Member station ITV (UKIB) Appearances 3 Last appearance 2005 | National selection events National Final First appearance 2003 Best result 2nd: 2004 | |
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The participation of the United Kingdom in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest first began at the inaugural Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. ITV, a member organisation of the United Kingdom Independent Broadcasting (UKIB) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), were responsible for the selection process of their participation. The United Kingdom used a national selection format, broadcasting a show entitled "Junior Eurovision Song Contest: The British Final", for their participation at the contests. The first representative to participate for the nation at the 2003 contest was Tom Morley with the song "My Song For The World", which finished in third place out of sixteen participating entries, achieving a score of one hundred and eighteen points. United Kingdom withdrew from competing in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2006, and have yet to make their return to the contest.
Contents
History
The United Kingdom are one of the sixteen countries to have made their debut at the inaugural Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003, which took place on 15 November 2003 at the Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark. Child-singer, Tom Morley, was the first participant to represent the United Kingdom with the song "My Song For The World", which finished in third place out of sixteen participating entries, achieving a score of one hundred and eighteen points. Morley and Cory Spedding (2004) sang both for the peace in the world and Joni Fuller (2005) described her feelings. The country's best result at the contest was placing second in 2004 with the song "The Best is Yet to Come". The remaining British entrant finished in fourteenth position in 2005.
In 2003, the contest was broadcast on the main channel ITV, relegating it to ITV2 for the next two years due to bad viewing figures, before their complete withdrawal in 2006.
The 2004 contest originally should have been organised by Carlton Television for ITV in Manchester. ITV then announced in May 2004 that due to financial and scheduling reasons, the contest would not take place in the United Kingdom after all. It is also thought that another factor to their decision was the previous years' audience ratings for ITV which were below the expected amount.
Possible return
The Welsh broadcaster Sianel Pedwar Cymru (S4C) had shown interest in participating for the UK in 2008, hoping to share the Welsh language with a wider audience. The contest would therefore be a bilingual broadcast that would be broadcast in Wales on analogue, and on S4C Digidol in the rest of the UK. In the end, S4C chose not to broadcast the contest. The United Kingdom thought of returning to the contest in 2010, with the BBC instead of ITV, but decided against it.
Radio broadcast
On 21 November 2013, it was revealed that Edinburgh-based 98.8 Castle FM (a non EBU member) would broadcast the 2013 contest live to listeners in Scotland. The broadcasting rights had been offered by the EBU to its members, however when no-one in the UK took up the offer, Castle FM – previously known as Leith FM – moved in. The commentators were Ewan Spence and Luke Fisher.
It was announced on 16 October 2014 that the 2014 contest would be broadcast on a radio station across the United Kingdom. Five local radio stations broadcast the contest, one in England (103 The Eye, delayed) and Wales (Oystermouth Radio), and three in Scotland (K107 in Kircaldy, Radio Six International in Glasgow and Shore Radio in Edinburgh). Cotswold FM, Fun Kids, Oystermouth Radio, Radio Six International and Shore Radio transmitted the 2015 contest live with commentary again provided by Ewan Spence.
On 9 November 2016, Radio Six International announced that they would broadcast the 2016 contest live. Ewan Spence, Lisa-Jayne Lewis, Sharleen Wright and Ben Robertson provided the commentary for the radio stations Radio Six International, Fun Kids and 103 The Eye.
Participation
1st place 2nd place 3rd place Last place
Commentators and spokespersons
The contests are broadcast online worldwide through the official Junior Eurovision Song Contest website junioreurovision.tv and YouTube. In 2015, the online broadcasts featured commentary in English by junioreurovision.tv editor Luke Fisher and 2011 Bulgarian Junior Eurovision Song Contest entrant Ivan Ivanov. The British broadcaster, ITV, sent their own commentator to each contest in order to provide commentary in the English language. Spokespersons were also chosen by the national broadcaster in order to announce the awarding points from United Kingdom. The table below list the details of each commentator and spokesperson since 2003, however from 2013 the contest is broadcast by various non-participating radio stations.
Voting history
The tables below shows United Kingdom's top-five voting history rankings up until their most recent participation in 2005: