United Kingdom in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

The participation of the United Kingdom in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest first began at the inaugural Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. ITV, a member organisation of the United Kingdom Independent Broadcasting (UKIB) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), were responsible for the selection process of their participation. The United Kingdom used a national selection format, broadcasting a show entitled "Junior Eurovision Song Contest: The British Final", for their participation at the contests. The first representative to participate for the nation at the 2003 contest was Tom Morley with the song "My Song For The World", which finished in third place out of sixteen participating entries, achieving a score of one hundred and eighteen points. United Kingdom withdrew from competing in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2006, and have yet to return to the contest.

United Kingdom
Member stationITV (UKIB)
National selection eventsNational Final
2003–2005
Participation summary
Appearances3
First appearance2003
Last appearance2005
Best result2nd: 2004
Worst result14th: 2005
External links
United Kingdom's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see
United Kingdom in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005

History

The United Kingdom are 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.[1] Child-singer, Tom Morley, was the first participant to represent the United Kingdom with the song "My Song For The World",[2] which finished in third place out of sixteen participating entries, achieving a score of one hundred and eighteen points.[3] Morley and Cory Spedding (2004) sang both for the peace in the world and Joni Fuller (2005) described her feelings. The country's best result at the contest was placing second in 2004 with the song "The Best is Yet to Come". The remaining British entrant finished in fourteenth position in 2005.

In 2003, the contest was broadcast live on the main channel ITV, relegating it to digital channel ITV2 for the next two years due to poor viewing figures, before their complete withdrawal in 2006. A delayed broadcast was aired on the main channel in 2004 and 2005. The inaugural contest, broadcast live on ITV1, averaged 5 million viewers.[4] 1.9m watched the 2004 contest on delay on ITV1 (221,000 live on ITV2).[5] In 2005, the contest was watched by 700,000 viewers on ITV1 (down 63.16% compared with 2004 viewing figures), with 171,000 watching live on ITV2 (down 22.62% compared with 2004).[6]

The 2004 contest originally should have been organised by Carlton Television for ITV in Manchester.[7] ITV then announced in May 2004 that due to financial and scheduling reasons, the contest would not take place in the United Kingdom after all.[8] It is also thought that another factor to their decision was the previous years' audience ratings for ITV which were below the expected amount.[4] In July 2020, it was reported that BBC were considering participation in the upcoming contest in Warsaw.[9]

Welsh debut
Main article: Wales in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

The Welsh broadcaster Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) had shown interest in participating for the UK in 2008, hoping to share the Welsh language with a wider audience. Before the digital switchover, the contest would therefore be a bilingual broadcast that would be broadcast in Wales on analogue, and on S4C Digidol in the rest of the UK.[10] In the end, S4C chose not to broadcast the contest. S4C announced on 9 May 2018 that they would debut at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 to be held in Minsk, Belarus.[11][12]

Possible Scottish debut

On 29 June 2019, the Scottish broadcaster BBC Alba confirmed that Scotland would not debut in the 2019 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, as they would compete in Eurovision Choir 2019 instead. However, the broadcaster did confirm that talks had taken place that could enable participation for the country in 2020.[13]

However, in April 2020, BBC Alba announced that they will not debut at the 2020 contest in Poland.[14]

Radio broadcast

On 21 November 2013, it was revealed that Edinburgh-based 98.8 Castle FM (a non EBU member) would broadcast the 2013 contest live to listeners in Scotland.[15] The broadcasting rights had been offered by the EBU to its members, however when no-one in the UK took up the offer, Castle FM – previously known as Leith FM – moved in.[16] The commentators were Ewan Spence and Luke Fisher.

It was announced on 16 October 2014 that the 2014 contest would be broadcast on a radio station across the United Kingdom.[17] Five local radio stations broadcast the contest, one in England (103 The Eye, delayed) and Wales (Oystermouth Radio), and three in Scotland (K107 in Kircaldy, Radio Six International in Glasgow and Shore Radio in Edinburgh).[18] Cotswold FM, Fun Kids, Oystermouth Radio, Radio Six International and Shore Radio transmitted the 2015 contest live with commentary again provided by Ewan Spence.[19]

On 9 November 2016, Radio Six International announced that they would broadcast the 2016 contest live.[20] Ewan Spence, Lisa-Jayne Lewis, Sharleen Wright and Ben Robertson provided the commentary for the radio stations Radio Six International, Fun Kids and 103 The Eye.[21]

Participation
Table key
2
 Second place
3
 Third place
Year Artist Song Language Place Points
2003
 Tom Morley "My Song for the World" English 3 118
2004
 Cory Spedding "The Best is Yet to Come" English 2 140
2005
 Joni Fuller "How Does It Feel?" English 14 28

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.[22] The British broadcaster, ITV, sent their own commentator to each contest in order to provide commentary in the English language. Spokespersons were also chosen by the national broadcaster in order to announce the awarding points from United Kingdom. The table below list the details of each commentator and spokesperson since 2003, however from 2013 the contest is broadcast by various non-participating radio stations.

Year Commentator[23] Channel Spokesperson Ref.
2003 Mark Durden-Smith and Tara Palmer-TomkinsonITV1Sasha Stevens
2004 Matt BrownITV2Charlie Allan
2005 Michael UnderwoodVicky Gordon
2006–2012 No broadcast Did not participate
2013 Ewan Spence and Luke Fisher98.8 Castle FM
2014 Ewan Spence Various radio stations[lower-alpha 1]
[24]
2015
2016 Ewan Spence, Lisa-Jayne Lewis, Sharleen Wright and Ben Robertson
2017 Ewan Spence and Lisa-Jayne LewisRadio Six International
[25]
2018 Ewan Spence, Sharleen Wright and Ben Robertson
[26]
2019 Ewan SpenceFun Kids
[27]

See also

Notes and references

Notes
  1. In 2014, radio coverage was provided by 103 The Eye, K107, Oystermouth Radio, Radio Six International and Shore Radio. In 2015 by Cotswold FM, Fun Kids, Oystermouth Radio, Radio Six International and Shore Radio. Radio Six International, Fun Kids and 103 The Eye did so again in 2016.

References
  1. García, Belén (7 September 2015). "#BestOfJESC – Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003". esc-plus.com. ESC+Plus. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  2. Escudero, Victor M. (9 November 2012). "Remember the first ever Junior Eurovision Song Contest?". junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  3. "Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003 Scoreboard". junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 15 November 2003. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
  4. Cozens, Claire (17 November 2003). "JESC UK ratings". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 3 May 2008.
  5. "Junior Eurovision Song History and Rules of the competition". esckaz.com. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
  6. "Eurovision Viewing figures Junior 2005 available - ESCToday.com". 3 March 2006. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
  7. "Confirmation of Manchester as original host". European Broadcasting Union. 16 November 2003. Archived from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 2 July 2008.
  8. "'Junior contest not to take place in Manchester'". ESC Today. 13 May 2004. Archived from the original on 28 May 2004. Retrieved 3 May 2008.
  9. García, Belén (2020-07-16). "UK: Is BBC considering Junior Eurovision 2020 participation?". ESCplus. Retrieved 2020-07-24.
  10. Kuipers, Michael (2008-04-20). "Junior Eurovision 2008: United Kingdom to return to JESC?". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
  11. Granger, Anthony (9 May 2018). "Wales: Debuts in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest". Eurovoix. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
  12. "Chwilio am Seren". junioreurovision.cymru. S4C. 9 May 2018. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
  13. Purcell, Owen (29 June 2019). "Scotland will not debut in Junior Eurovision 2019". Eurovoix. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  14. "Scotland: No Debut At Junior Eurovision In 2020". Eurovoix. 21 April 2020.
  15. Granger, Anthony (21 November 2013). "Kiev'13: Kiev'13: UK, Greece & Kosovo To Broadcast JESC". Eurovoix.com. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  16. "Castle FM coup as it secures rights to broadcast Junior Eurovision Song Contest". allmediascotland.com. 21 November 2013. Retrieved 22 November 2013.
  17. "Increased International Interest in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest". junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 16 October 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  18. "JESC'14: Full List Of Radio Broadcasts". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. 9 November 2014. Retrieved 9 November 2014.
  19. Spence, Ewan (13 November 2015). "Listen To Junior Eurovision On Your Radio". ESCInsight. Retrieved 13 November 2015.
  20. "United Kingdom: Radio Six International To Broadcast Junior Eurovision 2016". Eurovoix.com. 9 November 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
  21. Wight, Sharleen (18 November 2016). "Junior Eurovision Live On Your Radio This Sunday". ESCInsight. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
  22. Fisher, Luke James (21 November 2015). "Tonight: Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015!". Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Bulgaria 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  23. "Junior Eurovision Song Contest". UKGameshows. Retrieved 2012-08-12.
  24. Lockett, Katherine (13 November 2014). "It's a 'TEN' for Radio!". junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 25 November 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  25. "Junior Eurovision'17: Where To Watch the Show". Eurovoix.com. 26 November 2017. Retrieved 24 December 2017.
  26. "Radio Six International to Broadcast Junior Eurovision 2018 Across The Airwaves". Eurovoix. 24 November 2018. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  27. Granger, Anthony (21 November 2019). "United Kingdom: Fun Kids to Air Junior Eurovision 2019 Live". eurovoix.com.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.