On May 20th, Finnish broadcaster YLE announced that they would not debut at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest this year in Yerevan, Armenia.
The head of YLE’s children’s programming department, Teija Rantala, made this announcement:
Finnish YLE does not participate in the competition for many reasons, but one of them is that we do not want to create new child stars or feel comfortable with children competing in these types of shows.
Junior Eurovision has struggled to retain participation from Scandinavia in particular, with countries like Norway and Denmark citing similar reasons for withdrawing from the contest and not returning. Finland aired the first JESC in 2003 on YLE 2, but has since ceased broadcasting the show.
Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2022
The 2022 Junior Eurovision Song Contest will be hosted in Yerevan, Armenia, on December 11th, 2022. Armenia received the right to host the competition after they won last year’s competition in Paris, France, with the song “Qami Qami” by Maléna Fox. This will be the 20th edition of Junior Eurovision since it began in 2003.
As of May 31st, eight countries have confirmed that they will participate this year:
- Armenia
- Bulgaria
- France
- Georgia
- Ireland
- The Netherlands
- Poland
- Spain
Are you disappointed that Finland won’t but in Junior Eurovision this year? Let us know! Be sure to stay updated by following @ESCXTRA on Twitter, @escxtra on Instagram and liking our Facebook page for the latest updates!