Novak Djokovic's love of the Eurovision Song Contest
- aussievision
- a few seconds ago
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Serbia's Novak Djokovic is through to the Australian Open final this Sunday.
The Serbian tennis star will be aiming to collect his 25th Grand Slam singles title, which will be more than any other player, man or woman. It would also be his 11th Australian Open.
He is passionate about his nation and was in tears when winning Olympic gold at Paris 2024.
So it should come as no surprise that he is a supporter of his nation in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Belgrade 2008
Novak is so devoted to the Contest that he appeared on-stage at the first semi-final of the 2008 edition held in his native Belgrade, just days before the French Open.
He stated: "I feel so privileged to be here and honoured. This is [an] amazing event. The whole [of] Europe is watching, the stage is unbelievable."
At the instruction of hosts Jovana Janković and Željko Joksimović, and after an impromptu duet with the latter, Novak then threw a large tennis ball into the crowd which signalled the commencement of the 15-minute televoting window.]
Sanremo 2020
Not only is Novak a Eurovision supporter, but he's also been at the Sanremo Music Festival.
The Italian event pre-dates Eurovision and currently helps choose the nation's entrant for Eurovision.
In 2020 he attended with his wife Jelena before joining the hosts on stage. He was subsequently interviewed and again demonstrated his own singing credentials by performing with the hosts.
Novak is fluent in Italian and has a residence in Monaco which is around a 45-minute car drive away from Sanremo.
He also gave Sanremo host Fiorello a tennis lesson in 2021.
Supporting Konstrakta in 2022
In 2022 he got behind Serbia's entrant Konstrakta with her song In Corpore Sano.
Djokovic tweeted a video of himself watching Serbia's Konstrakta perform live at the Eurovision Grand Final before urging his followers to vote for Serbia.
Other support
He has often posted himself watching or supporting Serbia like these tweets from 2012 and 2015.
So love him or loathe him as a tennis player, he is at least a Eurovision fan!
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