Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

debuted at the

Junior Eurovision Song Contest The Junior Eurovision Song Contest (often shortened to JESC, Junior Eurovision or Junior EuroSong) is an international song competition which has been organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) annually since 2003. It is held in a diff ...

when the twelfth edition of competition was held in

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

in 2014. The Italian broadcaster,

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

, selected the debut entry of country via an internal selection as "

Tu primo grande amore "Tu primo grande amore" ("You, first great love") is a song by Italian singer Vincenzo Cantiello. It and was the winning song at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014 in Marsa, Malta Marsa ( mt, Il-Marsa) is a town in the South Eastern Reg ...

" by

Vincenzo Cantiello Vincenzo Cantiello (born 25 August 2000) is an Italian singer who at the 12th annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Malta with his song "Tu primo grande amore" and won. Early years Cantiello was born on 25 August 2000 in Sant'Arpino, Campan ...

, which went on to win with a total of 159 points. This made Italy the second country to win with the debut entry after

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = "Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capit ...

's victory in the

first edition The bibliographical definition of an edition includes all copies of a book printed from substantially the same setting of type, including all minor typographical variants. First edition According to the definition of ''edition'' above, a b ...

. Before Italy debuted, there were two entries sung in Italian: "Birichino", which represented Switzerland in 2004 and "O-o-o Sole intorno a me" which represented San Marino in 2013. In 2015, the Italian broadcaster decided to participate again, this time sending the twins Chiara and Martina Scarpari to the contest. However, Italy only finished 16th in the contest, collecting 34 points. The next year, Italy achieved its second podium finishing third. Italy withdrew from the 2020 contest because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, and despite initially announcing that they will not return to the 2021 contest, they ultimately announced that they would return to the 2021 contest in France, where their entrant Elisabetta Lizza placed 10th with 107 points.

Participation overview

Commentators and spokespersons

The contests are broadcast online worldwide through the official Junior Eurovision Song Contest website junioreurovision.tv and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. In 2015, the online broadcasts featured commentary in English by junioreurovision.tv editor Luke Fisher and 2011 Bulgarian Junior Eurovision Song Contest entrant Ivan Ivanov. The Italian broadcaster, RAI, sent their own commentators to each contest in order to provide commentary in the

Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 85 m ...

. Spokespersons were also chosen by the national broadcaster in order to announce the awarding points from Italy. The table below list the details of each commentator and spokesperson since 2014.

Photo gallery

Image:Vincenzo Cantiello (JESC 2014 winner) with his prize.jpg,

Malta International Airport Malta International Airport ( mt, L-Ajruport Internazzjonali ta' Malta, ) is the only airport in Malta and it serves the whole of the Maltese Islands. It is located on the Malta (island), island of Malta, southwest of the Maltese capital Vallett ...

with the winner's prize, after his victory () Image:Chiara & Martina at stage of JESC 2015 (2).jpg, Chiara & Martina performing "Viva" in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

() Image:JESC 2016 Fiamma Boccia (Italy).jpg, Fiamma Boccia performing "Cara Mamma (Dear Mom)" in

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an Local councils of Malta, administrative unit and capital city, capital of Malta. Located on the Malta (island), main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, i ...

() Image:JESC 2018 partisipants. Melissa & Marco (Italy) (2).jpg, Mellissa & Marco in

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

()

Notes

References

{{Italy in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest Countries in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

Participation overview

Commentators and spokespersons

Photo gallery

See also

Notes

References