Since 2007, the song contest Beovizija has been used on and off to select Serbia‘s entry for Eurovision. But that partnership has come to an end. Broadcaster RTS will hold their own national final to select Serbia’s entry for Turin.
Serbian media are reporting that the end of Beovizija as Serbia’s Eurovision national final is the result of a disagreement between Beovizija producer Saša Mirković and broadcaster RTS.
Mirković issued a statement confirming that his production company Megaton would organise Beovizija 2022 — but that the contest would screen on a different broadcaster than RTS.
In a statement, Megaton said that RTS’s license to use Beovizija had expired in 2020 and the production company was not willing to renew it.
The strained relationship between the production company and the broadcaster appear to centre around the appointment of RTS’s Editor of Entertainment and Sports, Olivera Kovačević. Megaton did not have kind words to say about Kovačević and seemed adamant that they were not prepared to work with RTS while she was there.
RTS have confirmed that as Serbia’s only member broadcaster of the European Broadcasting Union, only they have the right to organise Serbia’s entries for Eurovision.
Beovizija debuted in 2003 and since 2007 it has been used sporadically to select Serbia’s entry for Eurovision. The show was first used from 2007 to 2009. The show was revived in 2018 and used to select the Serbian Eurovision act for three years.
In other years, RTS used different national selection formats or internally selected their Eurovision act.
The shows will go on
This season, fans of Serbian music will be treated to two national song contests: Beovizija and Serbia’s new Eurovision national final RTS Takmičenje za Pesmu Evrovizije (RTS Contest for the Eurovision Song).
Entries for Beovizija are currently open and will close on 1 December. Beovizija rules are clear that songs cannot have been entered in any other contest. The contest selection committee will pick 36 acts to compete in the two semi-finals of Beovizija. Sixteen acts will compete in the grand final.
Rather than the winning getting a ticket to Eurovision 2022, the victorious act will receive a prize of 50,000 euros. Second place will be 30,000 euros, third place 20,000 euros.
The broadcast dates of Beovizija 2022 have not been confirmed, but the contest will take place sometime in February.
Meanwhile, things are well underway for RTS Takmičenje za Pesmu Evrovizije, the new show which will decide Serbia’s act for Eurovision 2022.
In late September, RTS opened the entry period for the contest. The broadcaster has revealed that so far over 100 entries have been received. An expert committee will shortlist acts for the semi-finals. There will be between two and four semis, depending on the quality of entries.
All the shows will be filmed in studio 8 at RTS. The show hosts have not been revealed yet, but there are claims it will be a male-female couple.
What do you think? Will you watch both shows? What kind of act should Serbia send to Eurovision 2022? Sound off in the comments section below!
Being Serbian myself it’s strange to see Beovizija out of the Eurovision context but it had to happen looking behind the scene…
For those who are confused.. 100 entries that arrived are for the new selection RTS will be hosting since Olivera said it herself… It wouldn’t be realistic to get that many entries for a selection that just opened the submissions….
I just hope artists that applied for RTS’s selection won’t give up from it just so they could go to Beovizija!
Well… At least it’ll be interesting to see the differences between the songs of Takmi?enje za Pesmu Evrovizije and Beovizija. Hoping the first does very fine after all, and to hear from the latter some compelling songs at least.
Wait, I’m confused. Are all those hundred plus entries originally submitted to the broadcaster intended for Beovijiza or this new selection? If they are for the former, then they might screwed out of representing Serbia for Eurovision 2022, until the winner is internally selected. Won’t having two different selections confuse potential participants?
I can’t wrap my head around this. I hope this mess doesn’t screw over Serbia’s chances next year.
It isn’t two selections. Only one selection show, the one RTS is organizing. Beovizija will just be one separate show on a different channel where you win money.You won’t go to Italy or represent Serbia.
Those entries RTS got is for the selection show. Beovizija recently opened their selection process and you can’t compete in both
OK. I think I get it now.
Hi! I guess I’m on the clearing-things-up duty. Those applications were for the new selection. The author wrongly assumed Beovizija would be used again and put that in the title. I asked them to change it so it wouldn’t cause additional confusion but nothing.
Taking the Eurovision out of a national final format isn’t usually the way to go. Look at A Dal.
Maybe they could do some kind of Ukrainian approach, where other TV channel holds Beovizija but then the winner goes to Eurovision on behalf of RTS
Why can’t they just go internal???
RTS should just “internally select” the winner of Beovizija. Cheaper option than organizing another festival
hell no
There are no two versions, it just fighting like a little kids, and now competing in order who’s gonna organize the contest better. I’m sure that Beovizija without RTS will flop, no matter what and it will be shut down.
For RTS, I just hope that the selection won’t be like the 2013 one.
Just hope it won’t be like that failure from 2013 called “Beosong”.
On the other hand, the head of Megaton is known as an a***ole and d***head as he is the manager of a turbo folk singer Aca Lukas who is also a drug addict.
Aca is also a big open homophob
Oh yes, forgot about that.
Strange. I guess there’ll be withdrawals from Beovizija.
Those applications were for the new selection. They assumed it would be called Beovizija 2022 because no one could have predicted such a mess. But what else could we expect from the person who has said that he had won the ESC, not Marija because she could have never done it without his PR mastermind?
Guess these 100+ submissions for Beovizija were expected to be not only the event participants but rather contestants to represent Serbia internationally. Not sure whether this new selection show can be as competetive.
Serbian musicians should feel fooled at least.
I supposed everyone who submitted their song to Beovizija knew that the grand prize wouldn’t be a ticket to Eurovision. It must’ve been mentioned in the terms.
Anyway, Beovizija hasn’t been used for like 10 years until 2018, and the songs chosen through different types od selections did just fine.
Well it was RTS that opened the submissions, so I guess the already submitted entries will be used for the national selection. RTS never mentioned Beovizija after all.
The most popular acts actually don’t care about ESC because they think that if they fail to quailfy for the final, it will ruin their career. It’s not only in Serbia like this, it’s in Croatia as well.
Well, Serbia has a better qualifying rate than Croatia at this point, so I think they will be fine if they ever want to represent Serbia at Eurovision one day.
Well your previous article still calls the festival “Beovizija 2022″… Could you please change it so that it doesn’t cause any more confusion?
The last article did clarify that the rules didn’t call the selection Beoviizija but the author just used the name as a shorthand.
I saw that but the previous article still has the same title and is misleading. Ofc it wasn’t intentional but it should be corrected asap
Sorry, I didn’t notice your reply. I was talking about the article published just 2 days before this one.
https://wiwibloggs.com/2021/10/12/serbia-beovizija-2022-has-already-received-100-song-submissions-the-most-since-2008/266788/
Those submissions are for the RTS’s selection, not Beovizija. They jumped to conclusion while they were writing the article.