Serbia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

The participation of Serbia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest first began in Bucharest, Romania at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006, having previously participated in 2005 as part of Serbia and Montenegro. Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) a member organisation of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) are responsible for the selection process of their entrants. Serbia used the national selection format broadcasting a show entitled "Izbor za dečju pesmu Evrovizije" (Serbian Cyrillic: Избор за дечију песму Евровизије) for their participation at the contests between 2006 and 2010.

Serbia
← Serbia and Montenegro
Member station	Radio Television of Serbia (RTS)
National selection events	National final 2006–2010 2017 Internal selection 2014–2016 2018–2020
Participation summary
Appearances	12
First appearance	2006
Best result	3rd: 2007, 2010
External links
Serbia's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Serbia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2020

In 2007 they were represented by Nevena Božović, who went on to represent Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 as part of her band, Moje 3. Serbia's best result came in 2007 and 2010 when they finished in third place at both contests. There have only been three absences from the contest, between 2011 and 2013. Serbia returned to the competition in 2014 represented by Emilija Đonin, who was selected internally by the national broadcaster RTS, a selection mechanism that they continued to use in 2015 when they internally selected the song "Lenina pesma" (Serbian Cyrillic: Ленина песма), performed by Lena Stamenković. They are one of the two countries (along with Belarus) to have participated first in Junior Eurovision and then in the adult one.

History

Prior to the Montenegrin independence referendum in 2006 which culminated into the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro,[1] both nations use to compete at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and Eurovision Song Contest as Serbia and Montenegro.[2] Serbia were the first of the two nations to compete at a Junior Contest, making their debut at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006.[3] While it was at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014 when Montenegro would make their debut as an independent nation.[4] Neustrašivi učitelji stranih jezika went on to being Serbia's first participant in 2006 as an independent nation with the song "Učimo strane jezike" (Serbian Cyrillic: Учимо стране језике).[3]

Serbia continued to participate at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007, in which they had selected Nevena Božović to represent Serbia with the song "Piši mi" (Serbian Cyrillic: Пиши ми). Božović also became the first Junior Eurovision participant to take part in the senior Eurovision Song Contest as part of the group Moje 3, performing the song "Ljubav je svuda" (Serbian Cyrillic: Љубав је свуда),[5] which achieved forty-six points and failing to qualify to the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 after finishing in 11th place.[6] However, she managed to qualify in the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "Kruna" (Serbian Cyrillic: Круна) and finished in 18th place with 89 points.

The nation continued to participate at every Junior Contest until 2010, which would be their last appearance at that present time,[3] following the broadcaster's announcement on 5 June 2011 that Serbia would withdraw from the 2011 contest.[7] On 25 July 2014, Serbia announced its return to the 2014 contest, after a three-year absence.[8] Serbia selected their 2014 entry through an internal selection for the first time in their history. On 1 October 2014 it was revealed that Emilija Đonin would represent Serbia in the contest with the song "Svet u mojim očima".[9]

On 4 May 2015, it was announced on a Eurovision news website that Serbia's national broadcaster, RTS, had not started any planning in regards to their participation at the 2015 contest, and that such decision would be taken after the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. On 20 August 2015, Serbia confirmed its participation.[10] RTS announced on 21 September 2015, that they had internally selected Lena Stamenković with the song "Lenina pesma" (Serbian Cyrillic: Ленина песма) to represent them at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015,[11] which took place at the Arena Armeec, in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, on 21 November 2015.[12] On 14 September 2016, Serbia confirmed its participation in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Valletta, Malta.[13]

Participation

Table key

3	Third place
◁	Last place

Year	Artist	Song	Language	Place	Points
2006	Neustrašivi učitelji stranih jezika	"Učimo strane jezike" (Учимо стране језике)	Serbian, English^1	5	81
2007	Nevena Božović	"Piši mi" (Пиши ми)	Serbian	3	120
2008	Maja Mazić	"Uvek kad u nebo pogledam" (Увек кад у небо погледам)	Serbian	12	37
2009	Ništa lično	"Onaj pravi" (Онај прави)	Serbian	10	34
2010	Sonja Škorić	"Čarobna noć" (Чаробна ноћ)	Serbian	3	113
2014	Emilija Đonin	"Svet u mojim očima" (Свет у мојим очима)	Serbian	10	61
2015	Lena Stamenković	"Lenina pesma" (Ленина песма)	Serbian	7	79
2016	Dunja Jeličić	"U la la la" (У ла ла ла)	Serbian	17 ◁	14
2017	Irina Brodić & Jana Paunović	"Ceo svet je naš" (Цео свет је наш)	Serbian	10	92
2018	Bojana Radovanović	"Svet" (Свет)	Serbian	19	30
2019	Darija Vračević	"Podigni glas (Raise Your Voice)" (Подигни глас)	Serbian, English	10	109
2020	Petar Aničić	"Heartbeat"	Serbian, English	11	85

Notes

1.^ Contains only 2 lines of chorus in Serbian, while 24 lines of verses are mostly sung in English and a few lines are sung in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Japanese.

Commentators and spokespersons

The table below list the details of each commentator and spokesperson since 2006.

Year	Commentator	Spokesperson	Ref.
2006	Duška Vučinić-Lučić	Milica Stanišić
2007		Anđelija Erić
2008
2009		Nevena Božović
2010		Maja Mazić
2011–2013	No broadcast	Did not participate
2014	Silvana Grujić	Tamara Vasović	[14]
2015		Dunja Jeličić	[15][16]
2016		Tomislav Radojević	[17][18]
2017	Olga Kapor and Tamara Petković	Mina Grujić	[19]
2018	Tamara Petković	Lana Karić	[20]
2019	Tijana Lukić	Bojana Radovanović	[21]
2020		Darija Vračević	[22][23]

Gallery

• 
  Lena Stamenković in Sofia (2015)
• 
  Dunja Jeličić in Valletta (2016)
• 
  Bojana Radovanović in Minsk (2018)
• 
  Darija Vračević in Gliwice (2019)

See also

• Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest – Senior version of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
• Serbia in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.
• Sandžak in the Turkvision Song Contest – A historical geo-political region, now divided by the border between Serbia and Montenegro,[24] which competes under the name Sandžak in a contest for countries and regions which are of Turkic-speaking or Turkic ethnicity.

References

1. Nohlen, D & Stöver, P (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1372 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
2. Philips, Roel (2 August 2005). "Serbia & Montenegro, Lithuania and Ukraine join in Hasselt". esctoday.com. ESCToday. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
3. "Junior Eurovision Song Contest: Serbia". junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
4. Fisher, Luke James (18 July 2014). "Montenegro joins Junior Eurovision!". junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
5. Brey, Marco (3 March 2013). "Moje 3 to represent Serbia!". eurovoision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
6. "Eurovision Song Contest 2013: Semifinal 1 scoreboard". eurovoision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 18 May 2013. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
7. "RTS withdraws from JESC". ESCdaily. Archived from the original on July 9, 2011. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
8. "Serbia returns to Junior Eurovision". JuniorEurovision.tv. Retrieved July 25, 2014.
9. Juhász, Ervin (1 October 2014). "Listen to Emilija Djonin's "Svet u mojim očima"". EBU. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
10. "Serbia takes confirmed countries up to 15". junioreurovision.tv. junioeurovision. Retrieved 20 August 2015.
11. Halliwell, Jamie (21 September 2015). "Seria: Lena Stamenković to Sofia!". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 31 August 2016.
12. Lockett, Katherine (30 March 2015). "Junior Eurovision 2015: 21 November in Sofia, Bulgaria". junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 March 2015.
13. Granger, Anthony (14 September 2016). "Serbia: Junior Eurovision 2016 Participation Confirmed". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix.
14. "ESCKAZ - Junior Eurovision 2014 - Event page/ Организация конкурса". esckaz.com. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
15. "Дечја песма Евровизије 2015". rts.rs (in Serbian). RTS. 21 November 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
16. Juhász, Ervin (21 November 2019). "Meet the spokespersons of tonight's Grand Final!". junioreurovision.tv. EBU. Archived from the original on 22 November 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
17. "Dečja pesma Evrovizije 2016". rts.rs (in Serbian). RTS. 20 November 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
18. "SPOKESPERSONS" (PDF). junioreurovision.tv. EBU. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 November 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
19. Herbert, Emily (24 November 2017). "Serbia: Olga Kapor and Tamara Petković Announced As Junior Eurovision 2017 Commentators". eurovoix.com. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
20. "Dečja pesma Evrovizije". rts.rs (in Serbian). RTS. 25 November 2018. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
21. Granger, Anthony (18 November 2019). "Bojana Radovanović to reveal Serbian Jury Vote at Junior Eurovision". eurovoix.com.
22. "Дечја песма Евровизије 2020". RTS. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
23. Farren, Neil (2020-11-24). "Serbia: Darija Vračević Revealed As Spokesperson for Junior Eurovision 2020". Eurovoix. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
24. Karen Dawisha; Bruce Parrott (13 June 1997). Politics, Power and the Struggle for Democracy in South-East Europe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 175–. ISBN 978-0-521-59733-3.