Junior winners on the Eurovision stage

Gaia Cauchi

Gaia Cauchi won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2013 and was the first winner to be invited to perform at Eurovision the following year. The Maltese singer was 11 years old when she represented her country in her performance of The Start in Kyiv, Ukraine. Prior to her segment on the Eurovision 2014 stage, she let the audience know that she wants to perform at the Eurovision Song Contest in the future with the goal to go all the way: "If I will [participate] then my target is to win it because if you believe it you will achieve it."

Gaia is now 17 years old and according to her Instagram account, that boasts 42 thousand followers, she still sings and continues to do well. A few months ago she let her followers know that she was "nominated for 3 awards" at the Malta Music Awards.

Vincenzo Cantiello

Vincenzo appeared as part of the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 live show from Vienna. The young Italian, who won Junior Eurovision back in November 2014, was interviewed on stage before he performed a small part of his Tu Primo Grande Amore during the interval.

Vincenzo is still going strong and is active on his social media, recently encouraging his followers on Instagram to join together to stream his first single Cosa Diventerai on Sunday 17 May. You can listen to his new song now on his YouTube account.

Destiny

Destiny won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Sofia with her song Not My Soul after receiving a record 185 points. The young Maltese singer made an appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Stockholm where she said: "I am so lucky that I won Junior Eurovision" and advised that she was working on new material before she invited the audience to come to Malta for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016.

Destiny is no stranger to winning contests; most recently she went on to win X Factor Malta which, as of 2019, meant that she would go on to represent her country in Eurovision 2020.

Destiny participated in an Instagram challenge involving some of the artists of 2020. "Thank you @stefania_ for nominating me in this years #HugForESC2020 CHALLENGE💕 I would love to pass on my virtual hug to @diodatomusic and I would love to send both of you all of my love. Stay Safe💕 #Eurovision".

You can check out Destiny's 2020 participant page here and her Instagram page here. Be sure to keep an eye out for her during Eurovision Song Celebration and Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light (see bottom of story for more details).

Mariam Mamadashvili

Georgia became the first country to win Junior Eurovision three times when Mariam Mamadashvili finished ahead of Armenia and Italy with her song Mzeo in Valetta 2016. Mariam was invited to Eurovision 2017 in Kyiv and when asked if she wishes to perform on the big stage one day, she replied: "When I won Junior Eurovision I experienced a lot of things and I want to experience them again." During the broadcast, she also had the opportunity to briefly host the show, where she instructed the listeners to "vote with your heads, vote with your hearts but most importantly, your fingers" before transitioning to a review of that year's entries.

Could we be seeing Mariam again at Eurovision? We will have to wait and see!

Polina Bogusevich

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2017 took place on Sunday 26 November in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. For the first time ever, a new voting structure was introduced to allow viewers from around the world to vote online for their favourite artists and it was when Polina Bogusevich with the song Wings finished above 15 other entrants to win for Russia. The following year, in 2018, Polina was invited to Portugal for the Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon. "I became much stronger inside and now I can work harder and do my best," she said of her time in Junior Eurovision. View the YouTube video below to take a look at what previous Eurovision winning song she briefly performed on stage in Lisbon.

You can check out more of her over on her YouTube channel.

Roksana Węgiel

Winner of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018, Roksana Węgiel, visited Tel Aviv to appear in the first Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The Polish representative who took the crown in Minsk, Belarus was very "excited and honoured" to be there. When asked to recall how she felt during her experience at Junior Eurovision, Roksana said: "I was a little bit nervous but it was the best experience in my life and everyone was supporting each other so it didn't feel like a competition."

Things seem to be doing very well for this Junior Eurovision star. Roksana's Instagram has an astounding 1 million followers and states that she won the Teen Choice Award for Favourite Polish Artist in 2020 and Best Polish Act at the MTV European Music Awards 2019. It looks like she recently won a Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award for Favourite Polish Star too:

Viki Gabor

On Sunday 24 November 2019 the Junior Eurovision Song Contest took place in Gliwice-Silesia, Poland and saw Viki Gabor win with her song Superhero at the tender age of 12.

Viki recently took to her Instagram page to invite her followers to support her new song Getaway: "if you want to know the hits of summer 2020, make sure to check out @spotifypoland playlist 'Hity Lata 2020' and stream #Getaway!"

Although the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 has been cancelled, it doesn't necessarily mean that we have seen the last of Viki Gabor. She will be making an appearance on Saturday 16 May during the broadcast of Eurovision: Europe Shine A Light to show support for fellow Junior Eurovision artists and the 2020 representatives. Be sure not to miss it!