Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2024

Bidding phase and host city selection

Valencia

Barcelona

Málaga

Madrid

Granada

Zaragoza

Location of host city (in blue), bidding cities (in green), and cities that submitted a bid but later withdrew (in red)

Upon the confirmation of Spain as the host country for 2024, the Generalitat Valenciana announced that it would bid to host the contest in a city in the Valencian Community; since 2022, the autonomous community has hosted Benidorm Fest, the Spanish national final for the Eurovision Song Contest.^[5] The mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, expressed interest in hosting the event in the city,^[6] followed by the mayor of Málaga, Francisco de la Torre.^[7] Madrid, Granada and Zaragoza also announced their readiness to host the competition.^[8][9] Ana María Bordas [es], head of the Spanish delegation for the contest, had said that the broadcaster had received several bids upon the host country announcement and that a decision would be taken within the following weeks.^[10] Valencia, Barcelona, Málaga, Granada and Zaragoza were reported to have submitted an official bid by mid-March 2024.^[9][11] Shortly after, however, Zaragoza announced its withdrawal due to the unavailability of the intended venue for an assessment visit.^[12] In mid-April, Barcelona was unofficially reported to be in the forefront of the selection process, with Palau Sant Jordi considered as the potential venue,^[13] but by the end of the month the city dropped out of the running due to the lack of an adequate venue available for late 2024.^[14][15]

RTVE and the EBU scheduled a press conference at Malmömässan in Malmö on 10 May 2024, during the adult contest, where the selected host city was revealed to be Madrid, with Caja Mágica as the selected venue.^[4][16][17]

Slogan, visual and stage design

On 3 September 2024, along with the list of participating countries, RTVE and the EBU revealed the theme art and slogan of the 2024 contest, "Let's Bloom", as well as the stage design. The theme art features the image of a blooming flower, which "references the blossoming of young artists".^[18]

Presenters

Ruth Lorenzo, Marc Clotet and Melani García were revealed on 12 September 2024 as the presenters of the show. Lorenzo had represented Spain in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 and hosted Benidorm Fest 2024, while García had represented Spain in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2019.^[37]

Postcards

Contestants were featured in "postcard" video introductions, in which they perform activities interspersed with artificial intelligence (AI)-generated footage of themselves in various imaginary scenarios.^[38][39]

Presentation of the jury votes

The presentation of the jury votes was additionally changed for 2024. As opposed to previous years in which the scoreboard was laid out horizontally in descending order, the scoreboard this year was laid out vertically, with each country having its position fixed according to the running order and a score bar to fill out points with. The presenters announced the number of points each country received according to the 1–10 scale; for example, each country is shown the number of countries that have given it 1 point, 2 points, and so forth. The 12 points were still announced by a spokesperson appointed by each country, however, their segments were pre-recorded instead of being a live link.^[40] Executive producer Ana María Bordas [es] stated that this was due to the Saturday timeslot forcing the producers to cap the show at two hours, and also in order to avoid causing stress for the participants.^[41]

Spokespersons

The 12 points from the juries were announced by a spokesperson from each country; known spokespersons are listed below.

12 points

Below is a summary of all 12 points received from each country's professional juries.

More information #, Recipient ...

12 points awarded by juries

#	Recipient	Countries giving 12 points
12	Georgia	Albania,  Armenia,  Cyprus,  Estonia,  Ireland,  Italy,  Malta,  Netherlands,  Portugal,  San Marino,  Spain,  Ukraine
2	Armenia	France,  Georgia
	Ukraine	North Macedonia,  Poland
1	Portugal	Germany

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Online voting

According to the EBU 2.3 million votes were cast.^[52]

Implementation of AI

The implementation of AI in the postcards was heavily criticized by fans and media outlets. In the postcards many artists’ appearance was changed to "meet western standards of fashion". For example, the Irish representative's hair was changed to look blonde in her postcard: and one male artist was first accidentally rendered as a female. Besides the postcards, countries like Poland and Estonia were reported to have used AI in their stagings.^[39][83][84]

Cyberbullying directed at Ukrainian representative

The Ukrainian representative, Artem Kotenko was subject to cyberbullying by Russian bots on social media. Svitlana Tarabarova said “We analysed: these are Russian bots, a real attack. This year, we did not remain silent, because our goal is to use this example to protect our children, to raise the topic of cyber security in social networks. We explained to Artem that these comments should not affect him. He — a handsome, talented, incredible boy with a very strong song, who has every chance to become No. 1.“ Tarabarova stated that this was the second year in row that the Ukrainian participant facing cyberbullying with Anastasia Dymyd also facing hate comments. Tarabarova also said that the team could limit Dymyd's screen time but not with Kotenko since he controls his social media accounts.^[85][86]