Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest

As Serbia was at one time part of Yugoslavia, it had the opportunity to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest after Yugoslavia's debut at the contest in 1961. It debuted the same year as Spain and Finland and became the first and, for three decades, only socialist country to participate in the competition. The best result of Yugoslavia occurred in 1989 when it won with "Rock Me", sung in Serbo-Croatian and English by Riva. Yugoslavia participated regularly until its breakup in 1991/1992.

After a period of absence from 1993 until 2003, Serbia and Montenegro returned to the contest in 2004. They finished in second place with song "Lane moje" performed by Željko Joksimović. By 2006, Serbia and Montenegro split, and with Serbia making its debut entry as an independent nation with the ballad "Molitva" by Marija Šerifović. "Molitva" won the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, receiving 268 points, making Serbia the first country to win with debut entry after Switzerland's win at the first edition. Subsequently, Serbia was host of the 2008 contest in its capital Belgrade.

The second Serbian entry, performed in Belgrade was written by past entrant for Serbia as part of Serbia and Montenegro and contest host Željko Joksimović. The song "Oro", an ethnic ballad, performed by Jelena Tomašević came 6th and received 160 points in the overall rankings.

In 2009, Serbia selected Marko Kon and Milaan to represent them in the second semi-final on 14 May. The duo failed to qualify for the final, marking it the first time Serbia failed to qualify for the final since the introduction of semi-finals.

In 2010, Milan Stanković was selected to represent the country in the contest with Ovo je Balkan, an upbeat song with ethno elements, and is about a love story set in Belgrade. It qualified for the final and in the end achieved 13th place with 72 points.

In 2011, Nina was selected with her 1960s inspired song, Čaroban. She was accompanied with three other singers who would be dancing throughout the performance. In the semi-finals She performed 6th and qualified for the final. In the final, she performed 24th and achieved 14th place.

After finishing second in 2004 when representing Serbia and Montenegro, Željko Joksimović was back in 2012 in Azerbaijan, Baku with the song Nije ljubav stvar. On the second semi-finals he took second place, while he finished third in the final, below second-placed Russia and the winner, Sweden.

Moje 3 represented Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö with the song "Ljubav je svuda". They would finish 11th in the first semi-final, therefore not qualifying for the final (only 10 contestants were to continue to the final). This was the second time that Serbia did not qualify for the final.

On 22 November 2013, Serbian broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) announced that it would withdraw from the 2014 contest due to financial difficulties and a lack of available sponsorship for a potential Serbian entry.[1]

In April 2014, Serbia announced that they will broadcast all three shows. In addition, they said that it is likely to return at 2015 and that they will probably hold a national selection to find their representative. On 26 September 2014, it was reported that Serbia had decided to return to the 2015 contest to be held in Austrian capital, Vienna.[2]

On 15 February 2015 Serbia chose their own representative in emission "Odbrojavanje za Beč". Odbrojavanje za Beč (English: Countdown for Vienna) is the national final organised by RTS in order to select the Serbian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. The selection featured three songs composed by Vladimir Graić, the composer of Serbia's winning entry "Molitva" in 2007. Two of the songs were performed by established Serbian artists Bojana Stamenov and Aleksa Jelić, while one was performed by Danica Krstić, a new talent chosen by Graić through a scouting process.

Bojana Stamenov was selected as the Serbian representative for Vienna through a 50:50 voting system, where both the audience and the jury voted for her song "Ceo svet je moj" (The whole world is mine) to represent Serbia in Austria. It was later announced that she would perform her song in English (a first for a Serbian entry) titled "Beauty Never Lies". Despite being low with the odds and fan votings, Bojana surprised everyone in the first semifinal and became one of the big press and fan favourites. She qualified to the final as the 9th (10 qualified), but managed to achieve another top 10 result for Serbia in the Grand Final, scoring 53 points and the 10th place.

In 2016 RTS selected Sanja Vučić and her song "Goodbye (Shelter)" internally as well. She qualified for the final placing 10th out of 18 and came 18th of 26 in the final receiving. She fared clearly better with the televoters, coming 11th in the final respectively.

Tijana Bogićević was selected as the Serbian representative for Kiev. with the song "In Too Deep". She would finish 11th in the second semi-final, therefore not qualifying for the final (only 10 contestants were to continue to the final). This was the third time that Serbia did not qualify for the final.

In 2018 RTS went back to an national final, Beovizija (which had been used to select their first entrants). Sanja Ilić and Balkanika won with the song "Nova deca." They qualified for the final for the first time in a year, placing 9th out of 18 in their semi-final; they then came 19th of 26 in the final, receiving 113 points. They fared better with the televoters, finishing 12th. Following their success in making the final, RTS confirmed that Beovizija would be maintained as their selection method in 2019. In 2019, RTS decided to host the second edition of the national final. Nevena Božović won with her song Kruna. Placed 7th with 156 points, she qualified for the final, where she then performed 23rd and came 18th out of 26 acts, with 89 points in total.

All the events were broadcast on RTS1, except the 2013 grand final, the 2015 second semi-final, which were broadcast on RTS2.

• From 1961 until 1992, Serbia competed as part of Yugoslavia and from 2004 to 2005 as part of Serbia and Montenegro.

After Kosovo's declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008, its broadcaster RTK was applying for EBU membership, and wished to enter Kosovo independently into Eurovision Song Contest 2009.[29][30] Kosovo is partially recognised and not a member of the United Nations, and UN membership is required to obtain full EBU membership. As of 2013, RTK has observer status within the EBU and did participate in the Eurovision Young Dancers.[31][32] Before the declaration of independence, some Kosovo Albanians artists competed in the Festivali i Këngës, the national selection for Albania. The Kosovan singer, Rona Nishliu, placed 5th in the grand final in 2012 for Albania and Lindita represented Albania in 2017.

Serbia claims Kosovo as its own Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija. Some singers from Kosovo, especially Kosovo Serbs, participate in the Serbian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, organized by RTS. Nevena Božović represented Serbia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and twice in the Eurovision Song Contest, firstly as a member of Moje 3 in 2013 and as a solo act in 2019.

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  Marija Šerifović in Helsinki (2007)
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  Jelena Tomašević in Belgrade (at the national selection) (2008)
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  Marko Kon in Moscow (2009)
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  Milan Stanković in Oslo (2010)
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  Željko Joksimović in Baku (2012)
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  Moje 3 in Malmö (2013)
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  Bojana Stamenov in Vienna (2015)
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  Sanja Vučić in Stockholm (2016)
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  Tijana Bogićević in Kiev (2017)
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  Sanja Ilić & Balkanika in Lisbon (2018)
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  Nevena Božović in Tel Aviv (2019)

• Serbia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
• Serbia and Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest
• Serbia and Montenegro in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
• Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest
• Kosovo in the Eurovision Song Contest
• Kosovo in the Eurovision Young Dancers

• Points to and from Serbia eurovisioncovers.co.uk