Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was the seventeenth edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest, organised by Telewizja Polska (TVP) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It was held on 24 November 2019, at the Gliwice Arena in Gliwice, Poland, following the country's victory at the contest in Minsk, Belarus, with the song "Anyone I Want to Be", performed by Roksana Węgiel. It was the first time Poland had hosted the contest, as well as the first Eurovision event to be held in the country since the Eurovision Young Dancers 2013. Nineteen  countries participated in the contest, with taking part for the first time since , while and did not return to the contest after having participated in 2018. Poland's Viki Gabor with the song "Superhero" was the winner of the contest, which makes Poland the first country to win the Junior Eurovision Song Contest two years in a row and the first country to win on home soil. Location. The 2019 contest took place in Poland for the first time, following the country's victory at the 2018 edition with the song "Anyone I Want to Be", performed by Roksana Węgiel . It was the sixth time that the contest had been hosted by the previous year's winning country. Venue. The contest took place at Gliwice Arena, a sport and entertainment hall with a capacity of 17,178 in the main arena. It is considered one of the largest entertainment and sports halls in Poland. Bidding phase and host city selection. Prior to Poland's confirmation, two other countries had announced their intentions to host the event. These bids were from Armenia and Kazakhstan. If the Kazakh proposal had been accepted, the Kazakh broadcaster Khabar Agency said it would have moved the  contest to October 2019 due to possible adverse weather conditions in the Kazakh capital Nur-Sultan, which was proposed as the host city, around the original dates of the contest. Ιt would also have been the first time that an associate member was chosen to host an EBU flagship event. However, for this to happen, the general rules of the competition would have to be changed, because as in the adult competition, the competition cannot be held in a non-full member state of the EBU. For instance, this rule does not allow the competition to be held in  Australia if the country wins, although they became an effective participant in 2016. On 10 December 2018, it was confirmed by the EBU that Poland would host the 2019 contest. Two days earlier, it was revealed that the MP for the city of Gliwice, Jarosław Gonciarz, had written to the Head of Telewizja Polska (TVP), calling for the contest to be held in the city at the recently built Gliwice Arena. On 18 January 2019, in an interview for TVP Info, Director-General of the EBU Noel Curran stated that the contest would be held in Kraków. The same day , TVP issued a statement that the city had not yet been chosen. On 6 March 2019, during a press conference held by TVP and the EBU, it was confirmed that the contest would be held in Gliwice with Silesian Voivodeship cooperation. This was the first time since the 2014 contest that the event is not hosted by a country's capital, as Warsaw does not have a suitable venue to host an event of this size. Key: Format. Visual design. The theme for the contest, "Share the Joy", was revealed on 13 May 2019 during a press conference prior to  the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel. The press conference included Gert Kark (Project Manager), Konrad Smuga (Creative Director), Marta Piekarska (Project Coordinator) and Roksana Węgiel, the winner of the contest. Hosts. On 22 August 2019, it was announced that Ida Nowakowska, Aleksander Sikora and winner of the previous contest Roksana Węgiel would host the 2019 Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Węgiel is the first former winner to host an edition of the contest as well as the fifth person under the age of 16 to do so. Nowakowska is a Polish-American digital influencer and a multimedia person  while Sikora is a Breakfast television host. On 24 September 2019, journalists and TV hosts Agata Konarska and Mateusz Szymkowiak were confirmed as the hosts for the Opening Ceremony, which took place on 18 November in Silesian Theatre in Katowice, the capital city of the host region of Silesia. Konarska previously hosted the Eurovision Young Dancers 2005 in Warsaw. Voting. The results was determined by national juries and an online audience vote. The first phase of the online voting started on 22 November at 20:00 CET when a recap of all the rehearsal performances were shown on the official website  before the viewers could vote. This round of voting stopped on 24 November at 15:59 CET. The second phase of the online voting took place during the live show, which started at 16:00 CET, straight after the last performance and was open for 15 minutes. International viewers can vote for a minimum of three countries and a maximum of five, including their own country. The number of points was determined by the percentage of votes received. The public vote counts for 50% of the final result, while the other 50% come from the professional juries. Trophy. The trophy was designed  by Kjell Engman of the Swedish glass company Kosta Boda, using the same design as was first introduced in the 2017 contest. The main trophy is a glass microphone with colored lines inside the upper part, which symbolize the flow of sound. Postcards. Each postcard took place in a different location in Poland. They all began with a short clip of the upcoming performer looking through a telescope at their postcard's location. A group of people performing an activity in said location was then shown. This activity was also included as a hashtag at the bottom of the screen . At completion of the activity, the upcoming performer is shown moving a digital kite (the logo of the contest) decorated with their country's flag, signalling the commencement of their performance. Participating countries. On 18 July 2019, the EBU released the official list of participants with 19 competing countries. Spain marked their first appearance since , while Azerbaijan and Israel did not return. Scoreboard. 12 points. Below is a summary of all 12 points received from each country's professional juries. Spokespersons. The following people announced the jury 12 points for their respective country: Other countries. For a country to be  eligible for potential participation in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, it needs to be an active member of the EBU. It is currently unknown whether the EBU issued invitations of participation to all 56 active members like they do for the Eurovision Song Contest. Official album. Junior Eurovision Song Contest Gliwice 2019 is a compilation album put together by the European Broadcasting Union, and was released by Universal Music Group on 8 November 2019. The album features all the songs from the 2019 contest.