Following their withdrawal last year, The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation have confirmed that Israel will not be returning to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2020. They join a string of countries who will not be taking part in the contest this November.
The Israeli Broadcasting Corporation has confirmed to Euromix that Israel will not participate in this year’s Junior Eurovision Song Contest. KAN, the Israeli broadcaster for Eurovision, have not given a reason behind their non-participation.
Last year, KAN announced that they would not be appearing at the 2019 contest in Gliwice, Poland. They did not disclose the reason behind this. However, they did still broadcast the contest this year despite not participating.
Junior Eurovision 2020 – what we know so far
Junior Eurovision 2020 is to be held on November 29 in the Polish capital of Warsaw. The slogan for the show is ‘Move The World’. Following Viki Gabor’s victory on home soil in 2019, this will mark TVP’s second consecutive time hosting.
Note, unlike previous years, the show is due to be held in a TV studio, rather than an arena. The venue itself is yet to be confirmed, and will either be ATM Studio or Transcolor Studio.
To date, the following countries have confirmed participation in the contest:
Israel at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Israel debuted at the 2012 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which was hosted in Amsterdam, Netherlands. They were presented by Kids.il, who placed 8th with “Let the Music Win”. This remains their best result to date. They withdrew from the contest between 2013 and 2015, only to return for the 2016 in Valetta. Previously, their participation was overseen by the Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), until KAN took over in 2018.
However, in 2018, as KAN was the host broadcaster of the Eurovision Song Contest, they decided to participate in the contest. Their first participation since 2016; the EBU had to lift the countries limit in order to allow them to join. At the contest, hosted in Minsk, Noam Dadon placed 14th with “Children Like These”.
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