also here's a thread with some random jesc facts because yolo https://twitter.com/Isakksh/status/1315770915511304193

germany was actually supposed to debut in jesc in 2003 already, as was slovakia, but they withdrew eventually. the finnish broadcaster had also expressed interest in participating

in the first years of jesc, broadcasters HAD to hold a national final. there used to be a rule stating if the winner of the nf got disqualified it couldn't be replaced by another nf song, probably to avoid drama when there's children involved

in 2005, the cypriot entry turned out to be plagiarism and because of the rule mentioned above they couldn't replace it by the runner-up of the nf so they had to withdraw from jesc. they did however broadcast the show and they were allowed to vote

there also used to be a rule stating that the children had to write their own songs, which sometimes led to drama when people claimed adults had written a song

in 2007 the age rule was changed from 8-15 to 10-15. because of this, one of the members of bon-bon from bulgaria couldn't participate in jesc (though she was part of the nf performance)

the 2012 albanian nf had a rather particular voting system: the participants themselves decided on the winner. unfortunately, kids are smart so they all voted for the least competitive song to increase their own chances and that's how albania got last place in jesc

katya ryabova participated in jesc twice, both times with a song about a literary classic (2009 - the little prince, 2011 - romeo & juliet), and both times she ended up in a tie with another country

talking about katya ryabova, there used to be a rule stating kids could only participate in jesc once and it was still in place when she won the russian nf for the second time in 2011. the ebu changed the rules especially so she could take part. her power

in 2010 three songs were technically against the rules: the russian song had been on youtube since 2006 (!), the belarusian song plagiarised beethoven (!!) and the maltese song plagiarised an old maltese folk song. the ebu however allowed them all

these are all i can think of atm idk whether this was interesting but enjoy anyway

OH just remembered another one: originally the uk was supposed to host jesc 2004, but they pulled out in may. then croatia took over but they "forgot" to book the venue in time so it was already booked. at the end of june, 5 months before the contest, norway took over

and that's why from then on, the ebu decided to appoint the host country BEFORE the previous contest was held