, venue of 2019 Junior Eurovision. The 2019 contest took place in
Poland for the first time, following the country's victory at the
2018 edition with the song "
Anyone I Want to Be", performed by
Roksana Węgiel. It was the sixth time that the contest had been hosted by the previous year's winning country. The contest took place in
Gliwice Arena, a sport and entertainment hall with a capacity of 17,178 in the main arena. It is considered one of the mixed uses venue in
Poland.
Bidding phase and host city selection Prior to Poland's confirmation two other countries had announced their intentions to host the event. These bids were from
Armenia and
Kazakhstan. Had the Kazakh proposal been accepted, it would've marked the first time an associate member was chosen to host an
EBU flagship event. Kazakh broadcaster
Khabar Agency said they would have moved the contest to October due to possible adverse weather conditions in the country's capital
Astana, which was proposed as the host city. However, for this to happen, the general rules of the competition would have to be changed, because as in the adult competition, the competition cannot be held in a non-full member state of the EBU, even if the country in question is an effective participant of the contest. After Poland's victory in the contest, the director-general of Polish broadcaster
Telewizja Polska (TVP),
Jacek Kurski, stated that the country would apply to host the event in 2019, and on 10 December 2018, it was confirmed by the EBU that Poland would host the 2019 contest. Immediately following the final, Kurski stated that
Warsaw would not host as it does not have a suitable venue to host an event of this size, marking the first time since the
2014 contest that the event is not hosted in the host country's capital. On 18 January 2019, in an interview for
TVP Info, Director-General of the EBU
Noel Curran stated that the contest would be held in
Kraków, however the same day TVP issued a statement that the city had not yet been chosen. In February 2019 it was revealed that three cities remained in the race:
Gliwice,
Szczecin and
Toruń, and that all of the bids were approved by the EBU, meaning that the final decision regarding the host was exclusively up to the host broadcaster. On 6 March 2019, during a press conference held by TVP and the EBU, it was confirmed that the contest would be held in
Gliwice in cooperation with the
Silesian Voivodeship.
Key: Host venue Shortlisted == Participants ==