Competing countries Countries that participated in the past but not in 2024
Vote
Voting system
The professional jury of each country awards a set of 12, 10, 8–1 points to 10 songs. Viewers around the world vote for 3 songs, and their votes are distributed proportionally. The votes of the jury and the audience make up 50% of all votes.
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2024 was the 22nd edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE). The contest took place on 16 November 2024 at Caja Mágica in Madrid, Spain, marking the first time that the contest was held in the country. The contest was also the first since 2015 to be held on a Saturday.
Seventeen countries participated in the contest, with Cyprus and San Marino returning after six- and eight-year absences respectively, while the United Kingdom opted not to participate after doing so the previous year.
Georgia's Andria Putkaradze was the winner of the contest with the song "To My Mom". Portugal won the public vote and finished in second place, its best placing to date. Ukraine, France and Malta completed the top five.
Unlike the Eurovision Song Contest, the winning broadcaster of the previous year's Junior Eurovision Song Contest does not automatically receive the right to host the next edition. However, since 2011 (with the exceptions of 2012, 2015, and 2018) it has become customary for winners to take on hosting duties, and since 2019, the winning broadcaster has had the right of first refusal on hosting the following competition. In 2015, 2014 winner, Italian broadcaster RAI, was given this right but ultimately opted out of it.[1]
On 27 November 2023, upon its victory in the 2023 contest on home soil, French broadcaster France Télévisions announced that talks would be conducted with the EBU regarding the hosting of the 2024 contest, as multiple countries had expressed interest in doing so and it did not want a "French monopoly on Junior Eurovision", having already hosted the event twice in a three-year span;[2] It ultimately opted not to host in 2024. Spanish broadcaster Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE), which had finished in second place in the 2023 contest, was announced as the host for 2024 on 14 February 2024,[3] with the Caja Mágica in Madrid announced as the venue on 10 May 2024.[4] This will mark the first time that the contest has been held in the country.
Location of host city (in blue), bidding cities (in green), and cities that submitted a bid but later withdrew (in red)
Upon the confirmation of Spain as the host country for 2024, the Generalitat Valenciana announced that it would bid to host the contest in a city in the Valencian Community; since 2022, the autonomous community has hosted Benidorm Fest, the Spanish national final for the Eurovision Song Contest.[5] The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, expressed interest in hosting the event in the city,[6] followed by the mayor of Málaga, Francisco de la Torre.[7] Madrid, Granada and Zaragoza also announced their readiness to host the competition.[8][9]Ana María Bordas [es], head of the Spanish delegation for the contest, had said that the broadcaster had received several bids upon the host country announcement and that a decision would be taken within the following weeks.[10]Valencia, Barcelona, Málaga, Granada and Zaragoza were reported to have submitted an official bid by mid-March 2024.[9][11] Shortly after, however, Zaragoza announced its withdrawal due to the unavailability of the intended venue for an assessment visit.[12] In mid-April, Barcelona was unofficially reported to be in the forefront of the selection process, with Palau Sant Jordi considered as the potential venue,[13] but by the end of the month the city dropped out of the running due to the lack of an adequate venue available for late 2024.[14][15]
RTVE and the EBU scheduled a press conference at Malmömässan in Malmö on 10 May 2024, during the adult contest, where the selected host city was revealed to be Madrid, with Caja Mágica as the selected venue.[4][16][17]
On 3 September 2024, the EBU announced that 17 countries would participate in the 2024 contest. Cyprus is set to return to the contest after a six-year absence, while San Marino is set to return after an eight-year absence, despite originally confirming non-participation. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom opted not to participate after doing so the previous two years.[18]
Prior to the contest, a digital compilation album featuring all the songs from the 2024 contest was put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by Universal Music on 1 November 2024.[19]
Participants of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2024[18]
On 3 September 2024, along with the list of participating countries, RTVE and the EBU revealed the theme art and slogan of the 2024 contest, "Let's Bloom", as well as the stage design. The theme art features the image of a blooming flower, which "references the blossoming of young artists".[18]
Contestants were featured in "postcard" video introductions, in which they perform activities interspersed with artificial intelligence (AI)-generated footage of themselves in various imaginary scenarios.[38][39] The implementation of AI elements was met with criticism from fans and media outlets.[39][40][41]
The presentation of the jury votes was additionally changed for 2024. As opposed to previous years in which the scoreboard was laid out vertically in descending order, the scoreboard this year was laid out horizontally, with each country having its position fixed according to the running order and a score bar to fill out points with. The presenters announced the number of points each country received according to the 1–10 scale; for example, each country is shown the amount of countries that have given it 1 point, 2 points, and so forth. The 12 points were still announced by a spokesperson appointed by each country, however, their segments were pre-recorded instead of being a live link.[42] Executive producer Ana María Bordas [es] stated that this was due to the Saturday timeslot forcing the producers to cap the show at two hours, and also in order to avoid causing stress for the participants.[43]
Contest overview
The event took place on 16 November 2024 at 18:00 CET. Seventeen countries participated, with the running order published on 10 October.[44] All the countries competing were eligible to vote with the jury vote, as well as participating and non-participating countries under an aggregated international online vote.[45]
The opening of the show featured the traditional flag parade, accompanied by all participants performing the common song "Let's Bloom" with 2004 winner María Isabel, 2023 winner Zoé Clauzure and runner-up Sandra Valero. The interval acts included a dance number titled "Time to Bloom" performed by actress Anastasia Russo [es] and choreographed by Borja Rueda, and Abraham Mateo performing a version of "Maniac" titled "Maníaca".[46]
All participating broadcasters may choose to have on-site or remote commentators providing insight and voting information to their local audience. The European Broadcasting Union also provided international live streams of the contest through their official YouTube channel with no commentary.
^ abDespite receiving the same number of jury points, Germany was determined to finish ahead of Estonia because it received points from more countries.
^ abDespite receiving the same number of overall points, Estonia was determined to finish ahead of Ireland because it received more points from the online vote.
^Incomplete broadcast of the contest, starting at 18:30 CET during France's performance and pausing at 19:00 (skipping San Marino) before resuming during Ukraine's performance. The Netherlands rebroadcast the full event on NPO Zapp via NPO 3 a day later due to the live broadcast being delayed and interrupted on said channel the night before. The contest was however broadcast live and in full on NPO 2 Extra.[67]
