| Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2025 | |
|---|---|
| United by Music | |
| | |
| Date and venue | |
| Final |
|
| Venue | Gymnastic Hall of Olympic City Tbilisi, Georgia |
| Organisation | |
| Organiser | European Broadcasting Union (EBU) |
| ESC director | Martin Green |
| ESC executive producer | Gert Kark |
| Production | |
| Host broadcaster | Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB) |
| Executive producer | Natia Mshvenieradze |
| Artistic director | Marvin Dietmann |
| Presenters |
|
| Participants | |
| Number of entries | 18 |
| Returning countries | |
| Non-returning countries | |
| |
| Vote | |
| Voting system | The professional jury of each country awards a set of 12, 10, 8–1 points to 10 songs. Viewers around the world vote for 3 songs, and their votes are distributed proportionally. The votes of the jury and the audience make up 50% of all votes. |
The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2025 is set to be the 23rd edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, held on 13 December 2025 at the Gymnastic Hall of Olympic City in Tbilisi, Georgia. It is being organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB), which will stage the event after winning the 2024 contest for Georgia with the song "To My Mom" by Andria Putkaradze.
Broadcasters from eighteen countries will participate in the contest, the largest number of participants since 2021. Azerbaijan, Croatia, and Montenegro will return after absences from recent contests, while Estonia and Germany opted not to participate after doing so the previous year.
The 2025 contest will take place in Tbilisi, Georgia, following the country's victory at the 2024 contest with the song "To My Mom", performed by Andria Putkaradze. It will be the second time that Georgia hosts the competition, having previously done so in 2017, also in Tbilisi. [1] The selected venue for the contest is the 1,294-seat Gymnastic Hall of Olympic City, which was built for the 2015 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival, where it hosted gymnastics events. [2]
The 2025 contest is set to be the first one in the history of the event without accredited press. [3]
Unlike the Eurovision Song Contest, the winning broadcaster of the previous year's Junior Eurovision Song Contest does not automatically receive the right to host the next edition. However, since 2011 (with the exceptions of 2012, 2015, 2018 and 2024) it has become customary for winners to take on hosting duties, and since 2019, the winning broadcaster has had the right of first refusal on hosting the following competition. In 2024, French broadcaster France Télévisions was given this right but ultimately opted out of it. [4]
On 16 November 2024, upon her country's victory in the 2024 contest, Tinatin Berdzenishvili , the CEO of the Georgian Public Broadcaster (GPB), announced that talks would be conducted with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) regarding the hosting of the 2025 contest; [5] soon afterwards, the official Facebook page of the broadcaster's 1TV channel claimed that the 2025 contest would be hosted in Georgia, [6] however, later that same day, the EBU claimed a host for the 2025 edition had not yet been selected and that it would work with "all of [its] members" in order to identify one. [7]
On 4 April 2025, Dutch broadcaster AVROTROS claimed that the contest would take place in Georgia, [8] before rescinding its statement the same day. [9] On 9 April 2025, the Georgian State Procurement Agency published documents stating that the Government of Georgia, the EBU and GPB had jointly agreed to host the contest in Tbilisi on 13 December 2025; [10] this was confirmed by the EBU on 13 May. [11] In May 2025, head of the Georgian government administration Levan Zhorzholiani claimed the contest would be held in the "small hall of the New Sports Palace", [12] identified by the media as the Olympic Palace, which previously hosted the contest in 2017; [13] this would be reiterated by multiple participating broadcasters at various points between June and September [14] [15] [16] before being confirmed by the EBU on 1 October. [17]
On 24 November 2025, reports emerged that the contest had been relocated to the Gymnastic Hall of Olympic City, also in Tbilisi, due to the unavailability of the Olympic Palace for an assessment visit required by the EBU; [2] this was promptly confirmed through the contest's official website. [18]
Eligibility for participation in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest requires a national broadcaster with active EBU membership capable of receiving the contest via the Eurovision network and broadcasting it live nationwide. The EBU issues invitations to participate in the contest to all active members.
On 1 October 2025, the EBU announced that broadcasters from 18 countries would participate in the 2025 contest. Azerbaijan, Croatia, and Montenegro will return after three, ten and nine-year absences respectively. Meanwhile, Estonia and Germany opted not to participate after doing so the previous year. [17]
| Country | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Language | Songwriter(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RTSH | Kroni Pula | "Fruta perime" | Albanian | Adrian Hila | [19] | |
| AMPTV | Albert | "Brave Heart" | Armenian |
| [20] | |
| İTV | Yağmur | "Miau miau" | Azerbaijani, English |
| [21] | |
| HRT | Marino Vrgoč | "Snovi" | Croatian |
| [22] | |
| CyBC | Rafaella and Christos | "Away" | Greek, English |
| [23] | |
| France Télévisions | Lou Deleuze | "Ce monde" | French |
| [24] | |
| GPB | Anita Abgariani | "Shine Like a Star" | Georgian, English |
| [25] | |
| TG4 | Lottie O'Driscoll Murray | "Rúin" | Irish |
| [26] | |
| RAI | Leonardo Giovannangeli | "Rockstar" | Italian, English |
| [27] | |
| PBS | Eliza Borg | "I Believe" | English |
| [28] | |
| RTCG | Asja Džogović | "I tužna i srećna priča" (И тужна и срећна прича) | Montenegrin |
| [29] | |
| AVROTROS | Meadow | "Freeze" | Dutch, English |
| [30] | |
| MRT | Nela Mančeska | "Miracle" | Macedonian, English |
| [31] | |
| TVP | Marianna Kłos | "Brightest Light" | Polish, English |
| [32] | |
| RTP | Inês Gonçalves | "Para onde vai o amor?" | Portuguese |
| [33] | |
| SMRTV | Martina Crv | "Beyond the Stars" | Italian, English |
| [34] | |
| RTVE | Gonzalo Pinillos | "Érase una vez (Once Upon a Time)" | Spanish, English |
| [35] | |
| Suspilne | Sofiia Nersesian | "Motanka" (Мотанка) | Ukrainian, English | Svitlana Tarabarova | [36] |
In June 2025, the EBU announced that Martin Österdahl would step down from his role as executive supervisor of the contest, with ESC director Martin Green temporarily assuming Österdahl's duties. [37] On 1 October, Gert Kark was appointed to the contest's reference group, taking Österdahl's vacated spot. [38] [39] A few days later, it was revealed that he would serve in the newly created position of ESC executive producer. Kark had previously worked as project manager for the contest since 2016. [40] Repeating his function from the previous edition will be Marvin Dietmann as artistic director. [41]
In July 2025, the Government of Georgia allocated ₾ 8.1 million (€ 2.6 million) to hosting the contest from its reserve fund; [42] this figure had been raised to ₾9 million (€2.9 million) by November 2025. [43]
In August 2025, ESC director Martin Green revealed that "United by Music", the permanent slogan of the Eurovision Song Contest since November 2023, would also be adopted by the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in order to make the two events "come within the same brand family". [44]
On 9 September 2025, the EBU released a revamped version of the generic logo, which is modeled after the revamped logo of the adult contest that is set to be introduced in its 2026 edition, designed by the Sheffield-based branding studio Pals. [45] [46] On 1 October 2025, GPB unveiled the theme art and stage design for the 2025 contest. The visual identity features a custom wordmark of the slogan, combining plain uppercase lettering with handwritten characters that "echo the playful creativity of the young artists representing their countries", with threads of vibrant colours in the background. The stage was inspired by the mountains, castles, fortified villages and towers of Georgia's landscape, with its central element being a depiction of the doli. [17]
David Aladashvili and Liza Tsiklauri were announced as the presenters of the show on 7 November 2025. Aladashvili is a musical programme presenter at GPB and a regular host of the children's talent show Ranina, which has served as Georgia's artist selection for the contest since 2018, while Tsiklauri is a news anchor and journalist who previously hosted the EuroBasket 2022 opening ceremony in Tbilisi. [47] [48]
The event will take place on 13 December 2025 at 20:00 GET (17:00 CET). [17] Eighteen countries will participate, with the running order drawn and published on 4 November 2025. [49] All the countries competing will be eligible to vote with the jury vote, as well as participating and non-participating countries under an aggregated international online vote. [50]
| R/O | Country | Artist | Song |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eliza Borg | "I Believe" | |
| 2 | Yağmur | "Miau miau" | |
| 3 | Marino Vrgoč | "Snovi" | |
| 4 | Martina Crv | "Beyond the Stars" | |
| 5 | Albert | "Brave Heart" | |
| 6 | Sofiia Nersesian | "Motanka" | |
| 7 | Lottie O'Driscoll Murray | "Rúin" | |
| 8 | Meadow | "Freeze" | |
| 9 | Marianna Kłos | "Brightest Light" | |
| 10 | Nela Mančeska | "Miracle" | |
| 11 | Asja Džogović | "I tužna i srećna priča" | |
| 12 | Leonardo Giovannangeli | "Rockstar" | |
| 13 | Inês Gonçalves | "Para onde vai o amor?" | |
| 14 | Gonzalo Pinillos | "Érase una vez (Once Upon a Time)" | |
| 15 | Anita Abgariani | "Shine Like a Star" | |
| 16 | Rafaella and Christos | "Away" | |
| 17 | Lou Deleuze | "Ce monde" | |
| 18 | Kroni Pula | "Fruta perime" |
The 12 points from the juries will be announced by a spokesperson from each country; known spokespersons are listed below:
All participating broadcasters may choose to have on-site or remote commentators providing insight and voting information to their local audience. The European Broadcasting Union has also, in the past, provided international live streams of the contest through their official YouTube channel with no commentary.
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CyBC | RIK 2, RIK HD | TBA | [52] | |
| France Télévisions | France 4 | Stéphane Bern and Zoé Clauzure | [53] [54] | |
| TG4 | TBA | [55] | ||
| RAI | Rai 2 | Mario Acampa | [15] | |
| MRT | MRT 1, MRT 5 | TBA | [56] | |
| TVP | TVP2, TVP ABC (TBC), TVP Polonia | TBA | [57] [58] | |
| RTP | RTP1, TBA | Carina Jorge and Nuno Galopim | [59] | |
| SMRTV | San Marino RTV | TBA | [60] | |
| RTVE | La 1 | TBA | [61] | |
| Country | Broadcaster | Channel(s) | Commentator(s) | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ARD/ZDF | Kika | Felix Schmutzler | [62] | |
| RTL | TBA | [63] | ||
Unlike in the Eurovision Song Contest, JESC winners do not automatically have to host the following year's event. We will be working with all our Members, including the winning broadcaster GPB, over the next few weeks to identify and then announce the host broadcaster for next year.
La finale del JESC sarà trasmessa in diretta su San Marino RTV, canale 550, sabato 13 dicembre.[The JESC final will be broadcast live on San Marino RTV, channel 550, on Saturday, December 13.]