After three elaborate shows, Serbia’s national selection process, Beovizija, has finally come to end. Twelve acts had qualified from the semi-finals to do battle once more and to claim a spot in Tel Aviv for themselves. Emotions were high, the voices empowered and the tension was palpable. In the end Nevena Božović came out on top with the song “Kruna”, thus taking the reins of Serbia’s participation in Eurovision 2019.
Providing a solid and sophisticated stage show accompanied by flawless vocals, Nevena gave it her all on the Beovizija stage and it clearly paid off. It was professional and polished but most of all it created a moment to which the audience was able to relate.
We’re not particularly surprised. Nevena competed at Junior Eurovision 2007, and later formed part of Serbia’s Eurovision 2013 act Moje 3. But now she’s returning to the adult competition by going solo. It’s her turn and she’s ready to slay.
What happened during the show?
Over the course of last week, 24 acts were reduced to twelve. Tonight, Dragana Kosjerina and Ivan Mihailović as well as Nebojša Milovanović and Ana Babić, who hosted the first and second semi-finals respectively, came together to host the jam-packed evening. Opening the show was the winner of Wiwibloggs’ poll and last year’s runner up Saška Janks, while wrapping everything up was the lady in red, Aleksandra Sekulić.
1. | Saška Janks | “Da li čuješ moj glas” |
2. | Majdan | “Budim Te” |
3. | Sofija Perić | “Aritmija” |
4. | Dženan Lončarević | “Nema suza” |
5. | Wonder Strings & Ivana Vladović | “Moja bol” |
6. | Jana Šušteršič | “Viktorija” |
7. | Lord | “Radnički sin” |
8. | Nevena Božović | “Kruna” |
9. | Ana Popović | “Lutaš” |
10. | Ivan Kurtić | “Bela” |
11. | Nataša & Una | “Samo bez straha” |
12. | Aleksandra Sekulić | “Tugo” |
On top of the 12 competing acts, Beovizija treated us to an epic interval. Last year we may have had a catalogue of Balkan artists, but this year we needed just one: Željko Joksimović. Dressed in a pure white costume, Željko was joined on stage by an array of Serbian musicians to perform his two timeless entries “Lane Moje” and “Nije Ljubav Stvar” as well as a few other famous numbers.
Results
Similar to last year, the results of the competition were determined by both a jury and the public with 50% of the vote coming from industry experts and the remainder from televoting. 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.
Subsequent to the five jurors allocating their points, it was revealed that Nevena had topped the board with 56 points, receiving 3 sets of 12 points. The final results of the jury can be seen in the table below:
Of course, this only accounts for 50% of the total scores with the other half coming from the Serbian public. There was the usual dramatic suspense before each result was revealed but in the end it was Natasa & Una who stole the public’s vote with over 10000 SMS votes. Unfortunately, this was not enough to catch Nevena who came 3rd with the televote after she took the jury vote by storm.
So there you have it, Nevena has emerged victorious and will be flying the Serbian flag once again in Tel Aviv this May. Beovizija has, after many weeks, finally come to an end. It was a wild ride with much anticipation, speculation as well as a plethora of iconic interval acts but in the end we want to wish Serbia the best of luck for Eurovision 2019.
Are you pleased with the victor of Beovizija 2019? Do you think the Balkan republic will improve upon their result from last year? Let us know your opinion down in the comments below!
Not usually my cup of tea, but one can’t deny that powerful voice. I think this dark horse will be the ballad of the balkans, mopping up most of the points. The juries must surely go for this. Top 10 I think.
Great show, I really enjoyed it! The song is really good, it reminds me of old good days of balkan ballads. And what a voice! great luck to my beloved Serbia!
Nevena is going to win Eurovision because her song is better than all the other Eurovision songs. In fact, every song from Beovizija this year is better than the other Eurovision songs this year. That simple fact is why Serbia is going to win in May.
I appreciate your support for Nevena, but statements like that can only hurt her chances. Having a favorite doesn’t mean you can’t like other songs.
Do I dare hope the following countries film music videos for their corresponding Eurovision entries? 😮
* Albania (once the “Ktheju tokës” revamp is published)
* Australia
* Georgia
* Latvia
* Lithuania
* Moldova
* Norway
* Portugal
* Serbia
No worry, during March and April, most countries will film some sort of music videos.
Please remove the english, it removes the mysterious quality I love in balkan ballads. 🙁
She has the English lines in order to let the world understand the message. 😮
Exactly. Most people are too lazy to look up the lyrics and translation, so these short lines give them the main idea. Even Eurovision youtube reviewers will not bother learning what the song is about and will be “barking up the wrong tree” with what they assume or don’t assume in regards to songs not in English.
She is so beautiful in every way! I can’t stop myslef from smiling while looking at her…
Omg shes so dull
This is so rude comment.
P.S. Nevena’s song is better by all parameters than faceless song “Sebi” of Zala Kralj and Gasper Santl which hold down 20th place on bookmakers…Just that much…
I like both songs, every is good in its own category, it’s matter of personal taste. Chill and don’t be bookmakers’ victim 🙂
I’m just saying…
Sebi is an amazing song. Not for everyone clearly.
Slovenia is the best Good luck from Poland
Sebi is the best one so far, clearly niche though
I’ve been listening for the first time now teaser of Tamta’s song and i don’t believe how much actually copies Eleni…Horror…
If it’s a good song, I don’t really care if is dated or not. Conchita’s song was dated and won. So, well done Serbia. Big kiss and love from Romania!
Conchita was more retro than dated. There is a difference and I don’t think people understands that
Sorry Bilal, Nevena just removed your crown to give it to someone else :v
reminds me of ORO MOJE
I like the arrangement of the song with the strings and guitar.
And no, there aren’t a lot of ballads, there’s like this and Romania and that’s it.
I would say ballads are:
– Serbia
– Croatia
– Albania
– UK
– Moldova
As they are all at least in different languages and styles, it doesn’t feel overcrowded.
As for other slow songs (Romania, Slovenia, Latvia, Belgium…) they don’t really have a ballad structure. They are mostly linear and atmospheric.
I wouldn’t even call Albania’s song a ballad, but I agree about the other 4.
Hmm… yeah, Albania would perhaps both be a borderline case, because of a slow verse and powerful chorus. Otherwise, I can see it as a purely ethno song too.
Germany is a “power” ballad also.
I agree with Sabrina that Albania’s song is not really a ballad. And I read somewhere that North Macedonia has a power ballad also. Rusia and Israel too.
It’s a typical Eurovision ballad, but it’s a very well written one. The “diva” kind of style doesn’t seem to work as well in Eurovision as it used to, but I think we’ll see Serbia in the final this year.
Decent song, it has more luster than Moldova’s entry. I see it border-qualifying depending on the remaining entries.
it’s an okay song, they had better choices. the english parts don’t fit imo
I like it. It s a good ballad with a wonderful String arrangement and she sings very well.
I wished the performance with this dress would be otherwise. It seems strange to present this song with a kind of Gala Dress but maybe they change it for the ESC in Tel Aviv.
You can call it “playing safe” but this is what Serbia does the best. Amazing vocals and a nice ballad in Serbian language. And btw – Eurovision next top model? There she is!
She is gorgeous!
Another very good addition to ESC 2019. Finally Serbia doing what it does best: ballads sang in Serbian. Her vocals, the production and her great image adds freshness to the entry, which is good. The English bits would be dispensible, because it doesn’t add much, but it’s not a deal breaker either. I would foucs solely on her because she has a lot of charisma, no dancers or gimmicks, and this will be a easy breeze to qualification and maybe be on the left side of the board.
An ok balkan ballad. Nothing more, nothing less. A good tune. Will likely make the final. There, it will place between 15-26
too many ballads this year?
Scrap the english part and we got a solid entry here.
I am so sad for Ivana Vladovic! Moja bol was the best performance but sadly Serbian voters didint appreciate it ! And I think MOja BOl would be ranked higher than Kruna!
Yes, ESC fans voted Moja bol as favourite, instrumentals were stronger but stupid refrain “kad se prolije mastilo moja je najve?a bol” destroyed chances for public to connect with song.
???? ??? ?????? was the only tune worth sending anywhere. At least in terms of staging and performance. And it was voted for the most by the audience. Not that it is some unprecedented thing but what in the world would explain such disparity with the juries?
The cyrillics aren’t supported? Okay, I meant “Samo bez straha”
Natasa & Una are very popular radio hosts and they had huge campaign pretty much every morning in last few weeks so – I’m not shocked to see them getting the most from public votes.
On the other hand, we have a jury consisted of only five members (which is very bad in terms of influence of their personal relations with the contestants).
So, it would be a lot better to have a international jury and public votes. If that had been case, i think Sashka or Wonder Strings feat. Ivana would win
If we had international jury, people would complain why are they choosing OUR song. Trust me, no matter how we choose song there will always be a group of people who will hate it.
No, they got 12 from televote just because they are from famous radio channel which is connected to rich tv channel “Prva”. They promoted her too much, had a big campaign and i’m sure Prva sent many votes for them. Juries voted professionaly, they choose the song that would rank best in Tel Aviv. Nevena won fairly
Okay I see then
I do it all for me
Finally, we have a popular singer to represent us! We didn’t had popular singers to represent us since 2012 (Moje 3 weren’t so popular in 2013, one of them is still not popular).
A dated ballad we have seen and heard before. Next!
You people are calling everything dated.. This is not even dated.
I get and respect that you don’t like the song but this certainly isn’t dated. Croatia and Montenegro, on the other hand, are.
i like all 3. dated? haha its not 70s sound on one of them. They are not dated
Serbia has not forgotten Moje 3’s non-qualification in 2013 so they wanted vengeance by sending Nevena this year.
They had many better options, like Saska. Why this Serbia?
Yikes, was this really the best this year’s Beovizija had to offer?! To quote Miss Lea Sirk: Hvala, ne!
I think it’s the best Balkan entry this year by some distance.
I think the best Balkan entry is Albania.
It’s a decent song, but the English parts ruin it. Get rid of them and the song will instantly become a thousand times better.
They’re literally 2 lines surrounded by Serbian and in my opinion add a lot to the song. It’s great the way it is
Serbia is on 37th place on bookmakers???
To be fair, the odds are for who will win, not who will qualify. They probably think this is good, just not a winning-level song
I hope that in the near future this will change…
I must agree with Apple, it’s the odds who will win the Eurovision. I’m not sure Nevena has winning potential, but I do hope she does well in Tel Aviv.
Although, it is odd that she is still behind some countries which don’t have good entries this year.
Albania was also somewhere like 30th-40th in the betting odds last year, but I think you know how it turned out
Yeah, and Albania is 39 right now. I don’t know why, they again have great song.
Bookies are done only by Irish and British, so you can’t rely on it.
Don’t mind the bookies. Albania was 38-39th place last year, they didn’t predict it would qualify and even when it qualified, it was dead last during the final. In reality Eugent almost ended up in the top 10. So they know nothing 😉 It looks at this phase all Balkan countries end up being very underrated by the bookies, despite the song.
I think they haven’t updated since the Serbian result. As Serbia had 24 entries in their NF and not a strong indicator of which would be the winner, they had to be ranked quite low. I would expect Serbia to move to about the 30th spot over the next few days.
Serbia fights with France for Crown?
What could be better lol
No way France will win. Maybe it will the crown of the most cringy act.
@Mr. Vanilla Bean:WE REALIZED YOU DIDN’T LIKE NEVENA.LEAVE NEVENA ALONE AND YOU GO COMMENTS YOUR FAVORITES!!!
There’s no rule about leaving only positive comments. This is not a fan site. Be a grown up and handle comments you don’t agree with.
Everybody is intitled to their opinion. People will change their minds several times during rehearsals and semifinals. It doesn’t matter what people say now. Don’t take it so serious.
thank you nevena. its stunning
Balkan Ballad being a Balkan Ballad.
Cue Chris’s disdain.
Listening and watching it feels like the longest three minutes of my life. I like ballads but this song just drags for me. Change the production and make it a little bit more up tempo.
When a ballad is as good as this one, it’s a pleasure to say it. Amazing choice, Serbia!
For those who complain about the song being boring, y’all probably just want every country to send bubblegum pop so y’all should’ve just sat down and ate your boring food instead of complaining about every song to be boring and bland xx
Agree. Nevena sang a song in that genre when she was a member of Moje 3 back in 2013 and look what happened to them. She deserves to sing in this genre as she is really good at it.
Not liking the song = being fan of bubblegum pop. That’s lifechanging. Guess I’m gonna only listen to Aqua from now on.
I love ballad but not this dated one! I want something modern from Serbia but they still play the typical Balkan ballad card.
This is not balkan ballad tho. There is a difference and just because it is in Serbian, doesn’t mean it is balkan ballad.
What exactly is balkan in the song? A song coming from the balkans and being sang in balkan language don’t count as adequate answer.
I find the song boring as hell, I had quite another favourite (which I think was miles better) and I detest bubblegum pop. Apparently things aren’t as simple as you put them.
This is probably my #1 or #2 so far. Could not have been a better choice!
What a great weekend. If I had gotten Morland, I would’ve been even happier!
The competition was rigged everyone in Serbia knows it. Of course fans of Nevena won’t admit it. Public vote gave maximum points to Nataša & Una – Samo bez straha. That’s the real winner. Not this boring, bland crap. Plus the girl has zero charisma as all of you will see once the bloggers start to interview her. All in all, a big fail. It won’t even qualify.
What are you talking about???? Natasa & Una promoted their song 100 times a day on their radio station and TV channels which are part of the same company, while the others were hardly mentioned as the competitors… I’d say that they were the ones who weren’t fair. Plus, Nevena was 3rd in televoting, so you can’t blame her fans lmao. And believe me, Nevena’s song is 100 times better than N&U’s one…
This. Also Dzenan is a huge name. Sashka… she bought views, ads and made some big singers promote her song. Nevena had 0 promo yet ended up 3rd in televote, it’s not like she was 8th or something
Got that reference.
Nice of you to think that serbian youth watches tv. I had no idea they promoted the song because, you guessed it, i don’t watch it. I don’t listen to radio and have no idea how many does so i won’t comment on that. What i do know is that sashka bought ads on youtube, you couldn’t escape the song. Why do i know that? Because i’m only on internet. Una and nataša were different and people liked it. Good different or bad diffetent that is up to discussion. Nevena is a great singer and she was impeccable on both… Read more »
The people in other countries wouldn’t have related to the Serbian rap. Plus many would have made fun of a woman her age wearing braces. Nevena stands a better chance of making the finals.
If it’s true, then many thanks to juries for saving us from ridiculous rap duo like San Marino from last year. I believe mostly kids voted for it 😛
Serbian rap > Generic Balkan Ballad
Compare it to every other Balkan ballad we’ve heard at Eurovision, and you’ll be able to tell this one is significantly different
Natasa & Una spammed their song on TV and radio, no one could escape it. Dzenan is a huge name, I’m surprised he wasn’t #1. Sashka bought ads on Youtube , views and made some big singers promote her song.. Nevena had 0 promo and was 3rd in televote, let’s not act like she was 7th or something.
Singers goes to Eurovision not a radio -hosts.
Maybe you are too young to know that natasa was part of tap011 along with ana shtajdohar (obviously after goca and ivana had left) and una was part of rap duo bicharke na travi. Long story short them being radio hosts is their 2nd job
A mislis da ja nisam znao sve to sto si nabrojala???Ja samo konstatujem cinjenicno stanje.Nevena je mlada, lepa, talentovana pevacica koja je svojim radom, trudom i ponasanjem zaluzila da predstavlja Srbiju na Evroviziji dok njih dve trenutno rade kao voditeljke na radiju i mislim da nisu toliko kompetentne da bi nas predstavljale, pritom ta pesma nije takmicarska nego klasicna pesma za kampanju koju su mogle da sprovode i bez Beovizije…Nekako imam utisak da su bile u fazonu “Hajde da se prijavimo na Beoviziju, pesma mora da ima neku poruku, mozemo da napravimo pesmu na temu nasilja nad zenama…” jer je… Read more »
Samo Bez Straha sounded dated as hell and the juries would kill it at Eurovision. They would’ve been a terrible choice
Laughing out loud in the name of real Serbian rappers for calling these two ladies ”rappers” 😀
Una is/was a rapper, she was part of “bi?arke na travi” (eta: ugh this site. bicharke) You can listen to their stuff but use headphones, they are extremly explicit. (My personal fave is “možeš ti to” with bad copy :D)
“Bad copy” is great, but I’ve never been fan of bicharki :p
Man, this year is going to be so sleepy…
The Netherlands, Armenia, Austria, Switzerland and Greece. I’m not counting them out yet.
From the NF, Italy and Portugal have emerged as potential winners.
Portugal???? Lol
Well theres always Greece, a country with voting power that seems to be getting it serious for the first time in years…
Bilal step aside, Nevena is taking the kruna ??
Why so many dislikes for this comment? It’s true – sorry guys 😉
She will slayyyyyy , 1 semi looks easy peasy
I’ll agree/disagree with both of you. Semi 1 is becoming more and more a hard semi, but I say that Nevena has a huge chance to qualify anyway.
Semi 1 is more open, we have some sure qualifiers (Cyprus, Portugal), but most of its entries are borderline.
Semi 2 still has Sweden and Russia to announce their entries. Then we also have Ilse working with the Dutch team, Switzerland (Luca Hänni?), Azerbaijan (who probably wants revenge from last year’s result), and others (Ireland, N. Macedonia). Not to mention that Monika lost in Lithuania, and Laura in Romania, which would’ve made this semi much tougher.
I forgot Austria and Armenia, who also have great potential.
Semi 1 is getting very strong. Especially since there’s a lot of diversity and already a bunch of very memorable entries. On the other hand, we still don’t know half of the songs of semi 2.
I think that her advantage is that it will be the only solo female ballad in SF1, most of the ballads are in SF2. But I agree, SF1 is very strong and I think it will be excited to watch although I don’t like the line up. Especially the fact that Hatari and Conan will perform literally one after the other.
The lineup isn’t published yet, only their allocations in the semis and half-semis. They’re in alphabetical order.
Thanks for the info, I didn’t know that.
She failed in 2013 due to the wacky outfits and annoying choreography. Here she won’t be forced into anything she doesn’t approve as it is her own song – she composed and wrote it – so she can keep out anything which she feels interferes with the proper interpretation.
You named 6 countries. 10 qualify.
Who is THE QUEEN Nevena or Bilal???hahhahahha…
“Roi” is French for king, not queen. And if that’s a dig at his appearance/gender non-conformity, then that’s really disrespectful of you actually.
My comment isn’t in a negative context.My comment is just a joke based on his sexual orientation which i SUPPORT!!!
P.S. BTW, next to Nevena i’m cheering for Bilal.
Tbh, I don’t understand this hate over Bilal, yes he’s voice is not the best, but I find his song and story very touching, it’s decent song.
Another rather bland ballad… what’s wrong this year?! Either weird or boring… heard no winner yet….
One word:
BORING
Haha you’re right my friend 🙂
Best from Spain!