Youngest Junior Eurovision Song Contest winner

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest (JESC) was established by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) in 2003 for competitors aged 9-14 and is held every November. The youngest winner is María Isabel (Spain, b. 4 January 1995), who was 9 years 321 days old when “Antes muerta que sencilla” (“Better Dead than Plain”) scored 171 points at the contest held in Lillehammer, Norway, on 20 November 2004. Remarkably, Isabel won the show when she was just one day younger than Russia’s Tomalchevy Sisters (twins Anastasiya and Maria, b. 14 January 1997), who were 9 years 322 days old when “Vesenniy jazz” scored 154 points in Bucharest, Romania, on 2 December 2006. They are the only nine-year-olds to win the JESC to date.

Isabel reached No.1 on Spain’s sales charts with “Antes muerta que sencilla” and its accompanying album, ¡No me toques las palmas que me conozco! (literal translation: “Don’t Touch My Palms, I Know Myself!”), and she participated in her country’s televised national final in 2016, with a place in the “senior” Eurovision Song Contest at stake. She came fourth with “La vida sólo es una” (“There Is Only One Life”).

Aged 17, the Tomalchevy Sisters would go on to represent Russia at the 2014 Eurovision Song Contest in Denmark, finishing in seventh place with “Shine”.

Georgia (2008, 2011 and 2016) and France (2020 and 2022-23) are both three-time JESC winners, and Poland’s Wiktoria “Viki” Gabor holds the record for the highest winning score in a single contest – 278 in 2019.

The 2024 edition is scheduled to take place in Madrid, Spain, on 16 November.