Lithuanian broadcaster LRT has confirmed that the Baltic nation will not be participating in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Nice, France.
Mantas Velykis, the Head of Marketing at LRT, told escplus.es in a short statement that “Lithuania will not be in Junior Eurovision this year”.
Lithuania hasn’t participated at Junior Eurovision since 2011, initially withdrawing in 2012 due to the cost of broadcastingย UEFA Euro 2012 and the 2012 Summer Olympics. Since then, they have repeatedly ruled out returning to the contest, citing the high costs of competing and low audience figures when they took part.
Several countries have announced that they will not be submitting an entry to this year’s Junior Eurovision in the past few days, including Slovenia, Switzerland, and Eurovision Song Contest 2023 winners Sweden.
Junior Eurovision 2023
France won the 20th Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Yerevan, Armenia with Lissandro and โOh Maman!โ. He scored a total of 203 points placing ahead of second-placed Armenia.
France will be hosting the Junior Eurovision Song Contest for a second time, having first hosted the contest in 2021 in the French capital of Paris.
The following countries have already confirmed their participation:
- Armenia
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Ireland
- Italy
- Malta
- Netherlands
- North Macedonia
- Poland
- Spain
- Ukraine
Image Source: JuniorEurovision.tv | Source: escplus.es
Lithuania debuted in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2007. They participated in the contest from 2007 to 2008 and 2010 to 2011. Lithuaniaโs best result in any Eurovision contest came in 2008 when Eglฤ Jurgaitytฤ finished 3rd in Cyprus with โLaiminga dienaโ scoring a total of 103 points.
