Following Netta’s win in 2018 which rode the wave of the ‘Me Too’ movement, one of this year’s hot global news topics seems to be having an influence at Junior Eurovision.

Greta Thunberg, the 16 year old activist who started the Friday school strikes protests in her native Sweden to highlight government inactivity in dealing with climate change , has been making headlines around the world and with the movement growing Internationally amongst young people, both the Spanish and Serbian entries have climate and environmental issues as the themes for their songs.

In Spanish entry ‘Marte’  which addresses the issue of plastic waste and ocean pollution, Melani Garcia asks ‘

“Excuse me
But there’s plastic in my waves
And secrets that I can’t confess
My waters are no longer blue”

“Now
Each piece of waste you toss away
Is a weapon that could take a life”

Melanie uses her operatic vocal range to its full extent with the climactic vocal (quite literally) delivering a scream for the dying planet.

Serbia contestant Darija Vračević issues her call to all young people to ‘Raise your voice’ to a rhythmic, almost hypnotic beat that symbolizes the inexorable march towards global catastrophe.

“Raise your voice, for the sake of those,
That live the future together
Raise your voice, do it,
For tomorrow already it’ll all be too late”

With the; as yet,  unreleased North Macedonian entry ‘Fire’ also rumored to be addressing a similar subject matter, it would seem the ‘Greta effect’ is having an impact at Junior Eurovision.

Will we see this also carry over to the Contest in Rotterdam?