Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006

The Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the fourth edition of the annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest for young singers aged 8 to 15. On 2 December 2006, the contest was broadcast live from Bucharest, Romania making it the second time the contest had been held in a capital city. It was organised by the Romanian national broadcaster, Romanian Television (TVR), in co-operation with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).[1]

The show was broadcast live in the competing countries, as well as Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Australian television channel Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) that acquired the rights for broadcasting the show, which was broadcast on 1 January 2007. This was Serbia's first participation in a Eurovision event as an independent nation. The contest was won by The Tolmachevy Twins from Russia with the song "Vesenniy Jazz".

TVR won the rights of hosting the contest over AVRO of the Netherlands (who hosted the next contest).[1] Croatia also expressed an interest in hosting this contest.[2]

Polyvalent Hall from Bucharest (Romanian: Sala Polivalentă din București) is a multi-purpose hall in Bucharest, Romania, located in the Tineretului Park. It is used for concerts, indoor sports such as tennis, gymnastics, dance, handball, volleyball, basketball, weightlifting, combat sports and professional wrestling. The hall was opened in 1974 but has since been renovated. It has a maximum seating capacity of 12,000 for concerts and 6,000 for handball.

Originally 16 countries had initially signed up for the contest but one unspecified country later dropped out.[3]

Radio télévision belge de la communauté française (RTBF) of the French-speaking Wallonia in Belgium left the contest this year after co-hosting the previous edition with Flemish broadcaster Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep (VRT). They claimed that continuing with the contest was not in their interests financially.[4] The viewing figures for the 2005 contest for RTBF were also low. Belgium continued to be represented at the contest by VRT.

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Locations of the bidding countries. The eliminated countries are marked in red. The chosen host country is marked in blue.
Sala Polivalentă in Bucharest, venue of the 2006 contest.