The Junior Eurovision 2026 results are in, and Armenia is celebrating a third victory in the contest's history. Thirteen-year-old Naré won the 24th Junior Eurovision Song Contest in Ta' Qali, Malta, on Saturday 24 October 2026, with her song "BOO!", finishing on 202 points after a night in which the lead changed hands between the jury vote and the online vote. Spain finished second with 184 points, France third with 165, and San Marino fourth with 148, its best-ever result in any Eurovision contest.
The Junior Eurovision 2026 results capped a 150-minute show at the Malta Fairs and Conventions Centre, staged by Malta's Public Broadcasting Service and coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union. Sixteen countries took part, with singers aged 9 to 14 competing under the contest's permanent slogan, "United By Music". Naré, from Yerevan, was chosen from more than 100 applicants in Armenia's national selection, and her victory gives Armenia wins in 2010, 2021 and now 2026, confirming the country's status as one of the most successful in the junior contest's history.
What made the night dramatic was the shape of the voting. France led after the jury vote with 114 points, ahead of Spain on 108 and Armenia on 103. The online vote then reversed the order: Armenia added 99 points from viewers around the world, Spain added 76 and France only 51. Naré had ranked third after the juries, but the public vote carried her to an 18-point winning margin. It was a reminder that Junior Eurovision's 50-50 split between juries and online voters can produce a genuinely different winner from either half alone.
Junior Eurovision 2026 results: the full scoreboard
The Junior Eurovision 2026 results in full show how tight the contest was behind the winner. Armenia finished on 202 points, Spain's Lucas Paulano on 184 with "Cuore bello (te quiero, te quiero)", and France's Alec on 165 with "Comment tu vas ?". San Marino's Violamarie took fourth with 148 points for "Ruota panoramica", the first time San Marino has placed in the top five of a Eurovision contest and the highest points total any Sammarinese act has received. Georgia's Davit Lomidze was fifth on 145, Poland sixth on 144, and host nation Malta seventh on 136 with Beppe Caruana's "Blue Bird".
Further down the table, the Netherlands finished eighth on 126 points, Ukraine ninth on 106, Cyprus tenth on 98, Italy eleventh on 87, Montenegro twelfth on 68, Portugal and Ireland tied on 64, and Albania fifteenth on 62. The spread of points, from 202 down to 62, shows a contest without a runaway winner at the bottom end, and with several countries separated by only a handful of points. For the smaller delegations, a mid-table finish in a 16-country field is a respectable outcome, and for San Marino and Georgia, top-five finishes are landmarks that will be remembered in their national Eurovision histories.
France's third place continues an extraordinary run: since returning to the contest in 2018, France has never finished outside the top five, and has now placed third twice. Spain's second place is its fourth runners-up finish, and its ninth top-five result. Armenia's 202 points is the country's second-highest total at Junior Eurovision. These streaks matter because they show how certain broadcasters have built sustained junior programmes, investing in young artists year after year rather than treating the contest as a one-off event.
Who is Naré, the Junior Eurovision 2026 winner?
Naré, whose full name is Naré Kerobyan, is 13 years old and from Yerevan, Armenia's capital. She began singing at a young age and has appeared in musicals, television shows and some of Armenia's most popular music projects. Her road to Malta was not a straight one: she had tried three times before to earn Armenia's Junior Eurovision place, and succeeded on her fourth attempt. That persistence became part of her story during the contest week, and it gives her victory a narrative that goes beyond a single performance.
Her winning song, "BOO!", was written by Lilit Navasardyan, Grigor Kyokchyan, Nick Egibyan, Martin Mirzoyan and Anush Ter-Ghukasyan. The song explores childhood fears and finding the courage to face them, a theme that fits the junior contest's audience and its performers. Naré has described its message as learning to confront what frightens you rather than letting fear take control. On stage in Ta' Qali, the performance combined that message with the confidence of a young singer who had waited years for the opportunity, and the combination evidently connected with both juries and the online audience.
Armenia's previous Junior Eurovision winners were Vladimir Arzumanyan, who won in 2010 with "Mama", and Maléna, who won in 2021 with "Qami Qami". Naré now joins that short list, and Armenia has never finished outside the top ten in its Junior Eurovision history, a record no other country can match over the same period. The country hosted the contest in Yerevan in 2011 and again in 2022, after its previous wins, but unlike the adult Eurovision Song Contest, winning Junior Eurovision does not automatically oblige the winning broadcaster to host the following year.
What the Junior Eurovision 2026 results mean for 2027
The European Broadcasting Union has said it will work with its members, including winning broadcaster AMPTV, over the coming weeks to identify and announce the host broadcaster for the 25th anniversary competition in 2027. That anniversary edition will carry extra attention, and several countries that performed well in Malta, including Spain, France and San Marino, will be watched for whether they can sustain their form. For Malta, hosting for the third time, after 2014 and 2016, was itself a success: the show ran smoothly, the host entry finished seventh, and the island's role as a Eurovision home was reinforced.
For the young performers, the contest is often a beginning rather than an end. Past Junior Eurovision winners and participants have gone on to adult Eurovision careers, national fame and, in some cases, international recording work. Naré's victory, achieved at 13 after four attempts, is the kind of story that national broadcasters use to inspire the next generation of applicants. The 2027 national selections will begin within months, and the search for the next winner starts with children who watched Malta and imagined themselves on that stage.
The Junior Eurovision 2026 results also confirm the contest's distinctive character. It is a competition for young artists, judged by a mix of professional juries and a global online vote, staged with the full production values of the adult contest but with a gentler tone. Armenia's win, Spain's near-miss, France's consistency and San Marino's breakthrough together tell the story of a contest that is competitive without being cynical, and that continues to find new audiences. The 25th edition in 2027 will have a high bar to clear.
Sources: European Broadcasting Union, October 2026; Eurovoix; ESCXTRA. Links: Junior Eurovision 2026 preview, France protests.