Serbia’s national broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), have released the names of the artists and songs to be competing in their 2020 national selection event Beovizija.
It includes some big names from the Serbian music industry, as well as a number of return appearances from past national finals and Eurovision participants.
Speculation that circulated in the Serbian press last month came to fruition with the announcement of Hurricane, a girl-group that is currently seeing commercial success in the country. Hurricane is made up of Sanja Vučić (who represented Serbia with 'Goodbye (Shelter)' in 2016), Ksenija Knežević (who performed backing vocals for her Dad Knez on 'Adio', representing Montenegro in 2015), and Ivana Nikolić.
Also as rumoured, Neda Ukraden will be performing her recently released song 'Bomba'. Neda is another big star on the line-up, having released a long list of albums and singles spanning back to 1969. 'Bomba' is the only song that has been released so far for the contest.
Also on the 2020 line up, Ana Milenković and Sanja Bogosavljević have participated in Beovizija together as the group Beauty Queens in 2008 and 2009. Beauty Queens became popular after performing backing vocals at the contest on Serbia’s winning entry 'Molitva' by Marija Šerifović in 2007.
Bora Dugić has also been on the Eurovision stage before, featuring in Oro by Jelena Tomašević in 2008 playing flute.
Further Beovizija alumni include Ivan Kurtic, who has performed every year since the contest was revived in 2018, and Ivana Jordan who participated in 2006 and 2007.
The full list of artists and songs:
1. Igor Simić – Ples za rastanak (Parting Dance)
2. Sanja Bogosavljević – Ne puštam (I Won’t Let Go)
3. Rocher etno bend – Samo ti umeš to (Only You Can Do It)
4. Neda Ukraden – Bomba (The Bomb)
5. Marko Marković – Kolači (Cookies)
6. EJO – Trag (The Mark)
7. Karizma – Ona me zna (She Knows Me)
8. Andrija Jo – Uvek (Always)
9. Naiva – Baš baš (Really, Really)
10. Bojana Mašković – Kao Music (Like Music)
11. Ivana Jordan – Vila (Fairy)
12. Bane Mojićević – Svet sa Prokletija (The World From Prokletije)
13. Ivan Kurtić ft. Geapsy Train – Sabajle (At Dawn)
14. Hurricane – Hasta La Vista
15. Milan Bujaković feat. Olivera Popović – Niti (Threads)
16. Nenad Ćeranić – Veruj u sebe (Believe in Yourself)
17. Bora Dugić i Balkubano – Svadba velika (Big Wedding)
18. Ana Milenković – Tajna (Secret)
19. Srđan Lazić – Duša i telo (Body and Soul)
20. Lazar Živanović – Puklo je nebo (The Sky Parted)
21. Milica Mišić – Kiša (Rain)
22. Thea Devy – Sudnji dan (Judgement Day)
23. Biljana Đurđević – Raj (Heaven)
24. Aleksa Vučković – Samo mi kaži (Just Tell Me)
RTS received 90 entries this year. It was open to song writers of any nationality, however the song must be performed by a citizen of The Republic of Serbia and be sung in the official language of the country.
Beovizija was first held as a song contest in 2004, and contributed to the selection of Serbia and Montenegro’s entry (with the Beovizija winner competing against the winner of Montenegro’s Montevizija song contest in a final called Evrop(j)esma). When Serbia and Montenegro became independent countries in 2006, Serbia continued to use Beovizija as their selection process and at their first Eurovision as an independent nation in 2007, they won with their entry Molitva by Marija Šerifović (one of the most successful debuts in Eurovision history). Beovizija was cancelled in 2009 and RTV used different approaches, including internal selection and televised national finals. In 2018 however, Beovizija was revived and again became the national selection event. 2020 will be the third year of the reincarnated contest and will follow the same format, with two semi-finals and a final over three days. The date for the 2020 contest is yet to be announced.