In the next couple of days, Serbia will host their national selection process Beovizija over the course of three nights in order to choose their entrant for the 64th Eurovision Song Contest. It has been a couple of weeks since all 24 entries were released on RTS’s YouTube channel and during that time, we asked you who you wanted to see winning the competition.
After closing the poll on February 26th, we counted a total of 2,339 votes…with one act emerging as the clear favourite. Saška Janks, last year’s runner-up, earned 28% of the votes with her number “Da li čuješ moj glas”. She beat out Eurovision alum Nevena Božović by 10 points.
Saška Janks – “Da li čuješ moj glas”
Saška is one of many familiar faces taking part in this year’s Beovizija after she finished in second place behind Balkanika last year. And Saška has some Eurovision experience of her own. Granted, she may not have appeared as a solo performer as of yet, but she has served as a backing vocalist on three occasions — in 2010, 2011 and 2015.
Will 2019 be her year? She will have to battle stiff competition from 23 other entries in order to secure her place on stage this May.
Nevena Božović – “Kruna”
Some 12 points behind, but still not to be discounted, is Serbia’s Junior Eurovision 2007 and Eurovision 2013 entrant, Nevena Božović. Nevena sits somewhat isolated in our poll, almost equidistant from first placed Saška and third placed Wonder Strings & Ivana Vladović.
Nevena, just like Saška, has a lot of experience on big stages and competitions, having partaken in numerous talent shows and, of course, Eurovision itself. She’s had numerous hits in the region over the past few years, giving her a good foundation to build from. But we’ll have to wait until the live shows to see if it all pays off.
Results from our poll
| # | Artist | Song | Number of Votes |
| 1 | Saška Janks | “Da li čuješ moj glas?” | 28.47% (666 Votes) |
| 2 | Nevena Božović | “Kruna” | 16.89% (395 Votes) |
| 3 | Ivana Vladović & Wonder strings | “Moja Bol” | 9.88% (231 Votes) |
| 4 | Dženan Lončarević | “Nema suza” | 7.82% (183 Votes) |
| 5 | Sofija Perić | “Aritmija” | 4.45% (104 Votes) |
| 6 | Aleksandra Sekulić | “Tugo” | 3.68% (86 Votes) |
| 7 | Tamara Milanović | “Reči nisu dovoljne” | 3.55% (83 Votes) |
| 8 | Dunja Vujadinović | “7” | 3.33% (78 Votes) |
| 9 | Jana Šušteršič | “Viktorija” | 2.44% (57 Votes) |
| 10 | Snežana Berić – Extra Nena | “Još ti čujem glas” | 2.27% (53 Votes) |
| 11 | Gipsycord | “Boje” | 2.09% (49 Votes) |
| 12 | Goga Stanić | “Čudo” | 1.97% (46 Votes) |
| 13 | Funked Up | “Zašto da se ne desi?” | 1.92% (45 Votes) |
| 14 | Ivan Kurtić | “Bela” | 1.88% (44 Votes) |
| 15 | Lord | “Radnički sin” | 1.62% (38 Votes) |
| 16 | Nataša & Una | “Samo bez straha” | 1.62% (38 Votes) |
| 17 | MR DOO | “Do 100” | 1.41% (33 Votes) |
| 18 | Tina & Lola Amvon | “Tvoje oči” | 0.94% (22 Votes) |
| 19 | Ana Popović | “Lutaš” | 0.90% (21 Votes) |
| 20 | Eleonora | “Samo Lagano” | 0.81% (19 Votes) |
| 21 | Sanja Rio | “Ljubimo se” | 0.68% (16 Votes) |
| 22 | Majdan | “Budim Te” | 0.64% (15 Votes) |
| 23 | Osvajači | “Voda i plamen” | 0.47% (11 Votes) |
| 24 | Lana & Aldo | “Pogledaj u nebo” | 0.26% (6 Votes) |
How will the show play out?
In contrast to last year, where there was only one Beovizija show, this year we will be treated to three nights of Serbian music — two semi-finals and a grand final. Each semi-final will showcase twelve acts, out of which only six will advance to the grand final on Sunday 3rd March.
Similar to last year, the results of the competition will be determined by both a jury and the public with 50% of the vote coming from industry experts and the remainder from televoting. It is unknown, as of yet, who the jurors are or how many there will be. But the manner in which the votes will be announced is going to be the same as last year.
This means that after the jurors have allocated all their points, these will be converted into 12, 10 8-1 based upon an entrant’s jury ranking. With that, the televoting results will follow in a similar fashion, with the highest ranked act receiving 12 points, the second highest receiving 10, and so on. The artist with the highest amount of points at the end will win the right to represent Serbia in Tel Aviv this May.
Furthermore, instead of taking place in New Belgrade’s “Sava Centar” like last year, the 2019 Beovizija will be broadcast from RTS’s Studio 8 and 9. The show will begin at 21:00 CET and viewers will be able to watch the contest on RTS 1 or on the broadcaster’s online portal RTS Planeta.
Is Saška Janks your pick for Beovizija 2019? Do you think a different act can come out as victor of the Serbian national selection? Let us know your opinion in the comments down below.
Definitely Yes! Great song and amazing voice. No competition!
I personally like Kruna by Nevena the best.
MOja BOl is the best !
She participated in our national final three times before 2019
I was hoping for another ‘Svatovi’ but no;(
It is a decent selection. Way better than last year. My fave is Moja Bol, but î can live with other winners, except aritmija. Who writes a song about a heart condition, for God’s sake?
Believe it or not, Nick, there are at least 2 Brazilians songs called “Arritmia”. Both use it as a love declaration, like the heart is beating so much for someone, that it even loses its normal rhythym. Don’t know if “Aritmija” follow the same logic.
Aritmija is a song about a girl being in love with a guy who is totally different than her and she’s not even sure if he’s good for her. Still, the song is more in the uplifting tone, since she obviously enjoys that kind of dynamics. She says he is her “aritmija”. But NickC is not wrong when he’s skeptical about the lyrics. There is a lot of cheap writing here.
The songs I mentioned have terrible lyrics, so maybe we have a pattern there. But I think this use of the word is much better, since she can sense something is wrong with her heart. Taking an arrithmia as a good sign for the heart is something quite weird, even for lovebirds!
For me definitely is the best Ivana Vladovi? with Moja bol. It has great lyrics and captivating melody.
She is serbian Sasa Lendero, BQL, Raiven, Catarina Pereira,Coral Segovia…
She have best song, but Dzenan is winer. She will be 2nd or 3rd this year (figh for 2nd with Nevena). She have chance to go to ESC by RTS internal selection, or when on Beovizija she will be most famous singer in contest, or when we have Beovizija with 100% juries and juries love modern song, no etno boring ballad.
I know that she dedicated her song to her parents who passed away, which makes the song emotional, but that turbo folk chorus is not my cup of tea.
Not surprised that the ballads are at top, the Serbians like to send in ballads anyways.