Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2004 was the second Eurovision Song Contest for young singers aged 8 to 15. It was held on 20 November 2004, in Håkons Hall, Lillehammer, Norway and lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes. The theme of the competition was "Bright Nordic Winter Nights". It was presented by Stian Barsnes Simonsen and Nadia Hasnaoui, broadcast in 20 countries and viewed by 100 million people. 18 countries participated, France and Switzerland participated for the first time. Originally 20 countries had applied to take part but Germany and Israel later pulled out. There were also reports that Ireland had planned to enter the programme. The contest was won by 9-year-old María Isabel with her song Antes Muerta Que Sencilla (Better Dead Than Plain). Dino Jelusić, who won the 2003 contest, presented the award to María. Since, María Isabel has entered the charts in not only Spain but France, Italy, Scandinavia, Latin America and released a second album. Greece, who came ninth received more sets of twelve points than the United Kingdom, who came second. France, who came sixth, were voted by all the other countries that took part, which is more than the number of countries that voted for Romania, who came fourth and Croatia, who came third.

Norway was the third country of choice for this contest as the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) had originally chosen ITV of the United Kingdom to host it in Manchester. However, ITV pulled out in May 2004 due to finance and scheduling problems. The venue was therefore moved to Croatia, the winning country of 2003, but the Croatian broadcaster HRT reportedly forgot that the prospective venue for the event was already booked for the period the Junior Eurovision Song Contest was to take place. NRK therefore offered to organise the next contest.

Incidentally, the same three countries occupied the top three places as last year, just in a different order. These three countries were Spain, the United Kingdom, and Croatia.