Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018


Serbia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The Serbian broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia organised and had held the national final Beovizija 2018 in order to select the Serbian entry for the 2018 contest to be held in Lisbon, Portugal.

Background

Prior to the 2018 Contest, Serbia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest ten times since its first entry in, winning the contest with their debut entry "Molitva" performed by Marija Šerifović. 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, 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. 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.

Before Eurovision

''Beovizija 2018''

Beovizija 2018 is the 8th edition of the Serbian national final Beovizija and it selected Serbia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. It was held for the first time since 2009. The contest took place at the Sava Centar, in Belgrade on 20 February 2018.

Competing entries

Artists and songwriters were able to submit their song entries from August 2017 to 10 November 2017. Songwriters of any nationality were allowed to submit entries, but songs were required to be performed by citizens of the Republic of Serbia and in one of the official languages of the Republic of Serbia. RTS received 75 entries, and a selection comiteee chose 17 entries for the national final.
ArtistSong Composer
BASS"Umoran" Sofija Milutinović
Biber & DJ Niko Bravo"Svatovi" Rastko Aksentijević, Nikola Burovac
Boris Režak"Vila" Boris Režak, Nikola Raonić
Danijel Pavlović"Ruža sudbine" Danijel Pavlović, Marina Tucaković
Dušan Svilar"Pod krošnjom bagrema" Goran Kovačić
Igor Lazarević"Beži od mene" Igor Lazarević
Ivan Kurtić"Ni sunca, ni meseca" Rastko Aksentijević
Koktel Balkan"Zato" Bojan Jeremić
Lana & Aldo"Jača od svih" Lana & Aldo
Lord"Samo nek se okreće" Vladimir Preradović Lord
Maja Nikolić"Zemlja čuda" Vladimir Graić, Mia Pijade
Osmi Vazduh & Friends"Probudi se" Marko Kuzmanović, Lena Kuzmanović
Rambo Amadeus & Beti Đorđević"Nema te" Aca Pejčić, Antonije Pušić
Sanja Ilić & Balkanika"Nova deca" Sanja Ilić, Tanja Ilić, Danica Krstajić
Saška Janks"Pesma za tebe" Saška Janks, Marko Nikolić
SevdahBABY"Hajde da igramo sada" Milan Stanković, Predrag Radisavljević, Tijana Žunjić
Srđan & Emil"Bar da znam" Srđan Marijanović

Final

Seventeen songs competed during the final at the Sava Centar on the 20th of February 2018. The winner was be decided by a combination of votes from a jury panel and the Serbian public. In case of a tie, the song with the higher point count from the televoting wins the tie.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" 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 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.
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.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Serbia and awarded by Serbia in the second semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

Points awarded to Serbia

Points awarded by Serbia

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Serbian jury: