The Eurovision controversy has not been reached, except for the moment, at Junior Eurovision, where this Saturday France was proclaimed winner of the final organized in Tbilisi (Georgia). In the 23rd edition of the children’s competition, Israel did not participate and therefore did not betray the headaches of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which this year betrayed the adult version.
The young Lou Deleuze, aged 11, performed the theme This World, with which he obtained the highest score from the professional jury and also great support from the public until reaching a total of 248 points. The Spanish representative, Gonzalo Pinillos, appeared in the fifth post with the trilingual song (in Spanish, French and English) dedicated to books Clear una vez (Once upon a time). Its final score was 152 points, after having summed up 98 from the jury (with those who were placed in fourth place at the end of this round of voting) and 54 from the public.
This is France’s fourth victory at Junior Eurovision. I only participated in new occasions because although I was part of the group of founders of the festival in 2004, a year later I retired until 2018. And now my achievements are spectacular and I won them in 2020, 2022 and 2023, and now I have another victory in 2025.
Lou Deleuze was chosen by French television following an internal selection. Singer and actress, she became known to a large audience late in life thanks to shows like France an incredible talentthe French version of I have talent.
In the Spanish show Gonzalo Pinillos, who started playing the piano, appears singing with the dancers Daniela Valladolid and Álex Garrido and a large number of giant books that appeal to the passion for reading a song that sang thus: “Today I turn off the Internet, today I prefer to sleep. I open a book and I empiezo aimagina, that barks at me Milú, who talks to Peter Pan and Alicia waiting for me.”
Pinillos, 14, was chosen from 270 applicants among children and girls aged 14 to 14 presented to online casting from RTVE for Junior Eurovision. He began studying piano and musical language for six years and since then he has maintained a constant training that led him to musical theater, in casts such as School of Rock Yes The choir boysand then I also drank his song.
In this edition, 18 countries participated in Junior Eurovision: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, San Marino, Ukraine and Spain. For Montenegro, Croatia and Azerbaijan, it is their return without participation for several years. Montenegro last competed in 2015, while Croatia last competed in 2014 and Azerbaijan in 2021. The selection of the winner takes place with a mixed vote between professional jurors (50%) and public (50%), as is the case in the adult edition. But there are some important differences: Citizens of each country can vote for their own representative.
The final took place just a week after RTVE made its exit from Eurovision 2026 official. The key to maintaining this Junior version of the competition is that Israel has not participated since 2018. Now, the state-owned company will have to decide whether to extend its gesture of protest until the 2026 edition and strain its relations with it. The EBU reaches the final consequences by abandoning even the children’s edition of which it is a founder, or it remains there and models its posture, although it has not managed to take the pulse against Israel in the sense of the EBU, which is showing itself more and more combative with the members who have left the main competition.
This week, the EBU deplored in an open letter the “inaccurate and ill-informed” attacks on its members after keeping Israel in Eurovision. A decision for which the festival took place on Spanish soil, as well as in Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Iceland. The president of RTVE, José Pablo López, in response accused the organization of not shouting his name and not naming Gaza or Israel. Attacks on the civilian population in Gaza have claimed more than 70,000 lives and an independent UN-appointed commission has described them as genocide. “The rules are now respected. Are the failures of these years for Israel? Pelillos a la mar? “The rules apply according to what suits the EBU for its geopolitical and economic alliances?” asked the president of RTVE.
Spain has won Junior Eurovision once. Lo hizo in 2004 with Better dead than sencilby Maria Isabel. It was the second edition of a children’s version of which Spain was my founding member. Despite this date, in 2007, RTVE decided not to continue participating in the competition and only returned in 2019, the year in which it participated without missing. In 2024, the festival, today, was celebrated in Madrid after Francia, winner of the previous year, gave up being the host after having been there several times. Spain then fell to sixth position with Chloé DelaRosa and her Like La Lola as a representative. This edition has the song To my mother by Georgian Andria Putkaradze.
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