Junior Songfestival (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈjynijɔrˈsɔŋfɛstiˌvɑl]; lit.'Junior Song Festival') is a Dutch televised music competition for children, held annually since 2003. It is the children's version of the Nationaal Songfestival. The winner of the contest goes on to represent the Netherlands in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest (Dutch: Junior Eurovisiesongfestival), an international version of the competition.[1]
History
The first edition was organised in 2003 by Dutch broadcaster AVRO (which later became AVROTROS). Kids of age 8 through 15 could submit their own original songs,[2] of which nine songs advanced to the televised final. From 2004 until 2015, the candidates also sang a common song that did not compete, and (with the exception of 2006) the show also consisted of two televised semi-finals.
In 2006, the television programme won the Gouden Stuiver (English: Golden Nickle), a Dutch award for children's television.[3]
In 2016, there was no televised show; the entrant for that year's Junior Eurovision Song Contest was selected internally.[4] Also, since that year the auditors no longer need to submit original songs.[5] The show returned in 2017 with semi-finals, but the finalists sang covers instead of original songs.[6] Since 2018, there are no semi-finals and the competing songs were written by famous Dutch musicians. The 2016 and 2017 songs have also been written by famous Dutch musicians.[7] In addition the common song returned in 2019.
The winner is determined by three sets of points; one given by a professional jury, one by a kid's jury, and one by public voting. The following table lists the members of the professional jury in the final.
^Nahabedian, Mikael (3 October 2015). "Shalisa Wins Junior Songfestival 2015!". ESCBubble. Archived from the original on 7 October 2015. Retrieved 5 October 2020. The professional jury members were: Gerard Joling, Yes-R and Leona Philippo.
