A week before the first national selections of the Eurovision 2026 season, and in the middle of a very tense period for the Eurovision world, today is perhaps a day to relax and enjoy, with the Junior Eurovision Song Contest finally taking place, in Tbilisi, Georgia.
🇬🇪 Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2026
When?
17:00 CET, until around 19:15 CET
Where?
- On TV on your Eurovision broadcaster (broadcasters may elect to show the Contest on secondary channels though, and/or on their website)
- Online, on the official Junior Eurovision Youtube channel
- Physically, at the Tbilisi Gymnastics Palace, Tbilisi, Georgia
Who?
Eighteen songs compete tonight for the JESC trophy, in the following running order:
- 🇲🇹 Malta – “I Believe”
- 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan – “Miau Miau”
- 🇭🇷 Croatia – “Snovi”
- 🇸🇲 San Marino – “Beyond the Stars”
- 🇦🇲 Armenia – “Brave Heart”
- 🇺🇦 Ukraine – “Motanka”
- 🇮🇪 Ireland – “Rúin”
- 🇳🇱 Netherlands – “Freeze”
- 🇵🇱 Poland – “Brightest Light”
- 🇲🇰 North Macedonia – “Miracle”
- 🇲🇪 Montenegro – “I tužna i srećna priča”
- 🇮🇹 Italy – “Rockstar”
- 🇵🇹 Portugal – “Para onde vai o amor?”
- 🇪🇸 Spain – “Érase una vez (Once Upon a Time)”
- 🇬🇪 Georgia – “Shine Like a Star”
- 🇨🇾 Cyprus – “Away”
- 🇫🇷 France – “Ce monde”
- 🇦🇱 Albania – “Fruta perime”
The evening will be hosted by David Aladashvili and Liza Tsiklauri.
Guest acts
There will also be some guest acts to introduce the show and perform in the interval before the results.
The introduction act will feature 110 children, and will apparently focus around a symbolic “tree of wishes”, which will also be used by the competing artists during their flag parade, during which the children will attach their own wishes to the tree.
Another act (assumedly the interval act) will see three of the four Georgian winners of Junior Eurovision, Bzikebi (2008), Candy (2011) and Andria Putkaradze (2024), perform new songs created by Giga Kukhianidze, the songwriter behind eleven Georgian JESC entries since 2010, including last year’s champion and this year’s host entry.
The results
As usual, the winner will be determined by 50% jury voting, and 50% online voting. The juries represent each participating countries, and have already voted yesterday during the Jury rehearsal, and will present their votes in the classic Eurovision scale: 1-to-8-10-12 points.
As for the public, it is a worldwide vote open to anyone, online, at jesc.tv. A first phase of voting opened yesterday night and will close at 16:59 CET just before the opening of the show. A second phase will take place after the last performance, for about 15 minutes. Votes from both phases will be added up and points will be distributed in a proportional manner (an act receiving 15% of the votes will receive 15% of the available points).
So you can still vote in the first phase, even for your own country, or even if you live in a non-participating country, but you must choose three countries to validate your vote.
How do you feel about this Junior contest? Who is your favourite? Tell us more in the comments below or on social media at @escxtra!
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