Italy took part in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Paris, France,[1] returning to the competition after a one year absence from the 2020 contest. Italian broadcaster RAI is responsible for the country's participation in the contest. Elisabetta Lizza represented Italy with the song "Specchio (Mirror on the Wall)".
| Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country |  Italy | |||
| National selection | ||||
| Selection process | Internal selection | |||
| Selection date(s) | 11 November 2021 | |||
| Selected artist(s) | Elisabetta Lizza | |||
| Selected song | "Specchio (Mirror on the Wall)" | |||
| Selected songwriter(s) | Fabrizio Palaferri Franco Fasano Marco Iardella Stefano Rigamonti | |||
| Finals performance | ||||
| Final result | 10th, 107 points | |||
| Italy in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest | ||||
| ||||
Background
editPrior to the 2021 contest, Italy had participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest six times since its debut in 2014, having won the contest on their first appearance with the song "Tu primo grande amore", performed by Vincenzo Cantiello. On the country's most recent appearance, in 2019, the Italian broadcaster internally selected Marta Viola to represent Italy at the contest with the song "La voce della terra".[2] She achieved seventh place with 129 points.
Italy withdrew from the 2020 contest due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and despite initially announcing that they would not return in 2021,[3] they ultimately announced their participation in the 2021 contest in France.[4]
Before Junior Eurovision
editUpon announcing their return, Italian broadcaster RAI declared that they would internally select the Italian entrant.[4] On 11 November 2021, it was announced that Elisabetta Lizza would be representing Italy at the contest with the rock song "Specchio (Mirror on the Wall)".[5][6] The song, released on 12 November, was written by Fabrizio Palaferri, Stefano Rigamonti, Marco Iardella and Franco Fasano.[7][5]
At Junior Eurovision
editAfter the opening ceremony, which took place on 13 December 2021, it was announced that Italy would perform fifth on 19 December 2021, following Malta and preceding Bulgaria.[8]
At the end of the contest, Italy received 107 points, placing 10th out of 19 participating countries.
Voting
editThe same voting system that was introduced in the 2017 edition was used, where the results were determined by 50% online voting and 50% jury voting. Every country had a national jury that consisted of three music industry professionals and two children aged between 10 and 15 who were citizens of the country they represented. The rankings of those jurors were combined to make an overall top ten.[9]
The online voting consisted of two phases. The first phase of the online voting began on 17 December 2021 when a recap of all the rehearsal performances was shown on the contest's website Junioreurovision.tv before the viewers could vote. After this, voters also had the option to watch longer one-minute clips from each participant's rehearsal. This first round of voting ended on 17 December at 15:59 CET. The second phase of the online voting took place during the live show and began right after the last performance and was open for 15 minutes. International viewers were able vote for three songs.[10] They were also able to vote for their own country's song. These votes were then turned into points which were determined by the percentage of votes received. For example, if a song received 10% of the votes, it received 10% of the available points.
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Detailed voting results
edit| Draw | Country | Juror A | Juror B | Juror C | Juror D | Juror E | Average Rank | Points Awarded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 |  Germany
|
17 | 17 | 8 | 16 | 17 | 18 | |
| 02 |  Georgia
|
1 | 16 | 11 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 7 |
| 03 |  Poland
|
2 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 7 | 3 | 8 |
| 04 |  Malta
|
11 | 12 | 2 | 18 | 12 | 9 | 2 |
| 05 | Italy
|
|||||||
| 06 |  Bulgaria
|
4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 10 |
| 07 |  Russia
|
9 | 9 | 10 | 15 | 13 | 14 | |
| 08 |  Ireland
|
12 | 4 | 15 | 14 | 1 | 6 | 5 |
| 09 |  Armenia
|
10 | 14 | 12 | 17 | 5 | 13 | |
| 10 |  Kazakhstan
|
6 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 16 | 10 | 1 |
| 11 |  Albania
|
14 | 10 | 13 | 13 | 10 | 16 | |
| 12 |  Ukraine
|
15 | 15 | 5 | 7 | 14 | 12 | |
| 13 |  France
|
5 | 8 | 6 | 10 | 11 | 8 | 3 |
| 14 |  Azerbaijan
|
3 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 12 |
| 15 |  Netherlands
|
8 | 5 | 14 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 4 |
| 16 |  Spain
|
16 | 13 | 7 | 11 | 15 | 15 | |
| 17 |  Serbia
|
13 | 6 | 16 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
| 18 |  North Macedonia
|
7 | 7 | 17 | 12 | 9 | 11 | |
| 19 |  Portugal
|
18 | 18 | 18 | 6 | 18 | 17 |
References
edit- ^ "Participants of Paris 2021". Junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021.
- ^ "Italy: Marta Viola to Junior Eurovision 2019". Eurovoix. 9 October 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
- ^ "🇮🇹 Italy will not participate in Junior Eurovision 2021". ESCXTRA.com. 4 July 2021. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
- ^ a b Farren, Neil (30 August 2021). "🇮🇹 Italy: Junior Eurovision 2021 Participation Confirmed". Eurovoix. Retrieved 30 August 2021.
- ^ a b Farren, Neil (11 November 2021). "🇮🇹 Italy: Elisabetta Lizza to Junior Eurovision 2021". Eurovoix. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
- ^ Van Leijden, Bente (15 December 2021). "Paris Day 1 Review: Elisabetta Lizza from Italy brings a colourful rock performance". ESCXTRA.
- ^ "Elisabetta Lizza - Italy - Paris 2021". Junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 21 November 2021.
- ^ "Junior Eurovision: Running order revealed… 🇫🇷". Junioreurovision.tv. 13 December 2021. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021.
- ^ Granger, Anthony (15 November 2018). "Junior Eurovision 2018 – How Does The Voting Work?". Eurovoix.
- ^ "You can vote on the winner of Junior Eurovision! 🗳". Junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 13 December 2021. Archived from the original on 13 December 2021.
- ^ a b c "Results of the Final of Paris 2021". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 19 December 2021.