Kazakhstan in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021

Kazakhstan's participation in the 2021 contest was confirmed in September 2021, having been invited to participate by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).[5] Khabar announced during a press conference on 29 September 2021 that artists will be able to submit their applications for the national final until 6 October 2021. From all applications submitted, a jury panel selected 30 acts for the online semi-final. The jury consisted of Khamit Shangaliev (composer of the 2019 and 2020 Kazakh entries), Madina Sadvakasova (singer), Beksultan Kenishkaliev (singer and participant in the 2020 Slavianski Bazaar), Kanat Aytbayev (singer and producer), Yerlan Bekchurin (producer and composer) and Karlygash Abdikarimova (cultural worker and participant in the Slavianski Bazaar).[6]

The online semi-final took place between 8 and 12 October 2021 where users were able vote for their favorite artists on Khabar's official website.[6][7] The top ten acts with the most votes proceeded to the televised national final.[8][9]

The final took place on 6 November 2021 in Nur-Sultan,[10] where ten acts performed their candidate Junior Eurovision songs written for them by composers directly invited by Khabar in a televised production. The winner was determined by a 50/50 combination of both public telephone vote and the votes of jury members made up of music professionals.[11][12] Beknur Zhanibek and Alinur Khamzin were tied for the first place and the tie was to be decided by the jury, however after consultation with the composers of both songs it was ultimately decided that Zhanibek and Khamzin would both represent Kazakhstan with the song "Ertegı älemı", retitled as "Ertegı älemı (Fairy World)".[13][14][15]

Alinur Khamzin and Beknur Zhanibekuly are a Kazakh pop music duo, also known as Alinur & Beknur that represented Kazakhstan at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "Ertegı älemı (Fairy World)".[16]

Alinur Khamzin (Kazakh: Әлинұр Хамзин, romanized: Älinūr Hamzin, Kazakh pronunciation: [ælinɤɾ xɑmzin]) was born in the city of Oral (Ural'sk),[17] West Kazakhstan Region, and alongside singing, he is interested in robotics, plays the piano and chess. Aside from the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, Alinur has participated in several singing contests in Kazakhstan. He was a finalist in the national children's song contest Bala Dauysy – 2018 (lit. 'The Voice Kids'), finalist of the national selection Slavianski Bazaar – 2021 and also at the III children's vocal competition Baqytty Bala – 2021 (lit. 'Happy Child') initiated by Dimash Kudaibergen.[18][19]

Beknur Zhanibekuly (Kazakh: Бекнұр Жәнібекұлы, romanized: Beknūr Jänıbekūly, Kazakh pronunciation: [bjɘknɤɾ ʒænɪbjɘkɤlɯ]) was born in Astana (now Nur-Sultan),[20] Kazakhstan. Despite holding Kazakhstani citizenship, he speaks no less than four languages, having fluency in French, English, Kazakh, and Russian, and currently lives in Strasbourg, France. Alongside singing, he loves music and making new friends.[21][17] Zhanibekuly was born with phocomelia.[22][23]

"Ertegı älemı (Fairy World)"
Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 entry
Country	Kazakhstan
Artist(s)	Alinur Khamzin and Beknur Zhanibekuly
As	Alinur Khamzin & Beknur Zhanibekuly
Languages	Kazakh French
Composer(s)	Nurbolat Qanay
Lyricist(s)	Nurbolat Qanay Gabriel Boileau Cloutier
Finals performance
Final result	8th
Final points	121 points
Entry chronology
◄ "Forever" (2020)

"Ertegı älemı" (Kazakh Cyrillic: Ертегі әлемі; Russian: Ска́зочный мир; lit. 'Fairy World') is a song by Kazakh child singers Alinur Khamzin and Beknur Zhanibekuly. It is composed by Nurbolat Qanay, and lyricised by Nurbolat Qanay, Gabriel Boileau Cloutier and translated into French by Cloutier. Ferran is a bioengineering student from Andorra who makes prosthetics out of lego, Ferran constructed the prosthetic arm that Beknur uses.[24][25] A revamped version of the song was unveiled on 26 November 2021 together with its official music video.

It represented Kazakhstan in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Paris, France. The song came in 8th place with 121 points.

The same voting system that was introduced in the 2017 edition was used, where the results were determined by 50% online voting and 50% jury voting. Every country had a national jury that consisted of three music industry professionals and two children aged between 10 and 15 who were citizens of the country they represented. The rankings of those jurors were combined to make an overall top ten.[27]

The online voting consisted of two phases. The first phase of the online voting began on 17 December 2021 when a recap of all the rehearsal performances was shown on the contest's website Junioreurovision.tv before the viewers could vote. After this, voters also had the option to watch longer one-minute clips from each participant's rehearsal. This first round of voting ended on Sunday 17 December at 15:59 CET. The second phase of the online voting took place during the live show and began right after the last performance and was open for 15 minutes. International viewers were able vote for three songs.[28] They were also able to vote for their own country's song. These votes were then turned into points which were determined by the percentage of votes received. For example, if a song received 20% of the votes, it received 20% of the available points.

Points awarded to Kazakhstan[29] Score Country 12 points  Russia 10 points 8 points  Azerbaijan 7 points  France  Malta  Poland 6 points  Spain 5 points 4 points  Armenia  Ukraine 3 points  Germany 2 points  Serbia 1 point  Bulgaria  Georgia  Italy  Portugal Kazakhstan received 57 points from the online vote

Points awarded by Kazakhstan[29] Score Country 12 points  Russia 10 points  Azerbaijan 8 points  Georgia 7 points  France 6 points  Armenia 5 points  Poland 4 points  Germany 3 points  Malta 2 points  Spain 1 point  Netherlands