Following their win in the 2018 contest two weeks ago, it has today been confirmed that Polish broadcaster TVP have taken on hosting responsibilities and the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019 will take place in Poland.
The host city and venue are yet to be confirmed however this is the first time that Poland have hosted the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. They have however previously hosted Eurovision Young Dancers in Gdynia in 1997, Warsaw in 2005 and Gdańsk in 2013. Their capital Warsaw also played host to Eurovision Young Musicians in 1994.
It has previously been reported that the capital of Poland, Warsaw is unlikely to place a bid to be the host city due to insufficient facilities within the city for such an event. This would make it the first time since 2014 where the contest was not held in the host country’s capital city. The last time this was the case was back when Malta hosted the show in the town of Marsa. Although back then the show was simply branded as “Malta 2014” with emphasis placed on the entire island of Malta being the host island rather than mention of the specific town.
Interest has already come from the city of Gliwice to stage the show. This would make Gliwice the fourth Polish city to host a Eurovision event. The Member of Parliament for Gliwice Jarosław Gonciarz, has written to president of TVP, Jacek Kurski proposing that his city play host to next years Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
The letter to the President of TVP reads;
The city of Gliwice has a modern, recently built show and sports hall with a total capacity of 17,000 seats. Arena Gliwice is one of the most modern facilities in our country. Its location guarantees free access from anywhere in the country. On behalf of myself and residents, I am asking you to take Gliwice Arena into consideration as a place for organizing the next year’s Eurovision for Children.
Gliwice is located in southern Poland, 25 km away from Katowice. The city is home to just over 180,000 people and is part of the Silesian Metropolis which is home to over 2.7 million people and formed of 14 towns and cities.
The EBU opted for the winners of the contest Poland to host over interest that also came from 2011 hosts Armenia as well as Kazakhstan who made their debut in the contest in 2018. Had they opted for Kazakhstan who finished 6th in the 2018, it would have been the first time a Eurovision event was hosted in an associate member nation. There were also talks of moving the contest to October 2019 should the contest be in Kazakhstan due to weather conditions in the capital, Astana.
This decision marks changes that were made to the host selection last year when it was decided that the city of Minsk in Belarus would be the hosts of the 2018 contest before the 2017 contest had even taken place. This was done in order to allow the host broadcaster more time to prepare for the contest.
In earlier contests, an open bidding process was used among interested broadcasters. However in 2014, a clause was added where the winner of the previous contest would have the right of first refusal to host. This has been used every year since apart from 2018 when the EBU chose Belarus before allowing eventual winners of 2017, Russia the opportunity to place a bid. Since the introduction of this rule, only Italy have turned down the offer of hosting after winning in 2014, with runners-up Bulgaria eventually being chosen to host in Sofia for 2015.
Roksana Węgiel from Poland who won with the song “Anyone I Want to Be”. She scored a total of 215 points beating runner up France by a total of 12 points. Poland came 7th in the jury vote with 79 points, but topped the online vote with 136 points.
Source: Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Yay! 😀 Now, which nation will host Junior Eurovision 2020? 🙂