Nevena Božović

She was born in Kosovska Mitrovica, where she also attended school. Her parents are Ružica, a professor of technical sciences, and Zoran, a former basketball player. Nevena once said that her main role model was her sister Jelena, an architect, who she always tried to copy. As a result of this, Nevena skipped a grade just to be able to study together with her sister.[2] Božović studied music at the University of Arts in Belgrade[3] and in 2019 finished her specialization in solfeggio.

Nevena competed at multiple youth festivals such as "Cvrkuti sa Ibra" - with song "Ti nisi moj broj" (You Are Not My number), "Čarolija", "Svetosavski festival u Zrenjaninu" and "Dečji festival u Kruševcu", receiving awards in all of them. In 2007, Božović participated in Izbor za dečju pesmu Evrovizije, Serbia's national selection for Junior Eurovision with "Piši mi" (Write Me), a ballad with self-written lyrics and music. On the final night, she was placed first by both, juries and televote, and went on to Rotterdam, Netherlands to represent Serbia.

On 8 December, Božović was ranked third overall with a total of 120 points, making that Serbia's best result in the contest. Along with self-written lyrics, the performance was marked by two ballerinas that danced in the background. Serbia, along with Russia, was the only contestant to receive points from all the participating countries.

In 2009, after a small break from music, she decided to make her comeback, taking part in Sunčane skale at Herceg Novi with song "Ti" (You). There she won first place on the first night (Night of New stars) and was awarded "Golden siren". Also that year, Božović took part in a famous Verdinote festival in Italy and won first place with song Il mio domani (My Tomorrow). In 2010 she also participated at Festival zabavne muzike in Vrnjačka Banja with song "Nije fer" (It's Not Fair).

In 2012, Božović took part in Serbia's version of The Voice called Prvi glas Srbije. After three months of live shows, constant battles and challenges, Božović qualified for the final, where she ranked second after Mirna Radulović. During the live shows, Božović sang the following songs, according to certain topics:

This is me (17 November 2012)

Jelena Tomašević — Jutro

Party hits (24 November 2012)

Emeli Sande — Next to Me

My place (1 December 2012)

Gordana Lazarević — Vidovdan

Singing for dear person (8 December 2012)

Zajdi, zajdi (Macedonian folk song)

Sexy night (15 December 2012)

Britney Spears — Toxic

The end of the World (22 December 2012)

Loreen — Euphoria

Movie hits (29 December 2012)

Biljana Krstić — Puče puška (Zona Zamfirova)

Whitney Houston — I Will Always Love You (The Bodyguard (1992 film))

Public choice (5 January 2013)

Marija Šerifović — Kada ljubiš anđela

Kelly Clarkson — Because of You

Local music hits and big hits (12 January 2013)

Mariah Carey — Without You

Emina Jahović — Da mogu

Superfinal (20 January 2013)

Toše Proeski — Igra bez granica

Lana del Rey — Blue Jeans

Kaliopi — Rođeni

Bisera Veletanlić — Milo moje

Božović (middle) with Moje 3 in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden.

In 2013, together with former participants of Prvi Glas - Mirna Radulović and Sara Jovanović, Nevena took part in Beosong 2013 with "Ljubav je Svuda" (Love Is All Around). The trio won the contest with over 25,000 votes and went on to represent Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, where they, under a new name Moje 3, performed in the first semi-final[4] and finished eleventh, missing out on the final by six points. They did manage to win Barbara Dex Award but since they didn't qualify for the final, Serbia decided to take a one-year break from the contest.

That same year, on 15 July, Nevena presented her new single "Pogledaj me" (Look At Me), written by Aleksandra Kovač. In late December, she performed another new single "Znam da noćas gubim te" (I Know I'm Losing You Tonight) on talk show "Veče sa Ivanom Ivanovićem". The music video was filmed in Kopaonik and published on 10 February 2014. This was the first music video on her official YouTube channel (Nevena Bozovic Official). When asked about the song, Nevena commented that It's completely different than the previous one and that it turned out just the way she wanted.[5]

She appeared at the festival "Proleće u Beogradu" (Spring in Belgrade) with song "Tačka" (Dot), after which she achieved huge success with her newest song "Bal" written by Aleksandra Milutinović. Music video starred Serbian actor Miloš Biković and was filmed at Ada Bojana. After a short while, "Bal" became the most viewed music video on her official YouTube channel up to date.[6]

At the beginning of May 2015, she published a new song "Trebam tebe" (I Need You) and an official video that was filmed at Vila Danica in Bela Crkva, Banat. This time, Miloš Biković was replaced by Croatian model Vlaho Arbulić.[7] The song was autobiographical, as Nevena stated This is it, this is me.[8]

In the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 in Vienna, she was one of the five jurors for the Serbian jury panel, alongside Dejan Cukić, Marko Kon, Saša Milošević and Ksenija Milošević. In the first semifinal, Nevena put I Want Your Love as her favourite, followed by songs from North Macedonia, Belgium, The Netherlands, Russia, Romania, Hungary, Denmark, Greece, Estonia, Belarus, Georgia, Finland, Armenia and Albania respectively. Out of her first ten songs, six qualified to the final.

In the grand final, she gave her 12 points to Knez, 10 points to Loïc Nottet and 8 points to Måns Zelmerlöw, while the remaining points were given to Polina Gagarina, Elina Born and Stig Rästa, Il Volo, Guy Sebastian, Nadav Guedj, Aminata and Ann Sophie respectively. Combining the results with other jurors, as well as televoters, nine out of ten of her choices were announced as points from Serbia, while Germany was an exception (the votes went to Slovenia). Also, she was a Serbian jury member that gave the most points to the actual winner of the contest, Sweden.[9]

On 26 May 2015, Nevena, alongside Sara Jovanović and group Zemlja gruva, was a part of the opening act for a concert of a French singer Indila, which was held in Štark Arena in Belgrade. She opened the so-called Festival New divas with her songs "Bal" and "Trebam tebe" and she continued her performance with songs Feel, You Shook Me All Night Long and Hurt, before finishing with Simply the Best from Tina Turner.[10]

Nevena continued her collaboration with Aleksandra Milutinović, who contributed by writing music, lyrics and arrangement for her new song "Čujem da dolaziš u grad" (I Hear You're Coming to Town), which was published just seven days before the end of 2015. I've been thinking about this song for over a year now and for me, it is very special because I did it with my friends and with a lot of love, she said.[11]

After yet another appearance at the festival "Proleće u Beogradu" (Spring in Belgrade), this time with song "Moja baka" (My Grandmother), she released her next song "Siesta", collaborating with Goran Kovačić and Ljiljana Jorgovanović for the first time ever, while Darko Dimitrov returned after the song "Bal" and became a regular part of her music team. The song was published at the end of 2016.[12]

In June, parallel with finishing her master's degree at the University of Arts in Belgrade, Nevena appeared at the festival "Proleće u Beogradu" (Spring in Belgrade) for the third time, this time with song "Đuskaj" (Dance). In the middle of July 2017, she competed in Belarussian Vitebsk at famous festival Slavianski Bazaar in Vitebsk, which gathers participants from all Eastern Europe to celebrate Slavic music. Nevena had the highest number of points on the first day of the final round (76) and eventually finished in third place performing a rendition of Christina Aguilera’s "Hurt", just two points fewer than the winner (149).[13]

On 11 June 2017, Nevena, in cooperation with her new publishing company Magic Records, presented her new single "Jasno mi je" (It's Clear to Me). Although she published just the lyrics video, the song instantly became the biggest hit in entire Serbia and the rest of the region. Just three days later she published the English version called "Dangerous Drug", which also received positive reviews. Due to university commitments, she made the official music video three months after the lyrics version. The demand was so great that it even exceeded the English version in terms of views. Radio stations played the song constantly, sometimes more than once a day, and it's been her most-watched song on YouTube platform thus far.

The recognition for the big hit arrived at the inaugural edition of the 2019 Music Awards Ceremony where she won the award for best Electropop song of the year.[14][15] Song also appeared at OGAE Song Contest 2017, being ranked 26th out of 28 songs.[16]

She continued her successful collaboration with Magic Records with a single "Moja molitva" (My Prayer),[17] which got its English version "What I'm Looking For" later on.[18]

Slightly before her participation at Beovizija, Nevena published a music video for song "Prazni snovi" (Empty Dreams), which was used in the movie Psi umiru sami. Taking part in this movie was a real pleasure and I tried my hardest to adapt to its atmosphere. I wish a lot of success to the crew, both in Serbia and internationally, she said.[19]

She competed in Beovizija 2019 with "Kruna". Having won her semifinal four points ahead of Dženan Lončarević, she went to the final and won the whole competition, thus receiving the rights to represent Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.[20] She received most points from the jury panel, which consisted of Miša Aleksić, Bojana Stamenov, Dejan Ivanović, Goca Tržan and Aleksandar Milić Mili By being ranked third by televote, she booked her spot for Tel Aviv in front of Dženan Lončarević and Saška Janković.[21]

Božović performing "Kruna" in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel.

On the 11 April 2019, the acoustic version of the song was released, as well as the backing vocals for the song. Ivana Vladović, Olga Popović, Dušan Alagić and Mladen Lukić, all experienced and famous musicians, were announced to travel with Nevena to Tel Aviv.[22] Less than two weeks before her semifinal, Nevena also released an English version of the song named "Eternal Light", which was performed alongside Symphony Orchestra of Radio Television of Serbia, but stated that the song was released purely and entirely for promotional purposes. Even though I never doubted the song would be sung in Serbian, I knew that the English version would bring the song closer to strangers.[23]

Already after her first rehearsal, impressions were very positive. Her emotional performance and a spectacular rendition of the song dedicated to her husband[24] amazed the press center and won the hearts of Europe. After rehearsals, she won the first daily poll with a staggering 53% of the vote![25] She book her place in the final having been placed in the top five by the jury votes and in seventh place by the televoters.[26] In the grand final, she participated in between two big favourites, Mahmood and Luca Hanni. This may be why she ended up a with lower placement in the end. Televoters placed her in 13th spot, while the jurors ranked her 19th, which meant she won 18th place overall with 89 points.[27]

Although she didn't win in Tel Aviv, Nevena did get one reward. She was crowned as the most beautiful woman of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019, thus winning the Eurovision's Next Top Model award. In the voting on the Eurovision news page Wiwibloggs, she amassed 561 votes (12.99%) beating all the competition. Jonida Maliqi from Albania came second, while Tamta from Cyprus finished third.[28]

Nevena won yet another award just after she returned from Israel. Naxi radio, radio station that announces the most significant radio awards in Balkan, on their webpage published a poll for six categories, including the one for Best female singer of the Year. Based on the votes of listeners, after one month of voting, Nevena was announced as the winner in front of Aleksandra Radović, Jelena Tomašević, Nina Badrić and Severina respectively making her the youngest singer ever to win that award.[29] She thanked the fans on her social media page showcasing her award.[30]

Her last song of the year "Sanjam" (I Dream) was released in the middle of October, reaching over 100,000 views on YouTube in less than ten days. After "Kruna", this is the second song for which she wrote lyrics and music.[31]

She ended the year with a 90 minute performance - an opening act for a huge Balkan star Zdravko Čolić, on December 31 in Budva.[32]

Beginning of the year couldn't be better for Nevena, as her song "Kruna" was declared as 29th best song in history of Eurovision Song Contest, as voted by fans on official poll organised by Songfestival.be and ESC Radio. She amassed 1738 points and got 115 famous 12 points, making her song fourth overall by number of 12 points received, just behind Loreen, Duncan Laurence and Eleni Foureira respectively.[33]

On 27 February she released yet another ballad song for which she wrote lyrics and music, called "Nestajem s vetrom" (I Disappear With the Wind), reaching over 100,000 views on YouTube in just two days. When you miss someone, you listen to a song that reminds you of that person. It doesn't matter is the love one only 15 minutes away of you, or hours. It is worth sacrificing everything for peace and serenity, she said.[34] That same day she performed her new song live on radio station Naxi Radio, while on 8 June she performed new single on TV show "Jutro na Prvoj". The song brought her yet another award from Naxi radio, this time in category Best music collaboration in front of many famous artists by margin of 46.32 percent.[35] She thanked the fans for the voting and praised Dušan Alagić for perfect collaboration.[36]

Nevena surprised everyone with her new song called "Ljubav u bojama" (Love in Colors) released on 24 June because it was a song with a touch of the eighties. The song was well received by the audience and critics as being played on the radio everyday and reaching over 150,000 views on YouTube in just four days. She wrote lyrics and music, while she also recorded backing vocals. The arrangement of the song was made by her old associate and producer Boris Krstajić, who also played keyboards, while Aleksandar Sedlar was on guitar.[37]

After all this success, her fans eagerly wait for her first album, as well as her first big solo concert which she announced by the end of the year.