZAKHSTAN | Alinur Khamzin & Beknur Zhanibekuly | “Ертегі әлемі (Fairy World)” |
 11 ALBANIA | Anna Gjebrea | “Stand By You” |
 12 UKRAINE | Olena Usenko | “Vazhil” |
 13 FRANCE | Enzo | “Tic Tac” |
 14 AZERBAIJAN | Sona Azizova | “One Of Those Days” |
 15 NETHERLANDS | Ayana | “Mata Sugu Aō Ne” |
 16 SPAIN | Levi Díaz | “Reír” |
 17 SERBIA | Jovana & Dunja | “Oči Deteta (Children’s Eyes)” |
 18 NORTH MACEDONIA | Dajte Muzika | “Green Forces” |
 19 PORTUGAL | Simão Oliveira | “O Rapaz” |
After the Covid-19 pandemic, with only 12 countries in 2020, the contest saw this year the return of Albania, Armenia, Ireland, Italy, North Macedonia and Portugal. The other comebacks are from Bulgaria (last participation in 2016) and Azerbaijan (last participation in 2018).
Junior Eurovision 2021 Hosts
Élodie Gossuin, Olivier Minne and Carla Lazzari are the presenters of the 2021 edition in Paris today.
The show will be conducted 50% in French by Élodie Gossuin and and 50% in English by Olivier Minne. Carla will speak in both languages during 2 and a half hours.
Élodie Gossuin (Reims, December 15, 1980), is a beauty contests winner, model, radio and television presenter, columnist, and French regional politician. Between 2016 and 2018 she was the French spokesperson for the Senior Eurovision.
Olivier Minne (born March 18, 1967 in Ixelles, Belgium) is a Belgian-born French presenter, actor and producer. He was the grist French presenter nominated for a 7 d ‘Or award (equivalent to an Emmy in the US) for Best TV Presenter in 2000 thanks to his work with Universal Studios. He was also a commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest from 1995 to 1997 for France. He has presented programs such as the EBU Games Jeux sans frontières (co-presented with Jean Riffel in 1997), Fort Boyard and in 2012 a special 50 years celebration of Intervilles.
Carla Lazzari (14 years old and born in Nice) was chosen internally by French television to be their third representative at Junior Eurovision 2019. At the age of 12, she was finalist of the fifth season of The Voice Kids France as a member of Patrick Fiori’s team (representative of France in Eurovision 1993), where the JESC 2018 representative, Angélina, was also a contestant. Carla performed “Bim Bam Toi”, composed by Igit and Barbara Pravi in Gliwice and finished in fifth position with 169 points.
The show, guests and interval acts
Duet Ofenbach will open the show performing the traditional “Flag Parade” with a remix that will narrate the last 50 years of French music and its great commercial and melodic successes.With more than a billion streams and 350 million views on YouTube, 16 platinum singles and 15 gold singles, Ofenbach is one of the most important duets on the French music scene. They have done more than 250 shows, 3 European tours, 2 in the US and one in Asia. César Laurent de Rumel and Dorian Lauduique met studying (they attended the same university) and immediately they shared their passion for music.
The contest will feature two very special performances, Valentina will say goodbye to her Junior Eurovision reign with a most Christmas version of her winner song “J’Imagine” that led her to triumph in Warsaw last year.
The other special performance of the night will come from the hand of the second place in Eurovision 2021, Barbara Pravi, who will perform a most “chic” version of her song “Voilá”.
This year’s common song will again be another of the evening’s special acts. The song will be called “Imagine”,this year slogan.
This year’s postcards, introducing each participant act, will draw on French heritage and monuments with dances and choreographies performed in that places.
How the winner will be chosen?
The online voting method will have two different rounds:
- First phase (open now): The voting window will remain open until Sunday 19th when the show starts, at 15.59 CET. You will be able to watch a recap of all 19 rehearsal performances and Thirty-seconds clips of each entry. Then, you will be able to vote for 3 countries, including yours.
- Second phase: When all the songs have been performed at the live show on Sunday, the voting will be open again, as usual in Eurovision events, for around 15 min and you will be able to cast your vote again supporting the best 3 countries acording to your judgement.
A combination of both rounds of voting will decide 50% of the final outcome, while the other half will be decided by a professional jury panel in each country made up of adults and kids.
The amount of points the audience awards is based on the total amount of points from the National Juries. As we have 19 participating countries, the juries will award a total of 1102 points. Each National Jury will award 58 points (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 12). The audience points are determined by the percentage of votes received per country. For example, if a song gets 20% of the votes, it receives 20% of the available points (20% from 1.102 points = 220 points), said EBU.
Where to watch?
Paris awaits you! Do not forget that you will be able to follow the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 live this afternoon, starting at 16:00 CET on TV (more info) or both through the ESCPlus multi-window system or from the contest’s official YouTube channel.
Remember that you can get your copy of the ESCplus Junior Eurovision 2021 Handbook, which includes biographies, lyrics and voting sheets, by clicking below