r/eurovision • Hold Me Closer • 4d ago

🪀 Junior Eurovision Why is Junior Eurovision 2026 being presented with the name of the host country but not the host city?

Let me explain better: why is Eurovision 2026 still being billed as "Malta 2026" and not "Ta'Qali 2026", as happened with "Tbilisi 2025" or "Madrid 2024"?

86 Upvotes

27 comments sorted by

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u/unedistinction2 4d ago edited 4d ago

Because just like back in 2014 it's like the entire island is hosting (also means they don't think they need to promote Ta'Qali too much somehow), which makes sense considering the Festa theme is country wise and not city wise. Also Ta'Qali is basically an "event zone" , nothing much to see there outside of the events themselves (sure there is the crafts village but that's it)

168

u/DeltaOfficialYT Dancing On The Ice 4d ago

Malta is basically the size of a city

39

u/Norfolkboy123 4d ago

Yeah it’s a very small place and other than Valletta not many people could name many Maltese cities/towns

29

u/ShroomWalrus 4d ago

And Valletta isn't even really a town or city in any usual sense. It's only got a population of about 5000 people, but if you've been there it's easy to see why. The actual "Valletta" is very historical, business and tourism only pretty much, and people who live around it officially live in other cities. It's a fascinating place.

3

u/Norfolkboy123 4d ago

Visited last year and absolutely loved it

6

u/username-yote62 4d ago

Technically Ta Qali isn't even a city or town, it's just an area in Attard I'm pretty sure

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u/ahrienby 4d ago

Should have been declared a city-state. San Marino, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Andorra could have been declared as such.

63

u/Daniel_Luis 4d ago

We're talking about Malta, a 316 square kilometer country where the main island is basically a single continuous urban area. The place where the event is being held, Ta'Qali, is not even a city where people live. It's an event zone

25

u/JeffBallMap 4d ago

Because this is basically all of Malta.

21

u/katya-zamo 4d ago

Ta' Qali isn't an actual town or city, it's basically an open space where there's a park, a concert area and the malta fairs convention centre (where jesc is being hosted) so it doesnt make sense to call it Ta'Qali 2026 coz... i mean no one lives there. Also Malta is very small so I feel like it would be the same of they ever one the main eurovision song contest.

18

u/Azetton 4d ago

I don't know, Malta is weird when it comes with Jesc, they also put the country name in 2014

8

u/migdall Pray 4d ago

because malta is a really small country so the whole island is hosting jesc

16

u/AbFende 4d ago

I doubt if you said “Ta’Qali” to anyone outside of Malta they’d know where it is, just saying Malta is easier

2

u/username-yote62 4d ago

Ta Qali though is where most major Maltese events are held, especially at international level. JESC, MESC is also held here, right next to the venue is our national stadium, also several big singers had concerts here including Mariah Carey who'll come this november

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u/PyrotechnikGeoguessr 4d ago

I've been to every city in Malta, including Attard, and I never heard of it.

11

u/Enough_Ad_9824 4d ago

because we are small

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u/Neither-Simple1119 4d ago

Because Malta is absolutely tiny to the point where it might as well be just the entire country hosting.

2

u/Antique-Muscle478 Volevo Essere Un Duro 4d ago

Weird because 2016s JESC is marketed as "Valetta 2016"

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u/OsaSuna10050125 Rim Tim Tagi Dim 4d ago

And 2014 was also marketed as "Malta 2014" (It was held in Marsa). I suppose they expect people to know the capital?

2

u/username-yote62 4d ago

Due to Malta's really small size (it's like 1/8 of London iirc)

2

u/Express-Pay2740 Doomsday Blue 4d ago

Since when was size a reason? Millstreet is the size of my sitting room.

2

u/FredrikT07 Undo 4d ago

Size as in size of the country, not city. Malta is even smaller than urban Dublin

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u/AmbassadorMountain54 4d ago

Name one city in Malta that's around the size of Luxembourg by population

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u/Longjumping_Stuff20 3d ago

Malta is like really small.  Like Luxembourg or Monaco.

1

u/emanuele-sgarra_04 2d ago

This is not an unprecedented situation anyways: the 2014, 2015 and 2020 editions were also indicated with the name of the country (Malta, Bulgaria, Poland) instead of the name of the city (Marsa, Sofia and Warsaw)