The Netherlands has opened applications to compete in Junior Songfestival 2026, its selection for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
Following the final of Junior Songfestival 2025 in Rotterdam, applications have now opened for next year’s contest. Singers who are aged between 9 and 14 as of November 2026 can apply to compete in the show. Full details of the application process can be found here.
Applications for Junior Songfestival 2026 are open until January 25, 2026. Once applications close, all the entries will be reviewed, with selected singers going through to auditions, which will take place in February and March 2026.
Junior Songfestival has been used to select the Dutch representative for the Junior Eurovision Song Contest since 2003. The Netherlands is the only country to have competed in every edition of the competition and is expected to compete again in 2026.
Meadow won Junior Songfestival 2025 and will represent the Netherlands in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2025 with the song “Freeze”. She received the maximum 12 points from the juries and the public, and will now compete in Tbilisi this December.
Image source: AVROTROS | Source: Zapp
The Netherlands debuted at the first edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 and is the only country to have taken part in every edition to date. To date, the country has only won the competition once. Their only victory came in 2009, when Ralf Mackenbach performed “Click Clack”, scoring a total of 121 points. This was just 5 points more than runners-up Armenia and Russia. The Netherlands narrowly lost the contest in 2011, when Rachel performed “Teenager”. She missed out on victory by 5 points. The Netherlands’ worst result came in 2021 when Ayana finished in 19th place out of 19 competing countries.
