Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest

Balance sheet

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Broadcasting company

First participation

2007

Number of participations

12 (as of 2019)

Highest ranking

1 ( 2007 )

Highest Score

298 ( 2007 SF )

Lowest Score

46 ( 2013 SF )

Points average (since first post)

114.42 (as of 2019)

Average points per voting country in the 12-point system

2.40 (as of 2019)

This article deals with the history of Serbia as a participant in the Eurovision Song Contest .

Participation before 2007

→ Main article : Yugoslavia at the Eurovision Song Contest

Serbia took part in the Eurovision Song Contest from 1961 to 1992 as part of the SFR Yugoslavia . The Serbian broadcaster TV Beograd made the following Yugoslav contributions:

• 1974 - The rock band Korni grupa took 12th place with Generacija 42 in Brighton .
• 1982 - Trio Aska came 14th with Halo Halo in Harrogate .
• 1991 - SFR Yugoslavia started to break up and Bebi Dol only finished 21st with Brazil in Rome .
• 1992 - Extra Nena started as the last Yugoslav contribution with Ljubim te pesmama in Malmö and came in 13th place

In addition, two Serbian singers competed in the Eurovision Song Contest for Yugoslavia, but were not contributions from TV Beograd:

• 1961 - Ljiljana Petrović reached8th placewith the first Yugoslav contribution Neke davne zvezde in Cannes . (officially the contribution of TV Ljubljana (Slovenia))
• 1962 - Lola Novaković achieveda good 4th placewith Ne pali svetla u sumrak in Luxembourg (officially the contribution by TV Ljubljana (Slovenia))

The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , which was formed from Serbia and Montenegro as the successor state of the SFR Yugoslavia, was not allowed to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest from 1993 to 2003. After the establishment of Serbia and Montenegro , the two former republics were allowed to take part in the competition again in 2004.

→ Main article : Serbia and Montenegro at the Eurovision Song Contest

Serbia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest from 2004 to 2005 as part of Serbia and Montenegro . The Serbian television RTS made the following contribution:

• 2004 - Željko Joksimović impressed at the first appearance of Serbia-Montenegro at the Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul with Lane moje and landed on a 2nd place.

Regularity of participation and successes in competition

Marija Šerifović (center) won the competition in 2007 as the first and only Serbian interpreter

Serbia took part in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time as an independent nation in 2007 and was immediately successful in its first independent participation. After successfully qualifying for the final, Marija Šerifović was able to win the competition straight away with her song Molitva . Her score of 268 is still Serbia's highest number of points in the competition. A year later, the country hosted the ESC for the first time and was thus already qualified as host for the final. In the final, the Serbian entry Oro achieved a good ranking with 6th place. In 2009 Serbia did not reach the final for the first time, as Cipela's contribution only reached 10th place in the semifinals. In 2008 and 2009 only the first nine places in the semifinals made it to the final, the tenth place in the final was awarded by a jury. In 2010 the country reached the final again, but achieved an average placement here with 13th place. In 2011 the Serbian entry only reached 14th place in the final. In 2012 the country was successful again. After Željko Joksimović was able to reach 2nd place in the semifinals, he took 3rd place in the final, Serbia's second-best placement in the competition to date. However, this success could not be continued in 2013. The Trio Moje 3 only reached 11th place in the semifinals and thus did not reach the final. To date, it is Serbia's worst place in the competition. The 46 points from 2013 are also Serbia's lowest score in the competition. In 2014, the country withdrew from the competition for financial reasons.

In 2015, the country returned to competition. The return was also relatively successful, finally Bojana Stamenov reached 10th place in the final and thus Serbia's first place in the top ten since 2012. In 2016, however, the Serbian contribution only reached 18th place and thus only an average placement in the final. In 2017, Serbia was eliminated in the semi-finals for the third time. However, Tijana Bogićević narrowly missed the final, as she reached 11th place in the semifinals. In 2018, Sanja Ilić & Balkanika were able to reach the final again, but only achieved a rather average placement here with 19th place. In 2019 they made it to the finals, but in the end the country only finished 18th in the lower midfield.

In total, five of the twelve entries ended up in the left half of the table. In addition, Serbia has already won once and reached third place. The country also narrowly missed the final three times and has never finished in last place. This makes Serbia one of the average successful participants in the competition.

List of posts

Color legend: - 1st place. - 2nd place. - 3rd place. - Equal points with last place. - Eliminated in the semifinals / in the qualification / in the Eastern European preliminary decision. - no participation / not qualified. - Cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest.      

year	Interpreter	Title Music (M) and Text (T)	language	translation	final		Semi-final / qualification		National preliminary decision
					space	Points	space	Points
2007	Marija Šerifović Марија Шерифовић	Molitva Молитва M: Vladimir Graić; T: Saša Milošević Mare	Serbian	prayer	1 / 24th	268	1 / 28th	298	Beovizija 2007
2008	Jelena Tomašević feat. Bora Dugić Јелена Томашевић feat. Бора Дугић	Oro Оро M: Željko Joksimović; T: Dejan Ivanović	Serbian	Oro (Serbian folk dance)	6/25	160	Qualified directly for the final		Beovizija 2008
2009	Marko Kon & Milaan Марко Кон & Мілаан	Cipela Ципела M: Marko Kon, Milan Nikolić, Aleksandar Milanović Kobac; T: Marko Kon	Serbian	shoe	Eliminated		10/19	60	Beovizija 2009
2010	Milan Stanković Милан Станковић	Ovo je Balkan Ово je Балкaн M: Goran Bregović ; T: Marina Tucaković	Serbian	This is the Balkans	13/25	72	5/17	79	Tri pa jedan za Oslo
2011	Nina Нина	Čaroban Чаробан M / T: Kristina Kovač	Serbian	Magical	14/25	85	8/19	67	Pesma za Evropu 2011
2012	Željko Joksimović Жељко Јоксимовић	Nije ljubav stvar Није љубав ствар M: Željko Joksimović; T: Marina Tucaković, Miloš Roganović	Serbian	Love is not an object	3 / 26th	214	2/18	159	internal selection
2013	Moje 3	Ljubav je svuda Љубав је свуда M: Saša Milošević; T: Marina Tucaković	Serbian	Love is everywhere	Eliminated		11/16	46	Beosong 2013
2014	No participation
2015	Boyana Stamenov Бојана Стаменов	Beauty Never Lies M: Vladimir Graić; T: Charlie Mason	English	Beauty never lies	10/27	53	9/16	63	Odbrojavanje za Beč
2016	Sanja Vučić Сања Вучић	Goodbye M / T: Ivana Peters	English	farewell	18/26	115	10/18	105	internal selection
2017	Tijana Bogićević Тијана Богићевић	In Too Deep M / T: Borislav Milanov, Bo Persson, Johan Alkenas, Lisa Ann-Marie Linder	English	Too deep in	Eliminated		11/18	98	internal selection
2018	Sanja Ilić & Balkanika Сања Илић & Балканика	Nova deca Нова деца M / T: Sanja Ilić, Tatjana Karajanov Ilić, Darko Dimitrov, Danica Krstajić	Serbian , Torlak	New children	19/26	113	9/18	117	Beovizija 2018
2019	Nevena Božović Невена Божовић	Kruna Круна M: Nevena Božović , Darko Dimitrov; T: Nevena Božović	Serbian, English	Crown	18/26	89	7/17	156	Beovizija 2019
2020	Hurricane	Hasta la vista M: Nemanja Antonić; T: Sanja Vučić , Kosana Stojić	Serbian	See you soon	Cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic by the EBU				Beovizija 2020

National preliminary decisions

→ Main article : Beovizija

The majority of the Serbian contributions were determined through a national preliminary decision. The country only selected its contributions internally in 2012, 2016 and 2017. The most frequently used preliminary decision is the Beovizija festival . In 2007, 2008, 2009, 2018 and 2019 it was used to determine the Serbian contribution. The Beovizija Festival itself took place for the first time in 2003 and served in 2004, 2005 and 2006 to determine the Serbian representatives in the preliminary decision of Serbia-Montenegro . In the other years different formats have been used to determine the Serbian contribution.

Tri pa jedan za Oslo (2010), Pesma za Evropu (2011) and Odbrojavanje za Beč (2015)

The selection of the contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 took place with only three performers, all of whom sang a song composed by Goran Bregović. This system was also used in 2011, when Kornelije Kovač and his daughters Kristina and Aleksandra Kovač each composed a title. This system was used again in 2015, this time Vladimir Graić, composer of the 2007 winner Molitva , wrote three songs for three performers.

Beosong (2013)

In 2013 there was a semi-final with 15 participants, from which five participants moved into the final.

languages

Until 2015, Serbia was the only country that had never sung even partially in English. For 2015, RTS had decided to sing in English for the first time after the song was presented in Serbian in the preliminary round. In 2016 and 2017, the Serbian contributions were sung entirely in English. Since the reintroduction of Beovizija as a selection method, the contributions are again presented in Serbian. In 2019, Serbia introduced a song in Serbian and English for the first time.

Competitions held

year	city	venue	Moderation
2008	Belgrade	Belgrade Arena	Željko Joksimović & Jovana Janković

Scoring

The following countries received the most points from or awarded the most points to Serbia (as of 2019):

Most of the points awarded in the final space country Points 1  Hungary 68 2  Russia 67 3  Bosnia and Herzegovina 61 4th  Italy 58 5  Ukraine 51

Most in the final received points space country Points 1  Montenegro 114 2  North Macedonia 104 3  Slovenia 099 4th  Croatia 088 5  Switzerland 086

Most of the points awarded space country Points 1  Hungary 156 2  North Macedonia 135 3  Russia 100 4th  Croatia 089 5  Ukraine 087

Most total obtained points space country Points 1  Slovenia 185 2  North Macedonia 184 3  Montenegro 179 4th  Croatia 156 5  Switzerland 143

Award of the highest rating

Since 2007, Serbia has awarded the highest number of points in the final to nine different countries, four of them to Bosnia & Herzegovina. In the semi-finals, on the other hand, Serbia awarded the maximum number of points to six different countries, five of which to Hungary.

Highest rating (final) year country Place (final) 2007  Hungary 9 2008  Bosnia and Herzegovina 10 2009  Bosnia and Herzegovina 9 2010  Bosnia and Herzegovina 17th 2011  Bosnia and Herzegovina 6th 2012  North Macedonia 13 2013  Denmark 1 2014 No participation 2015  Montenegro 13 2016  Ukraine (J) 1  Russia (T) 3 2017  Portugal (J) 1  Hungary (T) 8th 2018  Sweden (J) 7th  Hungary (T) 21st 2019  North Macedonia (J&T) 7th 2020 Competition canceled

Highest rating (semi-finals) year country Place (semifinals) 2007  Hungary 2 2008  North Macedonia 10 2009  Croatia 13 2010  Bosnia and Herzegovina 8th 2011  Croatia 15th 2012  Croatia 12 2013  Montenegro 12 2014 No participation 2015  North Macedonia 15th 2016  North Macedonia (J&T) 11 2017  Hungary (J&T) 2 2018  Sweden (J) 2  Hungary (T) 10 2019  Montenegro (J) 16  Hungary (T) 12 2020 Competition canceled

various

• Serbia is the only country that won its first participation, with the exception of Switzerland , which won the first ever competition, but only with its second entry of the evening. Serbia thus replaced the previous record set by Poland and Serbia and Montenegro, which reached second place in 1994 and 2004, respectively.
• Serbia is one of two countries that have won the Barbara Dex Award twice. The ESC "honors" the worst outfit with the award. Serbia won it in 2010 and 2013 . The other country is Macedonia .

Impressions

• 

  Jelena Tomasevic 2008

• 

  Marko Kon & Milaan 2009

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  Milan Stanković 2010

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  Željko Joksimović 2012

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  Moje 3 2013

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  Bojana Stamenov 2015

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  Sanja Vučić 2016

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  Tijana Bogićević 2017

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  Sanja Ilić & Balkanika 2018

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  Nevena Božović 2019

Individual evidence

1. ↑ [1]