After a year like no other, ESCXTRA can’t be in the Polish capital city of Warsaw to bring you live coverage of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020. Nevertheless, we bring you the next best thing… an overview of each of the twelve participating entries and all the details you need to cast your online votes right now!
Meet Valentina
Valentina was internally selected by FranceTV to represent her country at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020, following in the footsteps of Carla (2019), Angélina (2018) and Thomas (2004).
For Valentina’s age, she has experienced quite a lot already. In 2018, she auditioned for ‘Kids United Nouvelle Génération’, and was successful in joining the other four members of the group. As a member of ‘Kids United Nouvelle Génération’, they have been able to release two albums, participate in UNICEF missions, takes part in various collective projects with other artists and build a huge fanbase on social media, with over 300,000 followers.
Ariana Grande is Valentina’s biggest idol. Surprisingly she also has a keen interest in French rap and also has a talent for singing in Italian. She especially enjoys singing Laura Pausini’s songs, a favourite artist of her mother’s.
Asked in a interview for junioreurovision.tv what her favourite lyric is in her song J’Imagine she says:
My favourite part in my song is “So it’s true, it’s not always joyful, in our hearts it’s a bit like a fight, and you, tomorrow, what do you do? Imagine with me.” Because it reflects reality – life is not always easy and fun – but yet has a strong hopeful message at the end: imagining together a brighter future!
France in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Debuting at Junior Eurovision in 2004, Thomas Pontier represented France with their first entry, “Si on voulait bien”. He finished in 6th place with 78 points. In 2005, France Télévisions withdrew from the contest, stating that there was “no motivation to compete”.
In 2015 the former Head of Delegation of France, Edoardo Grassi, attended Junior Eurovision in Sofia and suggested France was looking to return at the contest in the future. Wishes came true as France returned to Junior Eurovision in 2018. Angélina represented the country with her song, “Jamais sans toi”, which finished in 2nd place with 203 points. This success likely encouraged France to stay for the foreseeable.
Last year, The Voice Kids finalist, Carla Lazzari, was selected to represent France. Her song, “Bim Bam Toi”, finished in 5th place with 169 points. France received 3 sets of 10 points from Australia, The Netherlands and Wales. In the online voting, they finished in 3rd place (behind Poland and Spain) with 84 points.
Vote for France now!
Votes can be cast via vote.junioreurovision.tv NOW! Viewers from all over the world can vote for three countries.
The first round of voting is open right now and will close at 4.59pm CET on Sunday 29th November, just before the beginning of the live broadcast. Then, voting will reopen during the show for fifteen minutes following the final performance so that any final votes can be cast.
Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram, and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates! Also, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to see our reactions to the news in the upcoming months.
