Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005

Cover art of the official album

On May 2005, the EBU released the initial list of participants with 17 competing countries. Russia and Serbia and Montenegro made their debut, France and Switzerland withdrew after debuting in the 2004 contest, while Poland withdrew after debuting in the 2003 contest.

Although initially confirmed as a participating country, Cyprus withdrew from the contest on 13 October 2005 due to internal reasons - allegations of plagiarism regarding the selected song ("Tsirko" by Rena Kiriakidi) had been made. However, Cypriot viewers were able to watch the show and vote.[7]

Prior to the event, a compilation album featuring all the songs from the 2005 contest, along with karaoke versions, was put together by the European Broadcasting Union and released by Universal Music Group in November 2005.

Participants of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005[8]

Country	Broadcaster	Artist	Song	Language	Songwriter(s)
Belarus	BTRC	Ksenia Sitnik	"My vmeste" (Мы вместе)	Russian	Ksenia Sitnik
Belgium	RTBF/VRT	Lindsay	"Mes rêves"	French	Lindsay Daenen
Croatia	HRT	Lorena Jelusić	"Rock Baby"	Croatian	Lorena Jelusić
Denmark	DR	Nicolai	"Shake Shake Shake"	Danish, English	Nicolai Kielstrup
Greece	ERT	Alexandros and Kalli	"Tora einai i seira mas" (Tώρα είναι η σειρά μας)	Greek	Alexandros Chountas Kalli Georgelli
Latvia	LTV	Kids4Rock	"Es esmu maza jauka meitene"	Latvian	Monta Beļinska Daniēls Groza
Macedonia	MRT	Denis Dimoski	"Rodendeski baknež" (Родендески бакнеж)	Macedonian	Stefan Krstevski
Malta	PBS	Thea and Friends	"Make It Right!"	English	Thea Saliba
Netherlands	AVRO	Tess	"Stupid"	Dutch	Tess Gaerthé
Norway	NRK	Malin	"Sommer og skolefri"[lower-alpha 1]	Norwegian	Malin Reitan
Romania	TVR	Alina Eremia	"Țurai!"	Romanian	Alina Eremia
Russia	VGTRK	Vladislav Krutskikh	"Doroga k solntsu" (Дорога к солнцу)	Russian	Kim Breitburg Artyom Kavaleryan Vladislav Krutskikh
Serbia and Montenegro	UJRT	Filip Vučić	"Ljubav pa fudbal" (Љубав па фудбал)	Montenegrin	Filip Vučić
Spain	RTVE	Antonio José	"Te traigo flores"	Spanish	Antonio José Sánchez Mazuecos
Sweden	SVT	M+	"Gränslös kärlek"	Swedish	Maria Chabo Maria Josefson
United Kingdom	ITV	Joni Fuller	"How Does It Feel?"	English	Joni Fuller

The event took place on 26 November 2005 at 20:15 CET. Sixteen countries participated, with the running order published on October 2005. All the countries competing were eligible to vote by televote. Belarus won with 149 points, with Spain, Norway, Denmark, and Romania, completing the top five. Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Malta occupied the bottom five positions.[10]

The show was opened by a fireworks and bungee jumpers performance. The interval act included Vladik Myagkostupov from Cirque du Soleil gave a four-minute circus performance and 2004 winner María Isabel performing a medley of her winning entry "Antes muerta que sencilla" and new single "Pues Va A Ser Que No" from her second album Número 2. Isabel also presented the prize to the winner of the competition.[11]

R/O	Country	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Greece	Alexandros and Kalli	"Tora einai i seira mas"	88	6
2	Denmark	Nicolai	"Shake Shake Shake"	121	4
3	Croatia	Lorena Jelusić	"Rock Baby"	36	12
4	Romania	Alina Eremia	"Țurai!"	89	5
5	United Kingdom	Joni Fuller	"How Does It Feel?"	28	14
6	Sweden	M+	"Gränslös kärlek"	22	15
7	Russia	Vladislav Krutskikh	"Doroga k solntsu"	66	9
8	Macedonia	Denis Dimoski	"Rodendeski baknež"	68	8
9	Netherlands	Tess	"Stupid"	82	7
10	Serbia and Montenegro	Filip Vučić	"Ljubav pa fudbal"	29	13
11	Latvia	Kids4Rock	"Es esmu maza jauka meitene"	50	11
12	Belgium	Lindsay	"Mes rêves"	63	10
13	Malta	Thea and Friends	"Make It Right!"	18	16
14	Norway	Malin	"Sommer og skolefri"[lower-alpha 1]	123	3
15	Spain	Antonio José	"Te traigo flores"	146	2
16	Belarus	Ksenia Sitnik	"My vmeste"	149	1

Despite withdrawing at a late stage, Cyprus was still permitted to vote in the contest.

When the British spokesperson based in the ITV2 studios in London, Vicky Gordon was about to give the UK televoting results, the scoreboard malfunctioned by showing all the scores compressed together, before the entire screen went black, only showing the EBU, VRT and RTBF logos, which meant that the computers had lost connection with the British broadcaster, although the spokesperson could still be heard. However, the results were announced as usual shortly afterwards.

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.

N.	Contestant	Nation(s) giving 12 points
4	Spain	Greece,  Romania,  Serbia and Montenegro,  United Kingdom
3	Belarus	Malta,  Latvia,  Russia
2	Denmark	Macedonia,  Norway
	Greece	Croatia,  Cyprus
	Norway	Denmark,  Sweden
1	Belgium	Netherlands
	Netherlands	Belgium
	Romania	Spain
	Russia	Belarus

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. The following active EBU members did not take part:

•  Cyprus – Cyprus was originally going to participate in the 2005 contest, represented by Rena Kiriakidi's "Tsirko". However, it was later claimed to be plagiarised, and Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC), the national broadcaster, was forced to withdraw. However, they did not lose their broadcast and voting rights and still broadcast the show live.[13]
•  France – France, one of two debutants at the previous contest, and broadcaster France 3 turned down the offer to participate due to the following reasons:[14][15]
  • Programming difficulties and restructuring within the channel
  • Very low viewing figures the previous year
  • No motivation to compete, with French Head of Delegation Bruno Berberes stating that "Too much Eurovision kills Eurovision"
•  Georgia – Georgia was one of the countries on the preliminary participation list for the 2005 contest. However, at the time, Georgian Public Broadcasting (GPB) was not a full member of the EBU and would become a member on the 6th of July, but as this was one week after the participation confirmation deadline, meaning Georgia had to withdraw[16] and to wait out their participation until 2007.
•  Ireland – Just like the 2004 contest, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) was said to be debuting at the 2005 contest. However, no official statement was released by the broadcaster and they ended up not participating.
•  Lithuania – Lithuania, like Georgia, was one of the countries on the preliminary list for 2005.[17] But, Lithuania withdrew for unspecified reasons.[18] They would debut in 2007.
•  Monaco – Monaco and Monegasque broadcaster TMC expressed an interest in participating.[19] However, plans never came to fruition due to scheduling problems and harsh citizenship laws and thus they never participated.
•  Poland – Despite signing a 3-year contract with the EBU, Polish broadcaster Telewizja Polska (TVP) announced they would withdraw due to lack of interest and poor results.[20] They would eventually return in 2016.
•  Portugal – Even though Portugal did not participate, public broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) broadcast the contest delayed and confirmed they would debut in 2006.[21]
•   Switzerland – Switzerland, one of two debutants in 2004, and the Swiss-Italian broadcaster RTSI turned down the offer to participate for the following reasons:[22]
  • Financial difficulties
  • Lack of interest and financial support from the other multilingual broadcasters of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG SSR)
•  Ukraine – Ukraine, like Lithuania, was on the preliminary list of participation for 2005.[17] But, they pulled out before the night and had to wait until the next year to debut.

• Eurovision Song Contest 2005
• Eurovision Young Dancers 2005

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2005.

• Official website