The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the fourth edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest for young singers aged 8 to 15. 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). 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 with the song "Vesenniy Jazz".

Location

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 would later be announced as the host broadcaster of the next contest). Croatia also expressed an interest in hosting this contest.

Venue

Polyvalent Hall from Bucharest 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.

Participating countries

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.

Format

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 and. Ivan is an actress and television personality and the first child presenter of the event.

Contest overview

The event took place on 2 December 2006 at 21:15 EET (20:15 CET). Fifteen countries participated, with the running order published in 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.

Spokespersons

Detailed voting results

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.

Other countries

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.

Broadcasts