Serbia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 with the song „Cipela“ written by Aleksandar Kobac, Marko Kon and Milan Nikolić. The song was performed by Marko Kon and Milaan. The Serbian national broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) organised the national final Beovizija 2009 in order to select the Serbian entry for the 2009 contest in Moscow, Russia. The national final consisted of two shows: a semi-final and a final on 7 and 8 March 2009, respectively. Twenty entries competed in the semi-final where eleven qualified to the final following the combination of votes from a three-member jury panel and a public televote. The eleven qualifiers competed in the final which resulted in „Cipela“ performed by Marko Kon and Milaan as the winner following the combination of votes from a three-member jury panel and a public televote.

Serbia was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 14 May 2009. Performing during the show in position 4, „Cipela“ was not announced among the 10 qualifying entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. This marked the first time that Serbia failed to qualify to the final of the Eurovision Song Contest from a semi-final since its first entry in 2007. It was later revealed that Serbia placed tenth out of the 19 participating countries in the semi-final with 60 points.

Beovizija 2009

Beovizija 2009 was the seventh edition of the Beovizija national final organised by RTS in order to select the Serbian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. The selection consisted of a semi-final featuring twenty songs and a final featuring eleven songs to be held on 7 and 8 March 2009, respectively. Both shows were hosted by Jovana Janković, Milena Vasić and Srđan Timarov. The two shows were broadcast on RTS1, RTS Sat, in Bosnia and Herzegovina on RTRS, via radio on Radio Belgrade as well as streamed online via the broadcaster’s website rts.rs.

Format

The same format set by Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) in Beovizija 2008 took place in 2009. The deadline for the submission of songs by artist to the national broadcaster was on January 27, 2009. One of the requirements for entry was that the songs must be performed in Serbian, however, the winning song can be sung in any language at Eurovision. The only main difference to last year’s Beovizija was that the winners (both the artists and composers) also received a cash prize.

On January 30, 2009, 20 semi-finalists were selected by a group of RTS judges: Jelena Ilić, Ana Milićević and Jelena Vlahović. The final of Beovizija 2009 was held on March 8, 2009 at the Sava Centar in Belgrade. The winner of Beovizija 2009, selected through a 50/50 split of jury and televoting.

Stage

Beovizija is known to have one of the best stage designs in the national selection process for Eurovision[citation needed]. This year the stage will symbolise the technological advances in television in the past 50 years in Serbia. This is why a large number of television and LCD display screens is being used. The stage has settings for all new electronic possibilities. The theme of the two nights is largely based around the music from popular local television shows in the past 50 years. The semi-final was based around popular shows produced since the 1970s to the end of the 1990s while the final will be centred on new popular television shows aired on RTS. The stage design was revealed to the public on February 25, 2009.

The stage has also been designed in a way to give a more fulfilling HD experience as it will be the first time Beovizija will be aired in high definition.

Host team

On February 27, 2009, RTS publicly announced the host couple of Beovizija 2009. It will consist of three people; the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest host Jovana Janković together with actors Milena Vasić and Srđan Timarov who will entertain the audience through song and dance. This marks the return of a 3-part host team for the first time since 2003.

Jury

In Beovizija the jury has 50% of the vote which is combined with the audience televote. Each person from the three member jury ranks the songs they liked from one to twelve (with the exception of nine and eleven points). Once this is done the votes from the jury are added up and a final score card from one to twelve is produced.

In the semi-final, the three-member jury was

• Jelena Jovičić, actress
• Jovan Maljoković, musician and composer
• Ivan Ivačković, rock critic

In the final, the jury was

• Željko Joksimović, singer and winner of Evropesma 2004
• Kornelije Kovač, musician and composer
• Biljana Krstić, musician

Competing entries

Artists and songwriters were able to submit their entries between 24 December 2008 and 24 January 2009. Both artists and songwriters were required to be Serb citizens, while songs were required to be submitted in Serbian. At the closing of the deadline, 90 submissions were received. A selection committee reviewed the submissions and selected twenty entries to proceed to the national final. The selection committee consisted of RTS music editors Jelena Ilić, Ana Milićević and Jelena Vlahović. The selected competing entries were announced on 30 January 2009.

On 11 February 2009, Nataša Bekvalac announced her withdrawal from the national final due to scheduled performances and private obligations. Her song „Bili smo najlepši“ was performed by Ana Nikolić instead.

Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)
Ana Nikolić	„Bili smo najlepši“ (Били смо најлепши)	Marina Tucaković, Aleksandar Perišić Romario
Andrej Ilić	„Nemam te“ (Немам те)	Dušan Alagić
Danijel and Milica	„H8ER“	Marina Tucaković, Aleksandar Perišić Romario, Marko Kon
Dušan Zrnić	„Tvoje drugo ime je greh“ (Твоје друго име је грех)	Andrej Babić
Etar	„Sanjaj me“ (Сањај ме)	Boban Janković, Katarina Popović, Etar
Ivana Selakov	„Moje odbrane“ (Моје одбране)	Aleksandra Milutinović, Goran Radinović
Lejla Hot	„Čekajući princa“ (Чекајући принца)	Lejla Hot, Ognjen Cvekić
Marko Kon and Milan Nikolić	„Cipela“ (Ципела)	Aleksandar Kobac, Marko Kon, Milan Nikolić
Minja Samardžić	„Petak uveče“ (Петак увече)	Marina Tucaković, Aleksandar Perišić Romario
Oskar and Beauty Queens feat. Đorđe Marjanović	„Superstar“ (Суперстар)	Ognjen Amidžić, Saša Milošević Mare
ОТ Band	„Blagoslov za kraj“ (Благослов за крај)	Snežana Vukomanović, E. Owen
Pozitivan Haos	„Glorija“ (Глорија)	Marina Tucaković, Ljilja Jorgovanović, Aleksandar Radulović
Saška Janković	„Nauči me“ (Научи ме)	Violeta Mihajlovska, Bojan Jeremić
SevdahBABY & Miki Element	„Previše reči“ (Превише речи)	Milan Stanković, Oliver Katić
Sonja Bakić	„Ništa novo“ (Ништа ново)	Snežana Vukomanović, Mirko Vukomanović
Tijana Bogićević	„Pazi šta radiš“ (Пази шта радиш)	Đorđe Miljenović
Trio Passage and Katarina Sotirović	„Zauvek“ (Заувек)	Bojan Jeremić
Vanja Mijatović	„Led i žar“ (Лед и жар)	Nadica Janković, Miša Mijatović
Zbogom Brus Li	„Ha ha ha“ (Ха ha ха)	Slavko Matić, Branislav Smuk, Kosta Sivački
Zemlja Gruva	„Svejedno je“ (Свеједно је)	Zemlja Gruva

Semi-final

The semi-final took place at the Sava Centar in Belgrade on 7 March 2009 where twenty songs competed. The ten qualifiers for the final were decided by a combination of votes from a jury panel consisting of Jelena Jovičić (actress), Jovan Maljoković (musician and composer) and Ivan Ivačković (rock critic), and the Serbian public via SMS voting. Eurovision contestants Regina, Igor Cukrov and Andrea, Next Time, Andrea Demirović, and Quartissimo and Martina, which would represent Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia in 2009, respectively, were featured as guest performers during the show.

Following the semi-final, the songs „Bili smo najlepši“ performed by Ana Nikolić and „Moje odbrane“ performed by Ivana Selakov, which were initially announced as non-qualifiers during the show, were reinstated to the final due to technical errors in the public vote, where only votes cast during the first five minutes of the 10 minute voting period were counted. However, Nikolić declined to participate in the final.

Semi-final – 7 March 2009

Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote	Televote	Total	Place
				Votes	Points
1	SevdahBABY and Miki Element	„Previše reči“	2	360	0	2	12
2	Zbogom Brus Li	„Ha ha ha“	0	511	0	0	15
3	Trio Passage and Katarina Sotirović	„Zauvek“	0	262	0	0	20
4	Vanja Mijatović	„Led i žar“	0	418	0	0	18
5	Sonja Bakić	„Ništa novo“	0	662	2	2	13
6	Marko Kon and Milan Nikolić	„Cipela“	1	1,289	7	8	6
7	Andrej Ilić	„Nemam te“	4	371	0	4	9
8	Etar	„Sanjaj me“	0	658	1	1	14
9	Lejla Hot	„Čekajući princa“	3	301	0	3	11
10	Dušan Zrnić	„Tvoje drugo ime je greh“	6	314	0	6	7
11	Minja Samardžić	„Petak uveče“	0	366	0	0	19
12	Oskar and Beauty Queens feat. Đorđe Marjanović	„Superstar“	8	3,495	10	18	2
13	Ana Nikolić	„Bili smo najlepši“	0	818	5	5	8
14	Ivana Selakov	„Moje odbrane“	0	803	4	4	10
15	Pozitivan Haos	„Glorija“	7	2,065	8	15	4
16	Danijel and Milica	„H8ER“	10	1,215	6	16	3
17	Zemlja Gruva	„Svejedno je“	0	589	0	0	16
18	Saška Janković	„Nauči me“	5	761	3	8	5
19	ОТ Band	„Blagoslov za kraj“	12	12,328	12	24	1
20	Tijana Bogićević	„Pazi šta radiš“	0	430	0	0	17

Detailed Jury Votes – Semi-final

Draw	Song	J. Jovičić	J. Maljoković	I. Ivačković	Total	Points
1	„Previše reči“		7		7	2
2	„Ha ha ha“			5	5	0
3	„Zauvek“				0	0
4	„Led i žar“				0	0
5	„Ništa novo“			6	6	0
6	„Cipela“	6		1	7	1
7	„Nemam te“	5	6		11	4
8	„Sanjaj me“		3		3	0
9	„Čekajući princa“	3		7	10	3
10	„Tvoje drugo ime je greh“	7	5	4	16	6
11	„Petak uveče“				0	0
12	„Superstar“	2	8	8	18	8
13	„Bili smo najlepši“				0	0
14	„Moje odbrane“				0	0
15	„Glorija“	12	4		16	7
16	„H8ER“	10	10	3	23	10
17	„Svejedno je“	1	2	2	5	0
18	„Nauči me“	4	1	10	15	5
19	„Blagoslov za kraj“	8	12	12	32	12
20	„Pazi šta radiš“				0	0

Final

The final took place at the Sava Centar in Belgrade on 8 March 2009 and featured the eleven qualifiers from the preceding semi-final. The winner, „Cipela“ performed by Marko Kon and Milan Nikolić, was decided by a combination of votes from a jury panel consisting of Željko Joksimović (represented Serbia and Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004), Kornelije Kovač (musician and composer) and Biljana Krstić (musician), and the Serbian public via SMS voting. Former Eurovision contestants Sirusho, who represented Armenia in 2008, Boaz Ma’uda, who represented Israel in 2008, and Jelena Tomašević, who represented Serbia in 2008, were featured as guest performers during the show, performing together „Time to Pray“, composed by Israeli President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres.

Final – 8 March 2009

Draw	Artist	Song	Jury	Televote	Televote	Total	Place
				Votes	Points
1	Oskar and Beauty Queens feat. Đorđe Marjanović	„Superstar“	2	7,696	10	12	5
2	Danijel and Milica	„H8ER“	1	2,63	6	7	8
3	Sonja Bakić	„Ništa novo“	0	672	1	1	11
4	Saška Janković	„Nauči me“	3	1,014	3	6	10
5	Dušan Zrnić	„Tvoje drugo ime je greh“	8	944	2	10	7
6	Marko Kon and Milan Nikolić	„Cipela“	12	3,955	7	19	1
7	OT Bend	„Blagoslov za kraj“	5	28,521	12	17	2
8	Andrej Ilić	„Nemam te“	6	614	0	6	9
9	Etar	„Sanjaj me“	10	1,156	5	15	3
10	Pozitivan Haos	„Glorija“	4	5,215	8	12	4
11	Ivana Selakov	„Moje odbrane“	7	1,133	4	11	6

Detailed Jury Votes – Final

Draw	Song	Ž. Joksimović	K. Kovač	B. Krstić	Total	Points
1	„Superstar“	2	1	4	7	2
2	„H8ER“	1	2	1	4	1
3	„Ništa novo“				0	0
4	„Nauči me“	3	5	3	11	3
5	„Tvoje drugo ime je greh“	6	12	6	24	8
6	„Cipela“	12	6	12	30	12
7	„Blagoslov za kraj“	4	7	7	18	5
8	„Nemam te“	10	4	5	19	6
9	„Sanjaj me“	8	10	10	28	10
10	„Glorija“	7	3	2	12	4
11	„Moje odbrane“	5	8	8	21	7

Gallery

Source: RTS