French media: Organisers concerned COVID-19 may force Kazakhstan to stay at home for Junior Eurovision

French daily newspaper Le Parisien has reported today that organisers of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 are keeping a close watch of the so-called “fifth wave” of COVID-19 both in France and abroad, particularly with the rise of the new “Omicron variant”. Most notably, the newspaper reports that “internal” sources are particularly concerned about whether the Kazakhstan delegation will be able to make the trip to Paris next month.

Internally, all eyes are on the Kazakhstan [delegation], which might not be able to make the trip [to Paris]. In this case, it is only the clip of the song which will be submitted to the vote of the usual 32 million viewers.
Le Parisien (translated from French)

Video clip is the backup option

The reason in particular has not been clarified by Le Parisien, however they reiterate the EBU’s rule for this year’s Junior Eurovision that should a delegation not be able to perform live in Paris then the video clip will be used for the nation’s performance instead. This is in contrast to last year in which all delegations recorded a “live-on-tape” performance to be used.

According to the newspaper, the reason that delegations have not been asked to submit a “live-on-tape” recording of their entry as they were in Junior Eurovision 2020 and Eurovision 2021 is due to “budget savings”.

UPDATE: Statement from French delegation

In response to this article, the Head of Press of the French delegation has given us this statement:

We would like to affirm that French Télévisions wishes as much as possible the coming of all the countries in France in December and that in the respect of the sanitary measures put in place.
Ludovic Hurel, 29 November 2021

Kazakhstan at Junior Eurovision 2021

Kazakhstan will be represented by Alinur & Beknur with the Kazakh and French-language song “Ertegi alemi (Fairy World). The video clip for the entry was recently released and you can watch it below!