Every year over 120 million people across the globe eagerly await the beginning of a famous music contest that always “shakes up” and oftentimes “divides” Europe. In 1961 Serbia, at the time Yugoslavia to be precise, joined the most watched music competition in the world, and we give you the greatest hits and failures of Serbian contestants!

Even though the quality and the way of voting are more and more disputed, Eurovision still stands on the throne of the most watched music show programme on the planet. During this spectacular contest, a special kind of energy seems to grab hold of Europe. Exciting preparations, speculations about the placement, debates over the quality of the songs and the choice of the contestants, as well as the excitement about the night it will all begin… All these contribute to the Eurosong euphoria that “shakes” Europe!

The Eurovision Song Contest was held in 1956 for the first time and at the time it had only 7 contestants. As each year passed the number of contestants grew and so the 2005 Eurosong had 39 countries competing.

SFR Yugoslavia and the Eurovision

SFR Yugoslavia, which after the fall of the Berlin wall happened to be the only socialist country in this competition, joined the Eurovision euphoria in 1961. It was then that the “Neke davne zvezde” song by Ljiljana Petrović won eight place. The next year Lola Novaković found herself in the top 5 by winning fourth place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW9Xbwn8kwo

During the following years Yugoslavia found itself in the top-ranking contestants, but its greatest success was definitely in 1989. That’s when the group called Riva from Zagreb won first place with their song “Rock me”. A lot of the songs with which SFR Yugoslavia competed at the Eurovision contest are still hits in these regions.

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, and the Eurovision

The last performer to compete for SFR Yugoslavia was Bebi Dol with the song “Brazil” in 1991. She finished next to last, her song was called one of the worst song ever performed in this contest and this was also the biggest fiasco of Yugoslavia when it comes to the Eurosong. Nonetheless, this song was a huge hit in Yugoslavia.

The following year, Ekstra Nena represented the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and after that, due to the war, isolation and economic crisis, Serbia didn’t compete at the Eurosong for a long time. This pause lasted until 2004 when Serbia and Montenegro made a spectacular comeback with Željko Joksimović preforming “Lane moje”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRweTNLct78

This song came second place which is also one of Serbia’s biggest triumphs in this prestigious contest.

A monumental victory and the Belgrade Eurosong

In 2007 in Helsinki Serbia appeared for the first time as an independent state. And guess what? It won first place! With her emotional and powerful performance, Marija Šerifović and her song “Molitva” won the hearts of millions of people and the Eurovision throne. Scoring a victory for her country, Marija enabled Belgrade to be the host of the next Eurovision contest.

This is how and why the 53rd contest for the best song in Europe was held in the Belgrade Arena, the capacity of which numbers more than 20,000 seats. The theme was “The Confluence of Sound” which was inspired by Belgrade’s location on the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers situated under the Kalemegdan fortress.

Serbia and the Eurovision after 2008

After this historic victory and Belgrade’s hosting of the Eurosong, Serbia hasn’t achieved any major success in this contest. Apart from Željko Joksimović’s song “Nije ljubav stvar” with which he won third place in 2012, Serbian representatives found themselves left out the finals two times and entered the top 10 only once.

Once all the data is collected, we can say that the greatest achievements of Serbia i.e. SFR Yugoslavia are:

  • Grupa Riva, “Rock me” 1989 – first place
  • Marija Šerifović, “Molitva” 2007 – first place
  • Željko Joksimović, “Lane moje” 2004 – second place
  • Željko Joksimović, “Nije ljubav stvar” 2012 – third place

On the other hand, some of the biggest failures are:

  • Bebi Dol, “Brazil” 1991 – next-to-last
  • Marko Kon, “Cipela” 2009 – didn’t enter the finals
  • “Moje tri” , “Ljubav je svuda” – didn’t enter the finals

This year Serbia will be represented by Sanja Vučić ZAA with the song “Goodbye” (Shelter) who already entered the finals. While we impatiently await the “big night” we’ll root for Sanja and Serbia, because, who knows, this may be the year when we achieve our greatest success!

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EurosongEurosong in BelgradeEurovisionMarija ŠerifovićSanja Vučić ZAASerbian contestants EurosongŽeljko Joksimović

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