Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018
#LightUp
Dates
Final	25 November 2018
Host
Venue	Minsk-Arena, Minsk, Belarus
Presenter(s)	Evgeny Perlin Zinaida Kupriyanovich Helena Meraai
Directed by	Gordon Bonello Daniel Jelinek
Executive supervisor	Jon Ola Sand
Executive producer	Olga Shlyager
Host broadcaster	Belarusian Television and Radio Company (BTRC)
Website	www.junioreurovision.tv/event/minsk-2018
Participants
Number of entries	20
Debuting countries	Kazakhstan  Wales
Returning countries	Azerbaijan  France  Israel
Non-returning countries	Cyprus
Participation map      Competing countries     Countries that participated in the past but not in 2018
Vote
Voting system	Each country's professional jury award 12, 10, 8–1 points to their top 10 songs. International viewers vote for 3–5 songs, and votes are converted to points by proportional representation.
Winning song	Poland "Anyone I Want to Be"
2017 ← Junior Eurovision Song Contest → 2019

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2018 was the sixteenth edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest, organised by the Belarusian Television and Radio Company (BTRC) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It took place in the Belarusian capital city, Minsk on 25 November 2018 at the Minsk-Arena.^[1] It was the second time that the contest was held in Belarus, after it staged the 2010 edition at the same venue.

A record twenty countries took part in the contest, with Kazakhstan and Wales participating for the first time. France returned for the first time since 2004, alongside Azerbaijan for the first time since 2013 and Israel after missing the 2017 edition. Cyprus withdrew from the contest. Last year's winner Polina Bogusevich performed her entry again as the interval act, alongside the common song "#LightUp" sung by all the participants.

The winner was Roksana Węgiel, who represented Poland with the song "Anyone I Want to Be". Poland won the Junior Eurovision Song Contest for the first time. Returning country France came second, their best result at the contest, while Australia placed third for the second year in a row. Kazakhstan was the fourth best performing debuting nation, after Croatia and Italy's victories in 2003 and 2014 respectively, and Armenia's second place in 2007, finishing sixth, whilst Wales came last.