{"id":64596,"date":"2026-06-17T03:15:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T03:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/64596\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T03:15:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T03:15:28","slug":"%f0%9f%87%ac%f0%9f%87%a7-united-kingdom-bbc-will-not-compete-in-junior-eurovision-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/64596\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 United Kingdom: BBC Will Not Compete in Junior Eurovision 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The BBC has confirmed that they will not be competing in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in Malta.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The BBC is the latest broadcaster to confirm that they will not be competing in the 24th edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest. The BBC confirmed to ESC Spot that they will not be participating in the contest this October in Malta. Henry Graham, Marketing Assistant at BBC Children\u2019s and Education, told the outlet that:<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe would like to inform you that we will not be taking part in this year\u2019s Junior Eurovision Song Contest; we have not been taking part from 2024 onwards.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The United Kingdom participated in Junior Eurovision from its start in 2003 to 2005, before being absent for 17 years. They did not return until 2022 when Freya Skye represented the country in Yerevan, Armenia with her song \u201cLose My Head\u201d, finishing fifth. The United Kingdom participated the following year in 2023 when STAND UNIQU3 finished fourth in Nice, France with the song \u201cBack To Life\u201d.<a href=\"https:\/\/eurovoix.com\/author\/eurovoix\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p>Junior Eurovision 2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will take place October 24 in the Malta Fairs &amp; Conventions Centre in Ta\u2019 Qali. This will be the third time that Malta will host the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, having done so previously in 2014 and 2016.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To date, the following countries have confirmed their intention to compete in the 2026 contest:<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddf1 Albania: Eslin Kurti \u2013 \u201cK\u00ebrce me mua\u201d<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 France<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\uddea Georgia: Davit Lomidze<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddea Ireland<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf9 Italy<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\uddf9 Malta<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddf1 Netherlands<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\uddf0 North Macedonia<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf1 Poland: Wiktor Sas<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddf5\ud83c\uddf9 Portugal: Salvador Rio<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 Ukraine<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The following countries, who have previously participated, have declined returning to the contest:<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa Australia: Last participated in 2016<br \/>\n\ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddea Belgium: Last competed in 2012<br \/>\n\ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddf0 Denmark: Last participated in 2005<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddea\ud83c\uddea Estonia: Last participated in 2024<br \/>\n\ud83c\udde9\ud83c\uddea Germany: Last participated in 2024<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddf3\ud83c\uddf4 Norway: Last participated in 2005<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddee Slovenia: Last participated in 2015<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddf8\ud83c\uddea Sweden: Last participated in 2014<br \/>\n\ud83c\udff4\udb40\udc67\udb40\udc62\udb40\udc77\udb40\udc6cWales: Last participated in 2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The following countries have ruled out debuting in the contest:<\/p>\n<p>\ud83c\udde8\ud83c\uddff Czechia: Never broadcast the contest<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddee Finland: Last broadcast the contest in 2003<br \/>\n\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddf8 Iceland: Last broadcast the contest in 2021<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/escspot.pl\/2026\/06\/16\/wielka-brytania-eurowizja-junior-2026\/?brid=YWdncwG6izGzIDhcYFbJDBo4C5jO\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ESC Spot<\/a><\/p>\n<p>United Kingdom in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2026+<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The United Kingdom was one of sixteen countries to take part in the first edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2003. Tom Morley finished 3rd in Copenhagen with \u201cMy Song for The World\u201d. This was bettered by Cory Spedding a year later, who finished second with \u201cThe Best is Yet to Come\u201d in Lillehammer. In 2022, the country returned to the contest after a 17-year break and competed in two editions of the contest before withdrawing in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC has confirmed that they will not be competing in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2026 in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[4645,5,6],"class_list":["post-64596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-headline","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116763277972261498","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}