Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006

On 2 December 2006, the contest was broadcast live from Bucharest, Romania making it the second time the contest had been held in a capital city. It was organised by the Romanian national broadcaster, Romanian Television (TVR), in co-operation with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006
Let the Music Play
Dates
Final	2 December 2006
Host
Venue	Sala Polivalentă, Bucharest, Romania
Presenter(s)	Andreea Marin Bănică, Ioana Ivan
Directed by	Dan Manoliu
Executive supervisor	Svante Stockselius
Executive producer	Irina Radu
Host broadcaster	Televiziunea Română (TVR)
Website	junioreurovision.tv/event/bucharest-2006
Participants
Number of entries	15
Debuting countries	Portugal  Serbia  Ukraine
Returning countries	Cyprus
Non-returning countries	Denmark  Latvia  Norway  Serbia and Montenegro  United Kingdom
Participation map      Competing countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 2006
Vote
Voting system	Each country awards 1–8, 10, and 12 points to their 10 favourite songs
Winning song	Russia "Vesenniy Jazz"
2005 ← Junior Eurovision Song Contest → 2007

The show was broadcast live in the competing countries, as well as Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Australian television channel Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) that acquired the rights for broadcasting the show, which was broadcast on 1 January 2007. This was Serbia's first participation in a Eurovision event as an independent nation. The contest was won by The Tolmachevy Twins from Russia with the song "Vesenniy Jazz".

 

 

Zagreb

 

Amsterdam

 

Bucharest

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Locations of the bidding countries. The eliminated countries are marked in red. The chosen host country is marked in blue.

Bidding phase and host selection

On 5 October 2005, it was confirmed that TVR had won the rights of hosting the contest over AVRO of the Netherlands (who hosted the next contest). Croatia also expressed an interest in hosting this contest.

Venue

 

Polyvalent Hall from Bucharest (Romanian: Sala Polivalentă din București) is a multi-purpose hall in Bucharest, Romania, located in the Tineretului Park. It is used for concerts, indoor sports such as tennis, gymnastics, dance, handball, volleyball, basketball, weightlifting, combat sports and professional wrestling. The hall was opened in 1974 but has since been renovated. It has a maximum seating capacity of 12,000 for concerts and 6,000 for handball.

 

On 16 May 2006, the EBU released the official list of participants with 15 competing countries. Originally 16 countries had initially signed up for the contest but one unspecified country later dropped out. Portugal, Serbia (for the first time as an independent country after the participation in 2005 contest as part of Serbia and Montenegro) and Ukraine made their debut, while Cyprus returned after a one-year absence.

Two broadcasters withdrew from the contest: Radio télévision belge de la communauté française (RTBF) of the French-speaking Wallonia in Belgium left the contest this year, after co-hosting the previous edition with Flemish broadcaster Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep (VRT), claimed that continuing with the contest was not in their interests financially. Belgium continued to be represented at the contest by Flemish broadcaster VRT. Subsequently also Sveriges Television (SVT) of Sweden decided to withdraw from the contest for focusing on organisation of the MGP Nordic in Stockholm; the country continued to be represented at the contest by commercial broadcaster TV4.

Prior to the event, a compilation album featuring all the songs from the 2006 contest, along with karaoke versions, was put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by Universal Music Group in November 2006.

Participants of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)
Belarus	BTRC	Andrey Kunets	"Noviy den" (Новый день)	Russian	Andrey Kunets
Belgium	VRT	Thor!	"Een tocht door het donker"	Dutch	Thor Salden
Croatia	HRT	Mateo Đido	"Lea"	Croatian	Mateo Đido
Cyprus	CyBC	Luis Panagiotou and Christina Christofi	"Agoria koritsia" (Αγόρια κορίτσια)	Greek	Christina Christofi Luis Panagiotou
Greece	ERT	Chloe Sofia Boleti [nl]	"Den peirazei" (Δεν πειράζει)	Greek	Chloe Sofia Boleti [nl]
Macedonia	MRT	Zana Aliu	"Vljubena" (Вљубена)	Macedonian	Zana Aliu
Malta	PBS	Sophie Debattista	"Extra Cute"	English	Sophie Debattista
Netherlands	AVRO	Kimberly Nieuwenhuis	"Goed"	Dutch	Kimberly Nieuwenhuis
Portugal	RTP	Pedro Madeira	"Deixa-me sentir"	Portuguese	Telmo Falcão Pedro Madeira
Romania	TVR	New Star Music	"Povestea mea"	Romanian	New Star Music
Russia	VGTRK	Tolmachevy Twins	"Vesenniy Jazz"	Russian	Anastasiya Tolmacheva Maria Tolmacheva
Serbia	RTS	Neustrašivi učitelji stranih jezika [sr]	"Učimo strane jezike" (Учимо стране језике)	Serbian, English	Neustrašivi učitelji stranih jezika [sr]
Spain	RTVE	Dani Fernández	"Te doy mi voz"	Spanish	Dani Fernández
Sweden	TV4	Molly Sandén	"Det finaste någon kan få"	Swedish	Molly Sandén
Ukraine	NTU	Nazar Slyusarchuk	"Khlopchyk Rock 'n' Roll" (Хлопчик рок н рол)	Ukrainian	Nazar Slyusarchuk

Presenters

The presenters in charge of conducting the event were Andreea Marin and Ioana Ivan, who also appeared in the green room. Marin has been a presenter at the host broadcaster since 1994 and achieved national fame as the host of Surprize, Surprize, the Romanian version of British light entertainment show Surprise Surprise, on TVR1. Marin has twice appeared on the Eurovision Song Contest, reading out the Romanian televote results in 2004 and 2006. Ivan is an actress and television personality and the first child presenter of the event.

The event took place on 2 December 2006 at 21:15 EET (20:15 CET). Fifteen countries participated, with the running order published on October 2006. All the countries competing were eligible to vote by televote. Russia won with 154 points, with Belarus, Sweden, Spain, and Serbia, completing the top five. Malta, the Netherlands, Greece, Portugal, and Macedonia occupied the bottom five positions.

The show was opened by various circus style dancers and performers including fifteen children, champions from the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, plus characters from the Bucharest State Circus and an on-stage appearance by Mihai Trăistariu, dressed as Count Dracula and was followed by the traditional flag parade introducing the 15 participating countries. The interval act included a performance by last year's winner Ksenia Sitnik, a "fight" between street dance and traditional Romanian dance in addition to a remix of songs by the last three Romanian participants at the contest.

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Portugal	Pedro Madeira	"Deixa-me sentir"	22	14
2	Cyprus	Luis Panagiotou and Christina Christofi	"Agoria koritsia"	58	8
3	Netherlands	Kimberly Nieuwenhuis	"Goed"	44	12
4	Romania	New Star Music	"Povestea mea"	80	6
5	Ukraine	Nazar Slyusarchuk	"Khlopchyk Rock 'n' Roll"	58	9
6	Spain	Dani Fernández	"Te doy mi voz"	90	4
7	Serbia	Neustrašivi učitelji stranih jezika [sr]	"Učimo strane jezike"	81	5
8	Malta	Sophie Debattista	"Extra Cute"	48	11
9	Macedonia	Zana Aliu	"Vljubena"	14	15
10	Sweden	Molly Sandén	"Det finaste någon kan få"	116	3
11	Greece	Chloe Sofia Boleti [nl]	"Den peirazei"	35	13
12	Belarus	Andrey Kunets	"Noviy den"	129	2
13	Belgium	Thor!	"Een tocht door het donker"	71	7
14	Croatia	Mateo Đido	"Lea"	50	10
15	Russia	Tolmachevy Twins	"Vesenniy Jazz"	154	1

Spokespersons

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received. All countries were given 12 points at the start of voting to ensure that no country finished with nul points.

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
7	Russia	Belarus,   Belgium,   Croatia,   Romania,   Serbia,   Sweden,   Ukraine
3	Belarus	Malta,   Portugal,   Russia
1	Croatia	Macedonia
	Cyprus	Greece
	Greece	Cyprus
	Romania	Spain
	Sweden	Netherlands

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 issue invitations of participation to all 56 active members like they do for the Eurovision Song Contest.

•   Armenia – Armenian broadcaster AMPTV were negotiating with the EBU to debut. However, plans never came to fruition and they debuted a year later.
•   Denmark – Danish broacaster DR, along with all Scandinavian broadcasters (NRK and SVT), decided to withdraw from the contest for various reasons, one being that the content put too much pressure on the participating children. Instead they staged a solely Scandinavian contest called MGP Nordic in Stockholm, as they did in 2002.
•   Latvia – Latvian broacaster LTV decided to withdraw from the contest due to financial reasons.
•   Monaco – Monégasque broacaster TMC, who is in charge of the country's participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, had stated an interest to take part in the contest. Monaco did not appear on the list of participants published by the EBU on 16 May 2006.
•   Montenegro – Following the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro, which had previously taken part in the 2005 contest, the EBU gave to the Montenegrin broadcaster, Radio Televizija Crne Gore (RTCG), extra time to decide whether or not to participate, but they finally declined the invitation.
•   Norway – Norwegian broadcaster NRK decided to withdraw from the contest for various reasons, one being that focusing on participation in the MGP Nordic.
•   United Kingdom – British broadcaster ITV decided to withdraw from the contest due to low ratings in the last three editions.

• Eurovision Song Contest 2006
• Eurovision Young Musicians 2006