Montenegro is one of the many countries who will return to a national final to select its act for Eurovision 2018. Now broadcaster RTCG has confirmed that almost 30 entries have been received for the revamped national final Montevizija.

RTCG director Vladan Micunovic told the Vijesti website that while he didn’t know the exact number of entries yet, it was more than 20 and he expected there to be at least 30 by the final count.

From those entries, around five will be selected to compete in the national final, scheduled for 17 February.

As Micunovic explained, the entry process is anonymous. He said, “We cannot know who it is until we open the envelope. Only then it will be known whose songs we’ve been listening to.”

RTCG’s radio editor Vladimir Maras explained the selection process in more detail to Cafe del Montenegro (CDM). He said the five-member selection jury was looking for the quality of the composition, as well as the production potential. Three of the selection jury were from Montenegro, while the other two were recognised the regional music industry.

Maras also noted that for Montenegro, having a song that makes it to the Eurovision grand final would be considered an “extraordinary success”.

Montevizija will be held on 17 February at the Hilton Podgorica hotel.

Return to Montevizija

Having used internal selection since 2012, Montenegro is now returning to their national final Montevizija. Montenegro last used a national final in their first two years at Eurovision, 2007 and 2008.

This time Montenegro — one of the smallest countries in Europe — has cast the net wide. When entries opened on 1 November, the contest was open to songwriters from any country. However, some form of local cooperation was still needed — the rules also required that songs be written in the official language of Montenegro. That means lyrics will either have to be written in or translated to Montenegrin. It’s not clear if this also includes the other officially used languages, Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian or Croatian.

Montenegro has qualified for the Eurovision grand final twice, both times with Balkan ballads. In 2014, Sergej Cetkovic placed 19th with “Moj svijet”, while the following year Knez placed 13th with “Adio”.

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Ag
Ag
6 years ago

Montenegrin, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian are the same language. No need for translation – it’s a polycentric language with different regional forms in spoken language (although the differences are minimal).

AngieP
AngieP
6 years ago

Montenegro is a country that usually struggles to qualify. Both times they qualified, it was with a balkan ballad (which I really like).
As for this year, I hope there are good songs.

Jo
Jo
6 years ago

Montenegro can do much better and aim higher than just qualifying.The last two songs were just painfully bad.

Beary
Beary
6 years ago

29 of the 30 entries are from Vasilije.

Stephanie
6 years ago
Reply to  Beary

And all of them will eventually be rejected, since 1. he can’t sing, 2. he has no star quality, and 3. he steals other people’s music and passes it off as his own

Denis
Denis
6 years ago

Why only 5 songs though? At least have 10! Or all 30, to make it a real decision..
There are rarely good songs to be found from only 5 songs! Not hoping for much