12 December 2025

Georgia is hosting the Junior Eurovision Song Contest of 2025 in its capital city of Tbilsi after Andria Putkaradze won the 2024 edition with the song, To My Mom. The event will take place on Saturday 13 December 2025, 1700 CET, at the Gymnastic Hall of Olympic City and feature 18 countries. Returning are Azerbaijan, Croatia and Montenegro. Estonia and Germany are out from 2024.

Last year’s winner was a whiny ballad and no surprise that the many entries for 2025 are following a similar formula. There’s so many in that category that it makes JESC 2025 quite an uninteresting one. Here are my favourites and how I categorise the rest.

Poor

Armenia – Albert – Brave Heart
Cyprus – Rafaella & Christos – Away
Italy – Leonardo Giovannangeli – Rockstar

I hate the rap of Italy and the other two are whiny hell.

Average

Albania – Kroni Pula – Fruta Perime
Malta – Eliza Borg – I Believe
Montenegro – Asja Dzogovic – I Tuzna i Srecna Prica
North Macedonia – Nela Mancheska – Miracle

Albania at least tries to be a song that appeals to kids. It’s just not that great. The rest are all ballads and all are annoying in parts. Pass!

Good

Azerbaijan – Yagmur – Miau Miau
Croatia – Marino Vrgoc – Snovi
Georgia – Anita Abgariani – Shine Like A Star
Spain – Gonzalo Pinillos – Erase Una Vez (Once Upon a Time)
Ukraine – Sofia Nersesian – Motanka

Croatia is actually a very pleasant song and is aided in its appeal by Marino, who, as a boy, is not whiny like most of the girls. Azerbaijan, a song about cats, is actually a lot of fun and will be a performance to watch. The hosts, Georgia, while yes, it is another ballad, Anita presents more as a mini diva than a whiny annoyance. Both Ukraine and Spain are fun and solid entries.

My Favourites

06 Ireland – Lottie O’Driscoll Murray – Ruin

A mature voice makes this ballad sound quite pleasant. It’s quite a powerful song, too.

05 Netherlands – Meadow – Freeze

The Dutch nearly always send a fun, catchy song, and this year they don’t disappoint.

04 France – Lou Deleuze – Ce Monde

Similarly with France, they find songs that really appeal to kids – and adults! No exception here. France perform at JESC 2025 from the second last position, which suggests they are a strong chance to win. A win would make it four wins in six years for France.

03 Poland – Marianna Klos – Brightest Light

Yes, while it’s one of the many ballads, it’s not whiny, and the song is so good that you get lost in it.

02 Portugal – Ines Goncalves – Para Onde Vai O Amor?

Portugal should have won JESC 2024 edition with their absolutely stunning and classy song. They got wrecked by yet another irrational and insane voting display by the juries to make the overwhelming public vote irrelevant. We saw it twice at senior ESC (in 2023 and 2024) and it followed again at JESC 2024. Portugal bring an entry of almost the same ultra high quality of last year to hopefully get redemption for that year’s appalling loss. Not quite as good. Still great.

01 San Marino – Martina Crv – Beyond The Stars

A girl, her guitar, and a warm, infectious and captivating song. The most distinctive entry this year. San Marino performs from fourth position, therefore quite early in the show, so let’s hope Martina stands out sufficiently to get a top result.

Junior Eurovision 2025 can be watched live on the official youtube channel and visit jesc.tv to vote online. Voting opens the day before the event starts.

Madrid 2024: Georgia wins Junior Eurovision thanks to Andria Putkaradze performing To My Mom