The Eurovision Young Musicians 2022 was the 20th edition of the

Eurovision Young Musicians Eurovision Young Musicians (), often shortened to EYM, or Young Musicians, is a biennial classical music competition for musicians aged between 12 and 21. It is organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) between members of the union, who ...

. It took place at the Corum in

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

, France, on 23 July 2022. The live show was hosted by French playwright Judith Chaine and Belgian radio presenter Vincent Delbushaye, with the Montpellier Occitanie National Opera Orchestra conducted by Pierre Dumoussaud. Organised by the

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; , UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations in countries within the European Broadcasting Area (EBA) or who are member states of the Council of Europe, members of the ...

(EBU), this edition was co-hosted by French broadcasters

Radio France Radio France () is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: *France Inter — Radio France's "generalist media, generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed wi ...

and

France Télévisions France Télévisions (; stylized since 2018 as ) is the French national public television broadcaster. It is a state-owned company formed from the integration of the public television channels France 2 (formerly Antenne 2) and France 3 (form ...

, as part of a summer series of music events called

Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier The Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier, formerly the Festival de Radio France et de Montpellier, is a summer festival of opera and music held in Montpellier, France created in 1985. The music festival concentrates on classical music and jaz ...

. Musicians representing nine countries with EBU membership participated in the contest, with

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and host country

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

returning. Eleven countries, namely

Albania Albania ( ; or ), officially the Republic of Albania (), is a country in Southeast Europe. It is located in the Balkans, on the Adriatic Sea, Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea, and shares land borders with Montenegro to ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...

Slovenia Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a country in Central Europe. It borders Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and a short (46.6 km) coastline within the Adriati ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, decided to not participate in this edition after having taken part in the previous contest in 2018. Although initially not included on the list of participants, it was later revealed that

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

would still take part. The winner was the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, represented by musician Daniel Matejča, marking the country's first win in the competition and at any Eurovision event since being awarded the youth jury prize at the Eurovision Young Dancers 2003.

2020 contest

A 2020 contest was initially planned to take place in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

on 21 June 2020 to coincide with

World Music Day The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

, however, in March 2020 it was postponed indefinitely as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The future of the contest remained uncertain until 3 February 2022 when the Norwegian broadcaster

NRK The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

and later the Belgian broadcaster

RTBF The ("Belgian Radio-television of the French Community"), shortened to RTBF (branded as rtbf.be), is a public broadcasting, public service broadcaster for the French Community of Belgium, French-speaking Community of Belgium. Its counterpart i ...

confirmed that there would be a 2022 edition. Broadcasters that confirmed their presence at the 2020 contest until its postponement were: Croatia (HRT), Czechia (ČT),

(ERR), Germany (WDR),

(ERT),

(PBS), Norway (NRK), Poland (TVP),

(RTVSLO), Sweden (SVT) and

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

(UA:PBC). Among them, Estonia, Greece, Malta, Slovenia and Ukraine did not make an appearance at the 2022 contest. Croatia and Sweden had already selected their entrants for the 2020 contest prior to postponement; Croatia selected Ivan Petrović-Poljak, who would be reselected to represent the country at the 2022 contest, whilst Sweden selected Tekla Nilsson, who would not compete in 2022. Slovenia selected its representative after the contest was postponed, having selected Sebastijan Buda, but Slovenia did not compete at the 2022 edition.

Location

The event took place in

during the annual summer festival,

, and this was the first time that France had hosted the contest. The selected venue was the Corum, a building that houses both a conference centre and an

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

house (Opéra Berlioz), and is located in the centre of the city in southern

. The last time that France hosted a Eurovision event was the

Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 was the 19th edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, organised by and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). The contest was held on 19 December 2021 at La Seine Musicale in Paris, France, followi ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Format

Presenters

On 28 March 2022, the

Culturebox France 4 () is a French free-to-air public television channel. Owned by France Télévisions, the channel is divided into two strands, with children's and family programming under the ''Okoo'' strand airing from 05:00 to 21:00 daily, and arts pr ...

channel announced on social networks that the playwright Judith Chaine would be the presenter of the twentieth edition of the competition. She is known for having presented the ''Musiques en fête'' since 2018, alongside

Cyril Féraud Cyril Féraud (born 15 March 1985 in Digne-les-Bains) is a French radio and television host and audiovisual producer. Féraud has been working primarily for the public broadcaster France Télévisions since 2008, where he is currently the host of ...

and the '' Victoires de la musique classique'' since 2019 and has worked for radio station

France Musique France Musique () is a French national public radio channel owned and operated by Radio France. It is devoted to the broadcasting of music, both live and recorded, with particular emphasis on classical music and jazz. History The channel was lau ...

since 2007. On 26 June 2022, it was announced that Vincent Delbushaye would join as co-host of the competition. Belgian-born Delbushaye is a radio presenter for

Musiq'3 Musiq'3 is a Belgian public-service radio station operated by RTBF. Its output is centred on classical music. The current director is Bernard Meillat. The channel first went on air – as the ''Troisième Programme'' of the then existing RTB (Rad ...

, the classical radio station of French-language broadcaster

Jury members

On 5 July 2022, France Télévisions announced the jurors of the competition. The jurors for the final are Lithuanian pianist and chair of the jury

Mūza Rubackytė Mūza Rubackytė (born May 19, 1959) is a Lithuanian pianist, currently residing in Vilnius, Paris and Geneva. Rubackytė has been awarded the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas, Lithuanian Muzes, and has been named as the National Arti ...

, Swiss oboist Nora Cismondi, director of the Festival Radio France Montpellier , French cellist Christian-Pierre La Marca, and Albanian violinist Tedi Papavrami.

Participants and results

For a country to be eligible for potential participation in the

, it must be an active member of the

(EBU). Nine countries participated in the competition, the lowest number since

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

. Of the participants, Austria and France returned after being absent the previous edition, while 11 nations that had participated in the last edition did not return this year. Non-returning countries included Albania, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Malta, Russia, San Marino, Slovenia, Spain and United Kingdom. The winner of the event was the Czech Republic with Daniel Matejča's violin performance of the ''3rd'' and ''4th mvt'' from ''Violin Concerto No. 1'' by D. Shostakovich.

Broadcasting

All participating broadcasters may choose to have on-site or remote commentators providing insight and voting information to their local audience. Some broadcasters aired the show "as live" on 23 July 2022 at 21:00 CEST, with others moving the broadcast to other time slots or other dates.

Notes

References

External links

* {{coord, 43.6111, 3.8781, type:landmark, display=title 2022 in music 2022 in France Eurovision Young Musicians by year Organized events in France July 2022 in Europe Music events postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic