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France to host Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021

09 December 2020 at 10:00 CET
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest will take place in France in 2021 EBU
The European Broadcasting Union and France Télévisions are excited to announce that France will host the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2021 following their first win ever in the competition on 29 November.

The 11-year-old Valentina took the trophy home for France after collecting a combined score of 200 points! The French singer, who comes from a place near Rennes in France, won Junior Eurovision 2020 with her song J'imagine. It was the first victory for France who have only entered the Contest on 4 occasions so far. Now, France Télévisions are gearing up to host the event in 2021.

Valentina performs J'imagine on a colourful stage Nathalie Guyon

Delphine Ernotte Cunci, president of France Télévisions and EBU President-elect said: "I am very happy that France Télévisions is organizing the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in France in 2021. Valentina represented our country brilliantly by winning the 2020 edition. Consequently, it was obvious to host the next event in France."

She went on to say: “This is a strong new initiative for us, which underscores the importance France Télévisions attaches to Eurovision, the EBU and Europe. Let us all hope that Junior Eurovision 2021 can take place under normal conditions in France and it will be a time of great celebrations for many Europeans.”

Alexandra Redde-Amiel who is Head of Variety and Entertainment at France Télévisions and Head of the French delegation for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, has good memories of that wonderful evening. "29 November 2020 will always be engraved in our memories thanks to Valentina's magnificent victory at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. This incredible adventure isn’t over! It truly is an achievement and an honour for the entire France Télévisions entertainment team to organize one of the biggest shows in the world in France. We can't wait to welcome the EBU teams, all the participants and the European delegations next year and offer them a special show,” she said.

Martin Österdahl, the Executive Supervisor of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and his team are delighted that France Télévisions will host the Contest for the first time. "We know how excited the whole team in France are to be staging the 19th edition of the Contest and we’re looking forward to working with them on growing the competition and producing a great show in 2021.”

The host city and venue for next year's Contest will be decided at a later date.

Junior Eurovision attracts millions

This year's competition reached 32 million viewers and a total average audience of 8.9 Million viewers*. The 18th edition of the show took place in Warsaw and was hosted by Polish broadcaster TVP who worked diligently to make sure the show had a high standard despite the use of pre-recorded performances from all over Europe. They also displayed innovation by using AR/XR methods for the first time in the history of the Contest.

The winning country recorded its best audience ever. An average of 1.2 million viewers watched on France 2, up by 23% on 2019’s audience. For a second year in a row the highest average TV audience was delivered by host country Poland, with 5.1 million viewers. The Contest has, to date, also been viewed over half a million times on the official YouTube channel.

Overall, the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020 provided a huge audience boost to EBU Members and Associates taking part and is reflected in the record 4.5 million valid votes cast. The 18th Junior edition delivered a 6.9% viewing share, up by 25% on the average 5.5% normally achieved by the same group of broadcast channels. The show was hugely popular with children aged 4 to 14 with a 13.4% viewing share which went up by 54% on the usual 8.7%. The share of older teenagers and young adults (15 – 24) watching also went up by 60% on the normal channel average, with a total of 7.2%.

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest’s social channels and website were also hugely popular this year. Instagram followers increased 32.5% during the event week, and more people than ever engaged with content. There were just under 4 million unique views on Instagram stories alone. Content from the event made 3.5 million impressions on Twitter and reached over 2 million unique users on Facebook as well!

Junioreurovision.tv was visited by nearly 900.000 unique users who browsed over 3 million pages during the week of the event.

This just goes to show that the Junior Eurovision community can come together, stronger than ever. We already can't wait for next year's competition in France!

* Across 11 markets with available data

Source: EBU based on Glance / Relevant Partners.