The Netherlands is the only country to have participated in every edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest since the inaugural 2003 edition.[1] The Netherlands have won the contest on one occasion: in 2009 with the song "Click Clack", performed by Ralf Mackenbach.[2] In the 2021 contest in Paris, France, Ayana represented the Netherlands with the song "Mata Sugu Aō Ne", containing lyrics in Dutch, English and Japanese. She finished in 19th place with 43 points; the first last place result for the Netherlands.[3]
Following the 2021 edition of the competition, the submissions process was opened for singers who want to represent the Netherlands at the 2022 contest.[5] Following a call for participants which closed in February,[6]NPO Zapp revealed the list of singers who made it through to the auditions round in March 2022.[7] The finalists were revealed on 10 and 17 June 2022, during two episodes published on the official Junior SongfestivalYouTube channel.[8][9] Twenty three acts past the audition stage and fourteen of them were selected to be the finalists of Junior Songfestival 2022.[10][11] The four acts that will compete in the final of Junior Songfestival 2022 were revealed on 24 June 2022.[12] The line-up consists of three groups: a girl group, a boyband, a mixed group and a soloist, being the first line-up in over a decade in which this mix of performers has competed.[12]
The final took place on 24 September 2022, hosted by Matheu Hinzen and Stefania.[14] During the online voting window, the finalists performed a common theme song titled "Living in the Moment".[15] The winner was determined through points given by a kids jury, a professional jury and public voting, each having equal weight. The kids jury consisted of Junior Songfestival 2021 winner Ayana and finalists Shine and Priscilla, and the professional jury consisted of Chantal Janzen, Flemming and Glen Faria.[16][17] Overall, the show had an average of 187,000 viewers with a share of 5.2%. The average number of viewers increased by 45,000 viewers compared to 2021 and the market share increased by 1.3%.[18]
Junior Songfestival – 24 September 2022
Draw
Artist
Song
Points
Place
Kids jury
Prof. jury
Online vote
Total
1
Infinity
"Never Ever"
8
8
8
24
4
2
Mixed Up
"It Doesn't Matter"
10
10
10
30
2
3
High5
"Because I Know"
9
9
9
27
3
4
Luna
"La festa"
12
12
12
36
1
At Junior Eurovision
After the opening ceremony, which took place on 5 December 2022, it was announced that the Netherlands would perform first on 11 December 2022 preceding Poland.[19]
Voting
The same voting system that was introduced in the 2017 edition was used, where the results were determined by 50% online voting and 50% jury voting. Every country had a national jury that consisted of three music industry professionals and two children aged between 10 and 15 who were citizens of the country they represented. The rankings of those jurors were combined to make an overall top ten.[20]
The online voting consisted of two phases. The first phase of the online voting began on 9 December 2022 when a recap of all the rehearsal performances was shown on the contest's website Junioreurovision.tv before the viewers could vote. After this, voters also had the option to watch longer one-minute clips from each participant's rehearsal. This first round of voting ended on 11 December at 15:59 CET. The second phase of the online voting took place during the live show and began right after the last performance and was open for 15 minutes. International viewers were able vote for three songs.[21] They were also able to vote for their own country's song. These votes were then turned into points which were determined by the percentage of votes received. For example, if a song received 10% of the votes, it received 10% of the available points.
