NeonoeN’s Eurovision 2025 run has come to a bittersweet end. Just days after winning Montesong 2024, the act was found to have unknowingly violated the September 1 rule. And now, amid online clamour and continuing uncertainty, the five-piece rock band has decided to withdraw.
They made the announcement on Instagram on Wednesday. We are re-publishing their statement in full below.
RTCG, Montenegro’s state broadcaster, will now choose their replacement. It seems likely that Nina Zizic, who placed second in the competition, will have the right of first refusal about going to Basel.
NeonoeN withdraw as Montenegro’s Eurovision 2025 act: Full statement
“In the best public interest, with the desire to end the uncertainty and once again contribute to the music that we are here for in the first place, we inform you that we are voluntarily withdrawing from participating in Eurovision. RTCG, in accordance with the regulations, will choose another representative, and we will be the first to wish him luck and provide him with full support.
“Winning at Montesong brought us publicity whose type and extent we did not choose, nor could we control. We note, and the facts confirm this, that performing the working version of the song live neither jeopardized the Montesong festival process itself, nor could it have influenced its final outcome and our placement. The fact is that there were many similar examples and that the EBU always decided that these songs could participate (one even won at Eurovision), because they did not have a competitive advantage over others, which is clear to everyone. However, we simply do not want to be part of any stories outside of music, nor to promote our authorial work in this way.
“Eurovision has never been a goal in itself for us. Expanding the field of our musical activity – it certainly is!
“The Montesong Festival organized by the Association of Entertainers brought 16 new songs and that is its greatest value. We would like to thank the management of RTCG for their benevolent attitude and intention to give us space for other options. We believe that they will understand our decision to give up on Eurovision and we also thank them for that.
“Special and immense gratitude for the support of fellow musicians, lovers of good music, friends, acquaintances, journalists and the general public from Montenegro and abroad, which gave us strength in the last days. Our families together with us have experienced all the splendor and despair of this process and now it is time to repay them and dedicate ourselves in the right way.
“CLICKBAIT continues to live as a musical single, but we are also afraid of it as a contemporary social phenomenon.
“Once again, thank you all. Now let’s all support Montenegro at Eurovision!!!”
Weak men. Gave up so easily. I don’t find it is an act of honour but rather of fear.
Or maybe don’t break the rules.
Man, I feel for them! Wasn’t a fan of their entry, but they earned their right to represent their country and were excited about it. I was also sure that these shenanigans could’ve been easily addressed 🙁
RIP Montenegro’s chances of a good result then
Neonoen could’ve done really well, with some polishings of the entry here and there
Clickbait grown on me nicely these last few days
Off topic – Dora artists and song titles have been released FYI
no one cares about melfest 2.0 generic Dora???
So no repeat? Is it Dva Srca then? Please make it patriotic and not a jury winner cough cough thing, it didn’t turn out too well for Moldova in 2024. People *pay* to send in the votes, that SHOULD count. If you want a jury pick, just have an internal selection situation
Well said!
Off topic but the 24+4 names for Dora 2025 are out! Nathalie Balmix and Marko Bošnjak are back!
Also Luka Nizetic from 2019, I still remember his song Bamboleo!
And Magazin represented Croatia in 1995!
They try again exactly 30 years later!
*Brutalero LOL
Now I want Montenegro to not qualify, whatver they send. NeonoeN deserved to go. I’m disappointed in them for not continuing to defend their right to represent their country, which they rightfully earned. This all feels like weird shenanigans going on.
For all you calling out double standards about Clickbait and Arcade being performed before the September 1 deadline, there is a major difference between performing in a student music school room and performing at a professional music festival. I have dug up the old wiwibloggs article about it. https://wiwibloggs.com/2019/04/27/the-netherlands-duncan-laurence-performed-arcade-in-2017-but-were-any-rules-actually-broken/237943/ Funny how there was a lot more comments defending Arcade staying in the 2019 contest than there are now in this section. Examples like these: From Katerina: If the video was viewed by such few people and the song is not given an advantage over the other entries then no rules… Read more »
Isn’t a school still publicly performed? Is there a specific definition of what publicly performed means? If you are going to get technical then anything where any public can watch should be defined as publicly performed. A school crowd is still public. So if Duncan Laurence got allowed to perform at ESC then this should too.
I think the difference is whether the public venue is a PROFESSIONAL venue where you are paid to perform or people purchase tickets to watch, as opposed to a student room where it’s a performance among student peers.
If you upload it though it is still public. Anyone can watch it.
maybe it would be wise to take the audience’s first choice now?
I feel for the guys as it’s unfair for them after all these songs that have broken the exact same rule and have participated. I hope that the negative response from the fandom didn’t play a role in their withdrawal as we all know it can many times mean nothing come May
I Hope so much that Nina Zizic will take Part at ESC for Montenegro ??!
It’s a shame to see them withdraw. I wasn’t a fan of the song but I think they should’ve replaced their song if it wasn’t allowed. They won Montesong fair and square, but I have to give them respect for voluntarily withdrawing – that takes courage! I guess we’ll see news about Nina Zizic for Montenegro in a few days?
it is mercury retrograde until 15 Dec. hence these kind of things happen.. besides this gives Montenegro a second chance to select potentially better representative
See, boys and girls, this is how it’s done. True integrity. Respect!
This is really nothing.
Israel won in 2018… with Jack White legally one of the songwriters now, should Toy be retrospectively DQed?
Seven Nation Army came out in 2003 and is one of the most famous riffs, like, EVER!
Crown Eleni!
Wondering how they’ll decide on who will represent Crna Gora like what contingencies do they have in place. Germany 2015 seemed pretty s tra ight forward.
Poor Ann Sophie, though, she should not have been put in that position. Nul point. Ouch, that really hurt her.
And it was completely undeserved. Same for Austria. There were way worse songs in the final that year 😐
Maybe a stupid question, and one that’s nearly 10 years too late, but what I’ve never understood is: why did Andreas Kümmert enter the German selection if he didn’t want to go to Eurovision? And if he only realised this during the process, why didn’t he pull out of the final? By doing what he did, he destroyed Ann Sophie’s chances in Vienna.
She destroyed her chances herself with that forcefully sexualised performance. Kummert either entered for self-promotion rather than a win, or didn’t like that the public chose his second song instead of first. Some rumours also claimed he wouldn’t participate because some ongoing investigation over alleged “inappropriate behaviour”, some others even suggested that the broadcaster forced him to withdraw.
Why can things never just go smoothly?
Maybe it’s just easier to skip all Eurovision-related news until May.
We are not even in 2025 yet and we already got our first withdrawn entry of Eurovision 2025. We are so back!
First time since 2022. Another withdrawn entry for the common reason of not following the rules.
yes Alina Pash, and it gave us a fabulous crowdpleasing fun bop winner in Stefania
As much as I support Ukraine and think Stefania was a good song, Alina’s song was much much better powerful. Her song would have been a truly deserved winner of Eurovision.
Crowd pleasing where? No one talks about this song anymore
First of all…Bro, it’s too early.
Second- who’s making that meme of Marge Simpson shouting Bart no! But Bart is beside her, into Marge screaming Ukraine no! And Bart has Ukraine’s flag in his face.
Shame for the unnecesary drama over a song that probably would have been allowed to compete in the end. Whether it was really the groups decision or pressure to do so is another question..
Shame because I believe they would have given Montenegro their best result.
they wouldn’t have beaten Latvia The Ludvig Ligo though
Montenegro came second in 2004! Kinda.
They would not have come close to the top 10, so no. 13th is Montenegro’s best result achived by Knez in 2015
Let’s be honest, their decision just saved Montenegro from a complete flop.
If they hadn’t broken the rules or picked another song that they did not perform before September 1 of this year, they would still be here
Duncan Laurence did the same thing and he won the whole thing
As if Nina wouldn’t be borderline NQ at best lol, you all hyped her even before song release because of Igranka, you can’t stop being so biased.
I’ve listened to Nina’s song just once lol, hyped where? It’s a middle of the road ballad. Even the worst ballads have SOME chances of qualifying. Unlike “Clickbait” which is just painfully terrible.
I am sad for them i thought it was such a cool and different entry obviously its their decision and it would not have been easy for them and the amount of hate towards these guys in the comments is ridiculous if you all think its so easy you write a song for Eurovision i dare ya
I feel sorry for them, they should’ve at least chosen another song. They even had time to create a new song from scratch given that the submission date isn’t until March. They could’ve reached out to top producers across the Balkans and crafted a masterpiece!
Anyway, I think Nina has a better chance at qualifying overall. She’s admitted that she’ll likely compete if Neonoen were disqualified, or in this case, drop out.
the dime a dozen balkan ballad fans must be extatic
While NeonoeN wasn’t my first choice to win Montesong, they won fair and square which should give them the chance to represent Montenegro at this year’s contest. This same situation happened quite a few times with participants in the past but it surprised me that this time it lead to a withdrawal. I think NeonoeN should’ve at least waited a bit before making this sudden decision. Maybe RTCG pressured them with their behavior and “negotiations”? I think Clickbait wasn’t a bad song per se and with a good revamp it could’ve had chances to qualify with 100% televote in the… Read more »
Since it’s their personal choice, and they were the audience’s favourite, it should make sense that the audience’s 2nd favourite gets a chance over juries decision.
They were not audience’s favorite, they were 2nd.
Baryak was audience’s favorite
Whoops, yes indeed, my mistake!
I am very happy about them withdrawing.
No offence, but the song was just noise.
Nina had the best package ready to compete in Basel. Good quality and voice.
Maybe the song can be slightly revamped to enhance its energy.
Go Nina! Go Montenegro
First, you guys hated the song, now you’re sad to see them withdraw? Eurofans can be so fickle. That said, I actually admire NeonoeN’s integrity here in this sad situation. They Acknowledge that they made a mistake and violated the rules and did not want to have controversial baggage on them and they are wishing good luck whoever will represent Montenegro. Hopefully lessons will be learned for next year if Montenegro returns with Montesong for artists to carefully read the terms of the rules and for the broadcaster to do their due diligence to make sure no act has violated… Read more »
THIS
I think people warmed to Clickbait after listening to it couple times
True, once you get over whatever feeling you had about the outcome and accept that they’re gonna be the representatives.
Montenegro should just withdraw atp
Can’t help but feel sorry for them. That being said, this was inevitable – you break the rules, you pay the price and I’m glad they actually admitted to their mistakes. More artists should be like them Many kudos to them! But I feel sorry for them because they almost felt forced to do this as they clearly thought the drama would be a distraction from the music. Anyway, let’s not get too negative about this decision. It’s not like they were the only ones with a good song. Montenegro will send someone from the same NF, most likely Nina… Read more »
I guess they will use the Montesong to resolve this. They didn’t hold a selection process only to completely ditch it now. So, that being said, the 2nd place will probably be contacted and Nina Zizic will most likely represent Montenegro.
What about a repeat?
Maybe Nina Žiži? would represent with the song, Dobro Došli
If I had to choose between Nina (2nd) and Baryak (3rd) I would prefer Baryak even I supported Nina from the first time. Baryak were better than Nina in Montesong in my opinion.
I wish them luck!
Them’s the rules, I guess. Can’t say I feel *too* sorry for them. If you compete in Eurovision, these are simply things you have to know beforehand
Why wasn’t Duncan disqualified for the same reason in 2019?
They haven’t been disqualified, it’s their own decision.
He should have been.
It’s sad to see their journey end like this. I hope they can come back to Montesong again because they seemed very enthusiastic about the contest, with discussions of a revamp.
Good news, the song was awful. Maybe picking another song will rise the chances of Montenegro to qualify…
Oh no! I was happy with the change of path of Montenegro to not go with a dramatic ballad…
I’m disappointed, I understand their point of view but I’m disappointed… I hope it’s really their decision…
So I wish for these guys a good continuation in their career and maybe we will see them again in a future Montesong edition…
Now all the preparties organisers, you know what you have to do, these guys must be invited in the preparties, they deserve it imo.
the dramatic ballads were my top 2
either Nina or Tamara for me personally
Dobrodosli deffo proved that Nina is more than a scream queen from Igranka, but that she can really sing beautifully as well
Poguban Let has something very oldschool esc about it
i wouldn’t go with Durda for example, she comes across too inexperienced, and in order to pull off a 2014 alike result, you need someone with more experience to perform the entry right as well, an ice skater staging would fit nicely with Nina’s as well i think
Durda was in my top five because she can clearly sing and we can work on her confidence.
I am one of the biggest haters of NeonoeN, but even I think this is a bad decision. They should’ve fought for their right to represent their country.
No, they acknowledged that they broke the rules and accept the consequences.
Huge mess right at the start of the season. 2025 is already shaping up to not be much better than 2024.
Honestly a bad decision. The song had something that made it stand out.
Now that we don’t get that, we are back to another bland entry from Montenegro that will fight to reach last place in semifinal
So sorry to see this. This ESC season didnt start well and i even dont wanna think where this will lead.
I am honestly sorry. I was not a big fan of the song, Nina was my favorite and that was probably the main reason I did not like any other song to win except Nina’s. BUT, a few days have passed and I got over the fact that Nina did not win and actually gave a chance to the song. And I started loving the song. I could not stop humming “Clickbait”. I really thought the song would (with a revamp) be competitive and qualify for the final. It deserved a chance. I do like the fact that (probably) Nina… Read more »
You’ve put into words what many of us feel.
To end uncertainty, or because people weren’t enthusiastic about the song?
They were people who were enthousiastic too.
For me it had potential, Clickbait is catchy and with a good revamp it could have brought the best result for Montenegro in Eurovision imo.
Same. For me it was the clear stand out among a sea of bland pop and shouty ballads. With a revamp and even few English lyrics thrown in it could have surpassed their 2015 effort
Probably because they didn’t like how they were treated by RTCG.
Best news this week yay (:
And now lets welcome Montenegro to finals ??
In 2030 maybe?
With an overdramatic ballad again that won’t stand out… don’t be so sure unfortunately.
That’s what people said about Dons last year.
Latvia never sends ballads. Plus it was never over the top.
Montenegro however seems to send nothing but ballads
I have never said it’s impossible for Montenegro to be in the Grand Final with a ballad, it’s just not a certainty.
Taking in account that the Semi-Finals are 100% televote I think Clickbait would have more chances to go in the GF rather than a ballad.
I was really supportive of Dons last year, and still think it was the best and unique option for Latvia.
Montenegro had more options this year imo, NeonoeN, Baryak and Isak could have really change Montenegro’s path in Eurovision.