The Junior Eurovision Song Contest is returning for its 24th edition, with 16 countries taking part in Malta’s third hosting of the competition.
Four of those countries, Ireland, Spain, North Macedonia and the Netherlands, are taking part in this competition, but chose to sit out Vienna’s hosting in between the two Junior Eurovision shows.
So what is it about Junior Eurovision that has kept these countries in the EBU’s smaller competition?
Withdrawal Reasons
This story needs to begin with the events that unfolded last year resulting in a five-nation boycott of the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, which included Ireland, Spain and the Netherlands. Together they have almost 200 participations and have 14 Eurovision victories to their name.
Following the vote at the EBU General Assembly in December 2025, these three nations chose to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest. Their reasoning to do so was multifaceted, more nuanced than just a statement against the aggression of the state of Israel in Gaza. Their comments also pointed out the denial of access for journalists, the use of the Contest for political purposes, and the insufficient rule changes to give Eurovision voting stronger integrity.
North Macedonia’s absence from the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest was not related to geopolitical tensions. Indeed, North Macedonia’s last appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest was at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest in Turin. North Macedonia was then absent for the 2023 edition in Liverpool, stating at the time that the reasoning was due to economic factors, stating the “energy crisis and high costs” of participation. This comes on the back of Russia’s exclusion from the Song Contest, when rising costs were passed on via the participation fee, resulting in for example an increase of over 13 % to the Irish delegation that year.
Yet the North Macedonian presence at Junior Eurovision didn’t falter during this period, and they have been present at every Junior Eurovision since 2021.
Junior Eurovision is a significantly smaller event than its bigger brother, with the EBU’s post-show analysis suggesting it reached 16 million TV viewers across 14 measured markets. That compares to 131 million via TV across 35 markets that the Eurovision Song Contest received in May 2026.
And for each of the four competing nations we refer to above, their reasons for sticking with Junior Eurovision are all uniquely different.
When Irish Words Are Shining
There is one obvious difference between the Ireland that has been presented at Junior Eurovision compared to its older sibling. At the main Contest, only once in their history has Ireland performed a song in the native Irish language. However every single Junior Eurovision entry from Ireland is performed with an Irish language focus.
Junior Eurovision has a restricted language rule, meaning that the majority of the song must be performed in one of the country’s national languages. For Ireland, this could be Irish or English.
Competitively, in a contest full of language diversity, one could argue that Ireland could hugely benefit from being able to sing in English, much like Ireland succeeded in the by-gone era of the Eurovision Song Contest with an even harsher language rule restriction.
But Ireland’s participation in Junior Eurovision is not to do with competitiveness, it is to do with the Irish language. The broadcaster, TG4, has a focus on broadcasting and promoting the Irish language, and as thus they internally have ensured that is present in their Junior Eurovision participations.
For TG4, Junior Eurovision provides a unique opportunity. An opportunity to promote the language, both in terms of engaging a local, young audience but also internationally. It provides a rare opportunity for a broadcaster with just over half a million daily viewers the chance to be a part of an international TV broadcast and learn from that experience. It also helps to ensure the Irish language becomes even more used amongst those growing up in the country.
And while Ireland doesn’t need to restrict itself to Irish-dominated language songs, that Junior Eurovision has restrictive rules about language is to TG4’s benefit. TG4’s participation normalises the use of the Irish language, in a competition where the vast majority of songs are in diverse languages around Europe, singing in Irish isn’t noteworthy or odd in comparison. At Junior Eurovision, Irish isn’t an anomaly, it’s part of its normality.
A Dutch Institution
If we look back at the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest, it’s a country where Eurovision participation in itself has been a standalone thing. While the Dutch broadcaster accepts entry submissions each year to the Song Contest, the choice on which song and artist has represented the country has been chosen internally by the broadcaster on every occasion since 2013. And while Nationaal Songfestival 2012 had six competing acts, national finals prior to this date had one preselected artist singing numerous songs to choose their entry.
The process of selecting an act for the Netherlands for Eurovision has been a quiet, behind closed doors occasion. How different that is for the Junior equivalent.
The Netherlands is the only country to have participated in every edition of Junior Eurovision since its 2003 beginnings, and Junior Songfestival began in this very first year. Only once, in 2016, did the Netherlands select internally.
I can not sufficiently explain how big of a platform Junior Songfestival can be to a Dutch audience. My first ever Eurovision branded event of all time was to attend Junior Eurovision 2012 in Amsterdam. Before the live broadcast went out across Europe, the warm up acts were those participants from Junior Songfestival that year, getting a chance to perform on the big stage anyway.
The locals knew every word to every song. That year launched the group Mainstreet into the mainstream, a boy band that captured thousands of fans from their debut with ‘Stop The Time’, going on to record a number one album in a four year run . Hundreds of them were at Junior Eurovision in Amsterdam to deafeningly scream for their appearance in the warm-up, rather than the actual twelve competing acts.
Dutch Junior Eurovision history has plenty of success stories. Eurovision fans likely have great knowledge that O’G3NE won Junior Songfestival ten years before their 11th place finish in Kyiv, or that Stefania became the Greek act for 2020 and 2021 after her 2016 participation. But the success of Junior Songfestival isn’t in the stars it creates, it’s in its reach. It’s in a production that as a brand has over 300,000 YouTube subscribers and over 150,000 on Instagram, a whole series of programming following the young participants and hundreds of enthusiastic participants who want to audition each year.
For the last few years the Rotterdam Ahoy has been utilised for a four song National Final which is not just slick television but an outpouring of joy and the culmination of a big journey for each of those acts. Participation at Junior Eurovision is just the cherry on the cake of that domestic journey.
Macedonian Moxie
That North Macedonia has stuck with Junior Eurovision throughout their multi-year absence from the Eurovision Song Contest feels peculiar from the outside. Unlike the Netherlands, North Macedonia does not have a tradition of anything like the Dutch experience. There is no national final process here, and with an internal selection of auditions being utilised to select their 2026 artist Ana Stojanoska.
But given that Junior Eurovision is also going to be expensive for North Macedonian broadcaster MRT, why, given the comparative lack of fanfare, is Junior Eurovision still a worthwhile venture?
One aspect could be about risk. Both at the Eurovision Song Contest and Junior Eurovision, it’s hard to look at North Macedonian participation as a scoreboard success. North Macedonia currently sits on one Eurovision Grand Final qualification on their last nine attempts, and despite twenty Junior Eurovision attempts their best scoreboard placing is 5th. But struggling at the Eurovision Song Contest means an economic gamble – is it worth the significantly higher fees for a low chance at reaching the Saturday night where that makes dividends in terms of reach and viewership? At Junior Eurovision, that risk of qualifying is removed with it being a one night show.
There is also a quirk about how money is allocated within a broadcaster to consider here. Junior Eurovision sits firmly within MRT’s overall plan under children’s programming, not entertainment. Translated from the plan document, Junior Eurovision is identified for the “international visibility for young performers and Macedonian musical creativity”, as well as benefitting the broadcasters for the “development of modern production, creative and promotional practices within public service.”
The benefits for North Macedonia to compete at Junior Eurovision might be on a smaller scale than what a successful Eurovision Song Contest could achieve. But when the goals are not about scoreboard success but about developing skills and spreading the reach of young performers, Junior Eurovision fits the bill easily.
Spain And Their Modern Day Quandary
Spain has appeared in Junior Eurovision each year from 2019, as well as from 2003 to 2016. Furthermore, after coming 2nd in 2023, Spain hosted Junior Eurovision 2024 in Madrid. That hosting had Ana Maria Bordas as Executive Producer, and she took over as chair of Eurovision’s Reference Group in 2025.
Spain is one of Junior Eurovision biggest markets, not just in terms of TV viewership, the second largest of 2025, but also being named on both YouTube and Twitch for having some of the biggest global viewing audiences.
That Spain will appear at Junior Eurovision 2026 has been of public discussion given Spain’s current withdrawal from the Eurovision Song Contest. In August Spanish broadcaster RTVE revealed that they had received over 100 complaints about their Eurovision decision making, while simultaneously receiving inquiries about Junior Eurovision participation.
Spain’s appearance in Malta this year comes at an interesting time for Spain’s history in the Eurovision Song Contest. In September the Chair of RTVE’s board, José Pablo López, recommended for Spain’s continued withdrawal from the adult competition despite negotiating further adaptations to the EBU rules and regulations going forward. However the final rubber stamp on that decision has yet to be given, and Spain is set to enter into a snap general election.
Would a top result, or even a win in Malta for Spain, bring the issue of Eurovision participation to the forefront of the election campaign once more? With Spain being drawn last in the running order and being represented by The Voice Kids winner Lucas Paulano, perhaps stranger things have happened to reignite the broader conversation once more before Spain votes on 29th November.
Escapism By Music
For these four countries, their role at Junior Eurovision is on the whole a joyous one. Junior Eurovision is an escapist Eurovision – arguably it is like Eurovision as it once was. It is a once a year spectacle of colour, language and togetherness, without all the baggage that weighs the bigger edition down today.
Since 2025 the EBU have also branded Junior Eurovision with the United By Music slogan, which Eurovision first used for the co-hosting for Ukraine and the United Kingdom in 2023. In an academic piece about the balance between cultural policy and security policy at the Eurovision Song Contest, Catherine Baker critiques how United By Music remained through 2024 and beyond, suggesting that it “reflected a similarly idealistic assumption about music’s unifying power that the realities of managing an international song contest in such a sensitive macro-level environment did not support.”
Thankfully, Junior Eurovision is on the whole a world where music’s unifying power is more clear and devoid of macro-level geopolitics.
But United By Music doesn’t fairly express the common thread that links all four of these nations together for why they have stuck with Junior Eurovision through rough times. Instead the different public service media bodies have their own different goals to get out of Junior Eurovision participation, from language recognition to keeping a domestic tradition alive, to ensuring dedicated focus and opportunity for young people and having content that brings the younger generation to public service media production.
If anything, what unites is that each reason is different, but is all for giving the best opportunity for the next generation.