The most recent winner is Andria Putkaradze of Georgia, who won the 2024 contest in Madrid, Spain, with his song "To My Mom".

[4][5] The idea was extended to a Scandinavian song festival in 2002, MGP Nordic, with Denmark, Norway and Sweden as participants.

[6][7] In 2001 and 2002, Polish broadcaster Telewizja Polska (TVP) hosted two pilot editions of an international song contest for children in Konin with the name Eurokonkurs (English: Eurocontest) in 2001 and Światowy Konkurs Piosenki (English: World Song Contest) in 2002 but the whole project was called Eurokonkurs.

[8][9] TVP went on to hold further editions in Konin between 2003 and 2006, some time of which after Poland's initial withdrawal from Junior Eurovision Song Contest.

In 2006, Eurokonkurs returned as Światowe Talenty (English: World Talents) and was hosted by Dominika Rydz and Weronika Bochat, who represented Poland in Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004 as part of girl group KWADro.

[10] In November 2002, the EBU picked up the idea for a song contest featuring children and opened the competition to all member broadcasters making it a pan-European event.

[13] ITV then announced that due to financial and scheduling reasons, the contest would not take place in the United Kingdom.

[14] It is also thought that another factor to their decision was the previous year's audience ratings for ITV which were below the expected amount.

[17] It was at this point, with five months remaining until the event would be held, that Norwegian broadcaster NRK stepped in to host the contest in Lillehammer.

[27] It was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival 2008[28] and was premiered in Ghent, Belgium[29] and also in Limassol, Cyprus,[30] where the 2008 contest was held.

The EBU claims that the aim of the programme is "to promote young talent in the field of popular music, by encouraging competition among the [...] performers".

[31] The programme was always screened on a Saturday night in late November or early December and lasts approximately two hours and fifteen minutes.

Since 2008 the winning entry of each contest has been decided by a mixture of televoting and national juries, each counting for fifty per cent of the points awarded by each country.

[35] Originally, unlike its adult version, the winning country did not receive the rights to host the next contest.

On 15 October 2017, the EBU announced a return to the original system in 2018, claiming that it would help provide broadcasters with a greater amount of time to prepare, ensuring the continuation of the contest into the future.

Between 2003 and 2012, the spokespersons gave out the points in the same format as the adult contest, behind a backdrop of a major city of that country in the national broadcaster's television studio.

[46] On 30 September 2019, Sand announced his intention to step down as Executive Supervisor and Head of Live Events after the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, which was later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[48] Steering Group meetings tend to include the Heads of Delegation whose principal job is to liaise between the EBU and the broadcaster they represent.

Each year of the contest, the host country creates a sub-theme which is usually accompanied and expressed with a sub-logo and slogan.

The tradition of interval acts between the songs in the competition programme and the announcement of the voting has been established since the inaugural contest in 2003.

Interval entertainment has included such acts as girl group Sugababes and rock band Busted (2003),[56] Westlife in 2004, juggler Vladik Myagkostupov from the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil (2005)[57] and singer Katie Melua in 2007.

[58] Former Eurovision Song Contest participants and winners have also performed as interval acts, such as Dima Bilan and Evridiki in 2008, Ani Lorak (2009), Alexander Rybak in 2010 and Sirusho (2011).

[59][60] 2019 winner Duncan Laurence and the intended 2020 Polish entrant Alicja Szemplińska performed as interval acts in the 2020 contest, with the former having his appearance inserted via chroma keying.

Similar performances took place in 2007 and 2010 with the specially-commissioned UNICEF songs "One World"[66] and "A Day Without War" respectively, the latter with Dmitry Koldun.

The parade was featured in some previous editions of the adult Eurovision Song Contest until its official adoption in 2013.