13-year-old Roksana Węgiel representing Poland has won the 2018 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, giving her country its first ever win.

Roksana stunned audiences at home and inside the arena with her incredible performance of "Anyone I Want To Be*", finishing with an impressive 215 points.

MORE COUNTRIES THAN EVER BEFORE

A record breaking 20 EBU Members and Associates took part in the annual competition for talented youngsters aged 9 to 14.

The 16^th edition was organized by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), hosted by Member BTRC (Belarusian Television and Radio Company) and broadcast live from the Minsk Arena to audiences in the participating countries and online around the world on junioreurovision.tv.

Poland first took part in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 and made their 5th appearance this year. Their previous best finish was in 2017 when they came 8th.

Angelina from France, finished in 2^nd place with her song "Jamais Sans Toi" with 203 points, closely followed by Australia's Jael singing "Champion" with 201 points.

RECORD NUMBER OF VOTES

On the back of a successful debut last year, online voting once again helped create an exciting finish to the event.

The winner was decided through a 50-50 split between viewers, from participating countries and around the world, voting online and points given by juries made up of three industry experts and two children from each participating country.

A record 1,283,921 votes were received in the online poll which was split into two rounds;  one before the show based on preview clips and a second that opens after the last live performance, allowing viewers to cast their votes based on what they saw on stage.

This year’s show was hosted by Helena Meraai, Eugene Perlin and Zena. Zena previously participated in Belarus’ National Selections for the 2015 and 2016 Junior Eurovision Song Contest.

"PASSION AND PROFESSIONALISM"

Jon Ola Sand, the EBU's Head of Live Events, said "With a record 20 acts, this year has been the most spectacular Junior Eurovision Song Contest yet and the talent we’ve seen has been phenomenal.

Each year the contestants raise the bar with their passion and professionalism and it’s wonderful to see them ‘Light Up’ in front of an international audience. Roksana encapsulates what Junior Eurovision is all about and is a very deserved winner. We are all excited to see what lies ahead for her and I’m sure has a bright future."

"The EBU would like to thank the team at BTRC and all the delegations involved for the hard work they put into this year’s show," he added.

The host broadcaster for the 2019 Junior Eurovision Song Contest will be announced in the coming months.

*Written and composed by Maegan Cottone, Nathan Duvall, Cutfather, Peter Wallevik, Daniel Davidsen, Małgorzata Uściłowska, Patryk Kumór