Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Prior to the 2018 Contest, Serbia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest ten times since its first entry in 2007, winning the contest with their debut entry "Molitva" performed by Marija Šerifović.[1] Since 2007, seven out of ten of Serbia's entries have featured in the final with the nation failing to qualify in 2009, 2013 and in 2017, missing out 2014 contest.

The Serbian national broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), broadcasts the event within Serbia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. RTS confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest on 7 August 2017.[2] Between 2007 and 2009, Serbia used the Beovizija national final in order to select their entry. However, after their 2009 entry, "Cipela" performed by Marko Kon and Milaan, failed to qualify Serbia to the final, the broadcaster shifted their selection strategy to selecting specific composers to create songs for artists. In 2010, RTS selected Goran Bregović to compose songs for a national final featuring three artists, while in 2011 Kornelije Kovač, Aleksandra Kovač and Kristina Kovač were tasked with composing one song each. In 2012, the internal selection of Željko Joksimović and the song "Nije ljubav stvar" secured the country's second highest placing in the contest to this point, placing third. In 2013, RTS returned to an open national final format and organized the Beosong competition. The winning entry, "Ljubav je svuda" performed by Moje 3, failed to qualify Serbia to the final at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. In 2015, RTS selected Vladimir Graić, the composer of Serbia's 2007 Eurovision Song Contest winning entry "Molitva", to compose songs for a national final featuring three artists.[3]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 29 January 2018, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Serbia was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 10 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[8]

Once all the competing songs for the 2018 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Serbia was set to perform in position 3, following the entry from Romania and preceding the entry from San Marino.[9]

Points awarded by Serbia

Semi-final 2 Score Televote Jury 12 points  Hungary  Sweden 10 points  Montenegro  Netherlands 8 points  Slovenia  Norway 7 points  Russia  Montenegro 6 points  Norway  Australia 5 points  Moldova  Denmark 4 points  Denmark  Malta 3 points  Australia  Latvia 2 points  Ukraine  Slovenia 1 point  Sweden  Romania

Final Score Televote Jury 12 points  Hungary  Sweden 10 points  Cyprus  Germany 8 points  Slovenia  Italy 7 points  Israel  Netherlands 6 points  Italy  Norway 5 points  Czech Republic  Moldova 4 points  Denmark  Austria 3 points  Norway  Estonia 2 points  Bulgaria  Israel 1 point  Moldova  Albania

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Serbian jury: [10]

• Rade Radivojević – Chairperson – composer
• Bojana Stamenov – singer, represented Serbia in the 2015 contest
• Dejan Cukić – singer, composer
• Tijana Milošević – concertmaster
• Bane Krstić (Garavi sokak) – singer, composer

Split voting results from Serbia (Semi-final 2)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		B. Stamenov	D. Cukić	T. Milošević	R. Radivojević	B. Krstić	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Norway	1	4	10	4	5	3	8	5	6
02	Romania	8	5	9	7	14	10	1	15
03	Serbia
04	San Marino	16	17	17	17	15	17		17
05	Denmark	13	6	8	9	2	6	5	7	4
06	Russia	17	14	11	16	10	14		4	7
07	Moldova	12	16	16	14	6	13		6	5
08	Netherlands	10	3	2	2	7	2	10	12
09	Australia	6	13	6	3	3	5	6	8	3
10	Georgia	15	12	7	8	8	11		14
11	Poland	11	10	15	15	17	15		16
12	Malta	5	7	3	13	9	7	4	13
13	Hungary	7	8	12	12	16	12		1	12
14	Latvia	9	11	5	10	4	8	3	11
15	Sweden	2	2	1	1	1	1	12	10	1
16	Montenegro	3	1	4	6	12	4	7	2	10
17	Slovenia	4	9	14	5	11	9	2	3	8
18	Ukraine	14	15	13	11	13	16		9	2

Split voting results from Serbia (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		B. Stamenov	D. Cukić	T. Milošević	R. Radivojević	B. Krstić	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Ukraine	22	24	19	20	17	22		18
02	Spain	17	21	20	15	18	20		20
03	Slovenia	11	8	12	12	15	13		3	8
04	Lithuania	25	20	25	21	16	23		24
05	Austria	9	6	4	10	3	7	4	14
06	Estonia	4	13	3	11	12	8	3	11
07	Norway	2	5	13	7	6	5	6	8	3
08	Portugal	24	23	23	19	19	24		25
09	United Kingdom	23	16	24	18	9	17		22
10	Serbia
11	Germany	6	1	8	3	2	2	10	12
12	Albania	12	12	5	13	10	10	1	13
13	France	20	18	22	25	24	25		17
14	Czech Republic	21	19	16	16	23	21		6	5
15	Denmark	18	9	15	14	14	15		7	4
16	Australia	14	15	9	9	8	12		16
17	Finland	7	22	17	17	13	14		23
18	Bulgaria	15	14	10	22	25	16		9	2
19	Moldova	5	10	7	4	4	6	5	10	1
20	Sweden	3	2	2	1	1	1	12	19
21	Hungary	16	11	14	24	20	18		1	12
22	Israel	1	17	11	8	21	9	2	4	7
23	Netherlands	13	4	1	5	7	4	7	15
24	Ireland	19	7	21	6	11	11		21
25	Cyprus	10	25	18	23	22	19		2	10
26	Italy	8	3	6	2	5	3	8	5	6

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018.

• Official RTS Eurovision site