"We also won't have a national final for Junior Eurovision 2026. Decisions for the coming years have not been made, but it's very likely that the contest (referring to a national final) won't return in several years." — Joakim Vedeler, head of the children's department at NRK

2026 just started, and the 24th annual Junior Eurovision Song Contest isn't until a Saturday in late November or early December. Unless NRK changes its mind and reveals details about a national final, Melodi Grand Prix Junior or different concept, like they planned in hopes of returning in 2025 at the earliest, here's my idea for if Norway's other EBU member, TV2, competes at Junior Eurovision 2026 instead. Key ideas of the proposed selection format with TV2 are in bold.

• TV2 launches a national final similar to NRK's Melodi Grand Prix Junior, but matching the age range for Junior Eurovision, which is open to singers between the ages of 9 and 14.
• The competing songs must be co-written by singers aged 9 to 14, as long as at least 60% of the lyrics are in Norwegian or a co-official language of Norway, and the maximum runtime is 3 minutes. The recordings will be submitted to TV2.
• In the first round of the live final, the participants will be assigned covers of well-known songs as part of a vocal warmup. In the second round, the participants will sing original songs they wrote in hopes of bringing Norway back to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest for the first time since 2005.
• Up to six performers on stage for the competing live performances, and the lead vocals must be sung live during both rounds of the pre-selection. Live backing vocals are completely optional.

And with that, this is my suggestion for TV2 to compete for Norway at Junior Eurovision until NRK finally launches either a new national final or revives Melodi Grand Prix Junior. Furthermore, please share this petition on every Eurovision news-related website, such as Eurovoix, ESCplus, and Eurofestivales.

Best regards,
Rebecca Leonard