Spain in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

The participation of Spain in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest first began at the inaugural Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. Televisión Española (TVE), a division of Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE) and member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), were responsible for the selection process of their participation. Spain used a national selection format, broadcasting a show entitled Eurojunior, for their participation at the contests. The first representative to participate for the nation at the 2003 contest was Sergio with the song "Desde el cielo", which finished in second place out of sixteen participating entries, achieving a score of 125 points. Spain did not participate from 2007 to 2018, but returned to the contest in 2019.^[1]

Spain in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Participating broadcaster	Radiotelevisión Española (RTVE)
Participation summary
Appearances	9
First appearance	2003
Highest placement	1st: 2004
External links
Spain's page at JuniorEurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Spain in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023

History

 

María Isabel who won for Spain at Junior Eurovision 2004.

Spain is one of the sixteen countries to have made their debut at the inaugural Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003, which took place on 15 November 2003 at the Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark.^[2] Child singer Sergio was the first participant to represent Spain with the song "Desde el cielo",^[3] which finished in second place out of sixteen participating entries, achieving a score of 137 points.^[4] Spain is one of the most successful countries in the contest, with its first six entrants all finishing in the top 5. The country won in 2004, represented by María Isabel with "Antes muerta que sencilla", as well as coming second place twice, in both 2003 and 2005. Spanish broadcaster Televisión Española (TVE) did not return after the 2006 contest, stating "the Junior Eurovision promotes stereotypes we do not share".^[5]

Since 2013, there were several attempts to manage the return of Spain to the contest. During the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Copenhagen, the head of the Spanish delegation, Federico Llano said that TVE was not planning to participate in the 2014 contest.^[6][7] In 2014, it was stated that European Broadcasting Union TV Committee would discuss the possibility of allowing commercial television channels to participate, in order to negotiate with Spanish private broadcasters to manage the return of Spain to the contest. These attempts did not come to fruition.^{[8][9][10][11]} In 2015, several media outlets reported that TVE was working on returning to the contest, but, these claims were not confirmed by the broadcaster.^[12][13]

On 13 May 2016, EBU Executive Supervisor Jon Ola Sand announced at a press conference that the EBU were in contact with broadcasters from several countries including Spain, so that they would participate in the 2016 contest.^[14] On 28 September 2016, however, Spain was not listed as one of the seventeen participating countries in the contest.^[15] RTVE returned to the contest in 2019 after a 13-year absence.^[1] Their return proved to be successful, with Melani García in 2019 and Soleá in 2020 both reaching third place. Their success, however, could not be repeated by Levi Díaz, who placed 15th, the first time Spain had finished outside the top 10. In 2022, its representative Carlos Higes placed 6th, bringing Spain back to the top 10 for the first time since 2020.

Participation overview

Table key

1	First place
2	Second place
3	Third place
†	Upcoming event

Year	Artist	Song	Language	Place	Points
2003	Sergio	"Desde el cielo"	Spanish	2	125
2004	María Isabel	"Antes muerta que sencilla"	Spanish	1	171
2005	Antonio José	"Te traigo flores"	Spanish	2	146
2006	Dani Fernández	"Te doy mi voz"	Spanish	4	90
2019	Melani García	"Marte"	Spanish	3	212
2020	Soleá	"Palante"	Spanish	3	133
2021	Levi Díaz	"Reír"	Spanish	15	77
2022	Carlos Higes	"Señorita"	Spanish, English	6	137
2023	Sandra Valero	"Loviu"	Spanish^[a]	Upcoming †

Gallery

•  

  Dani Fernández in Bucharest (2006)

•  

  Melani García in Gliwice (2019)

•  

  Soleá in Madrid (2020)

•  

  Levi Díaz in Paris (2021)

Commentators and spokespersons

The contests are broadcast online worldwide through the official Junior Eurovision Song Contest website junioreurovision.tv and YouTube. In 2015, the online broadcasts featured commentary in English by junioreurovision.tv editor Luke Fisher and 2011 Bulgarian Junior Eurovision Song Contest entrant Ivan Ivanov.^[16] The Spanish broadcaster, Televisión Española, sent their own commentators to the contest in order to provide commentary in the Spanish language. Spokespersons were also chosen by the national broadcaster in order to announce the awarding points from Spain. The table below list the details of each commentator and spokesperson since 2003.

Year(s)	Channel	Commentator	Spokesperson	Ref.
2003	La 1	Fernando Argenta	Jimmy Castro	^[17]
2004			Lucho	^[18]^[19]
2005		Beatriz Pécker and Lucho	Gonzalo Gutiérrez Blanco	^[20]
2006		Fernando Argenta and Lucho	Lucía	^[21]
2007–2018	No broadcast		Did not participate
2019	La 1, TVE Internacional	Tony Aguilar, Julia Varela and Víctor Escudero	Violeta Leal	^[22]^[23]
2020		Tony Aguilar, Eva Mora and Víctor Escudero	Melani García	^[24]^[25]
2021		Tony Aguilar and Julia Varela	Lucía Arcos	^[26]^[27]
2022			Juan Diego Álvarez	^[28]^[29]

See also

• Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest – Senior version of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
• Spain in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
• Spain in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.

Notes

1. Contains repeated phrases in English, French, Italian and Portuguese

References

1. "Spain: Junior Eurovision 2019 Participation Confirmed". Eurovoix. 25 June 2019.
2. García, Belén (7 September 2015). "#BestOfJESC – Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003". esc-plus.com. ESC+Plus. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
3. Escudero, Victor M. (9 November 2012). "Remember the first ever Junior Eurovision Song Contest?". junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
4. "Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003 Scoreboard". junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 15 November 2003. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
5. Hondal, Victor (2007-08-08). "Spain withdraws from JESC 2007". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
6. García, Belén (21 May 2014). "Junior Eurovision:Spain no plans to return this year (exclusive)". esc-plus. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
7. Granger, Anthony (21 May 2014). "Spain: No Plans To Return To Junior Eurovision". Eurovoix.com. Retrieved 22 May 2014.
8. "EBU negotiating with private TV channels". @JuniorESCPress Twitter account. 30 August 2014. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
9. Yakovlev, Vladislav (30 August 2014). "#AskVlad : About the participating countries of JESC 2014". Youtube.com. Archived from the original on 2021-12-19. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
10. Granger, Anthony (28 September 2014). "Spain: Private Channel For JESC 2014 Not Possible". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
11. Pérez, Lluis (17 November 2014). (in Spanish). Ahoramundotv.es. Archived from the original on 20 December 2014.
12. Granger, Anthony (5 June 2015). "Spain TVE to return to Junior Eurovision?". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 5 June 2015.
13. Morales, Víctor (6 June 2015). "TVE estudia su vuelta al Festival de Eurovisión Junior". formulatV.com (in Spanish). FormulaTV. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
14. Granger, Anthony (13 May 2016). "JESC'16 big change to the contest announced". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 17 May 2016.
15. Jordan, Paul (28 September 2016). "17 Countries Confirmed For Junior Eurovision 2016!". junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
16. Fisher, Luke James (21 November 2015). "Tonight: Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015!". Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Bulgaria 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
17. "Sergio Jesús intentará ganar el "I Festival Eurojunior"". eldiario.es (in Spanish). 15 November 2003. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
18. "TVE-1 ofrece el segundo Festival de Eurovisión Junior". eldiario.es (in Spanish). 20 November 2004. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
19. Morales, Fernando (21 November 2004). "María Isabel gana en Noruega la segunda edición del Festival de Eurovisión Junior". El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 26 November 2019.
20. "La Primera retransmite el Festival de Eurovisión Junior 2005". ABC (in Spanish). 26 November 2005. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
21. "España, a seguir en la élite de Eurojunior con Dani y su "Te doy mi voz"". eldiario.es (in Spanish). 2 December 2006. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
22. David, José (22 October 2019). "TVE emitirá el Festival de Eurovisión Junior 2019 por La 1 y TVE internacional". escplus.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 16 November 2019.
23. "Tony Aguilar y Julia Varela comentarán el Festival de Eurovisión Junior 2019". rtve.es (in Spanish). RTVE. 23 October 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
24. RTVE.es (2020-10-23). "Tony Aguilar y Eva Mora comentarán Eurovisión Junior 2020". RTVE.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2020-10-23.
25. "Melani será la portavoz del jurado de España en Eurovisión Junior 2020". RTVE (in Spanish). 2020-11-16. from the original on 2020-11-16.
26. Washak, James (22 November 2021). "Spain: TVE Internacional Will Air Junior Eurovision 2021". Eurovoix.
27. "Tony Aguilar y Julia Varela comentarán el Festival de Eurovisión Junior 2021" (in Spanish). RTVE.com. 2021-12-02.
28. Carros, David (18 November 2022). "Eurovisión Junior se podrá ver en todo el mundo a través de TVE Internacional". ESCplus España (in Spanish).
29. Cano Alcalá, Beatriz (1 December 2022). "Tony Aguilar y Julia Varela comentarán Eurovisión Junior 2022 en La 1 de TVE". ESCPlus España (in Spanish).