Serbia

Milaan

About Quick Facts NameMilan Nikolić Born02 July 1979 Nationality🇷🇸 Serbian National SelectionBeovizija 2009 In Eurovision2009 Moscow SongCipela (& Marko Kon, 2009) Biography Milan Nikolić was born on July 2, 1979, in Svetozarevo, Serbia. He is a Serbian accordion player. Milan began playing the accordion when he was seven years old. He finished elementary school in Svilajnac. Later, he attended music school in Pančevo, where he completed both lower and secondary levels. He continued his education at the music academy in Paris, where he graduated. In 2009, Milan Nikolić, together with singer Marko Kon, represented Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest. For this occasion, he used the name Milaan. They won Serbia’s national selection competition, Beovizija 2009, with their song “Cipela”. At Eurovision in Moscow, they performed in the second semi-final. They placed 10th in their group and did not advance to the final. Milan Nikolić was an early supporter of the Balkan Beat music style in Serbia. His work was featured in international music collections alongside artists like Goran Bregović and Boban Marković. Later, Milan chose to explore a different genre. He formed the Barakuda Band and recorded the song “Poziv na čekanju” (“Call on Hold”) in the pop music style. Milan is still performing with the Barakuda Band. Entries Cipela (& Marko Kon) Country🇷🇸 Serbia Year2009 LanguageSerbian LyricsAleksandar Milanović KobacMarko Kon MusicAleksandar Milanović KobacMarko KonMilan Nikolić BackingsLjubiša DinčićJovan SejnjanovićIgor KneževićKatarina Gromilić Results Semi Points: 60Position: 10Running order: 4 Results Finals Points: –Position: –Running order: – https://youtu.be/F70grsPVtrw?si=9Gh288zErgsSQgmW

Marko Kon

About Quick Facts NameMarko Kon Born20 April 1972 Nationality🇷🇸 Serbian National SelectionBeovizija 2009 In Eurovision2009 Moscow SongCipela (& Milaan, 2009) Biography Marko Kon (* April 20, 1972) is a Serbian composer, screenwriter, arranger, producer, and singer. By 2009, Kon had written over 800 pop songs. He also provided background vocals for more than 1,000 recordings. In 2006, he co-wrote the song “Crazy Summer Dance”. The song was performed by Flamingosi and Luis at Beovizija 2006. He also co-produced the song “I Love You Forever” for Montenegro at Eurovision 2008. In 2009, Marko Kon and Milan Nikolić (Milaan) competed in Beovizija, Serbia’s national selection for Eurovision. Their song “Cipela” was chosen as the winner. On May 14, 2009, Kon and Nikolić performed in the second Eurovision semifinal in Moscow. They finished in 10th place. However, they did not qualify for the final. The jury selected another song. In November of the same year, Marko teamed up with Zikinoj Sarenici for the song “Rakija”. Marko Kon kept on working for others. In 2012, a.o. Flamingosi and Sofijaz came out with new work. In 2013 they were joined by Željko & Lubee Game. When Flamingosi split up Ognjen Amidžić, half of the duo, still kept on working with Marko. In 2014, he released the single “Pozitiva”. In 2017, Marko featured in Ognjens song “Prevara” and in 2018 they released “Kisela bombona”, along with Predrag Popović and Gazda Paja. Also in 2014 Marko featured in “Noci u gradu”, a Mirjana Radmilović song. In 2022, Marko Kon wrote two songs for Beovizija, the national final for the Eurovision Song Contest: Vasco didn’t make it to the final with “Znaš li”, Angellina however was 4th with “Origami”. Entries Cipela (& Milaan) Country🇷🇸 Serbia Year2022 LanguageSerbian LyricsAleksandar Milanović KobacMarko Kon MusicAleksandar Milanović KobacMarko KonMilan Nikolić BackingsLjubiša DinčićJovan SejnjanovićIgor KneževićKatarina Gromilić Results Semi Points: 60Position: 10Running order: 4 Results Finals Points: –Position: –Running order: – https://youtu.be/F70grsPVtrw?si=rMWZ7WyYYv46D9z9

Malmö Messages: yesterday’s pressconference

photo: EBU/Sarah Louise Bennett Yesterday, after winning the tickets to the final, the 10 winners headed to the winners’ pressconference. We of Eurovision Universe were present at this press conference. Cyprus Silia Kapsis said it was a huge opportunity to be here. She was super proud and super happy. About her country of birth, Australia, she said she was proud as well that the Australians showed their culture. It was her goal to make her country proud and after this, to grow as a pop artist. Serbia Teya Dora said it was crazy; the rehearsals, the performance; it was all super exciting and she was happy. She wants to make her country proud and give the best she can, with the best placement. She loves it that so many people watched her performance. And about Konstrakta, who was in the introduction film, she loved her amazing energy. Lithuania Silvester Belt thanks the audience. To all the bullies from the past he has a message: “I know you are struggling. And to the little boy I was: I love you so much”. The biggest challenge this week was sleeping. About singing in the Lithuanian language he said: “only Lithuanians wanted me to sing in English. Everybody else said I should sing in Lithuanian.” Ireland Bambie Thug said they are completely dissociated after this succes, but also that they are super proud. They have a small team and they are en independent artist, yet they reached this. And also, they are the first non binary artist in the contest. Bambie revealed that they met the rules of the EBU: texts like Ceasefire and Free Palestine were not allowed, so Crown The Witch was the only text left. On the question what made them special, Bambie answered “What makes me special is that I’m a queer”. Ukraine Alyona Alyona explained that she and Jerry Heil raised fund to rebuild Ukrainian schools. She called for donation. Half of the money is there, but you can donate via United24. “Children are our future”, Alyona Alyona stated. Jerry also stated that it was great to be in Malmö now. It was a super possibility to say thank you for your help. And yes, they felt pressure, because they felt Ukraine expected something from them. Croatia The performance was way better than the rehearsals. Before going on stage, Baby Lasagna tried to empty his mind, but before him Poland performed; that song got stuck in his mind. About his first place in the odds he said that odds are just numbers, it’s not over ’til it’s done. He felt comfortable in Malmö as Eurovision is, in his opinion, the next level of professional, with all the sound- and camerawork. The energy to him was fine. Slovenia Raiven said she was grateful. She was unsure about the result and doubting all the time. That meant going to the final was a huge surprise for her. When it comes to making music and visuals she went with her instinct. “The staging is really me, and I am very satisfied with it”, she said. About the fact that she was called Eurovision’s opera diva, she said that it is great to hear that people checked her background. Finland It was our own Kal (!!) who had the opportunity to ask windows95man a question. Due to the lyrics of the song “No rules”, Kal was interested to know which of the many rules of Eurovision had to go in his opinion. “More nakedness! For everybody!”, windows95man replied without any hesitation. Windows95man also told that he got help in preparing for the show. Before the show the men do some physical exercises. Portugal Iolanda from Portugal thinks that music can be whatever you like. She wrote the song in her grandmothers house. Her message is that you can do a lot with not so much money. She designed the act with the stage director and the choreographer. She also added that she believes music connects. Luxembourg “I nearly had a heart attack”, Tali explained, “It was brutal, but the camera was approaching and I thought…. maybe”. In Tali’s opinion Eurovision is a beautiful contet that unites. She was thrilled and was hoping to inspire other countries to return to Eurovision. “Music is my life, my therapy, my everything”, Tali stated.

Malmö Messages: the non-participants

photo: EBU/Chloe Hashemi Recently, at the Oslo preparty to be exact, our reporter Kal spoke to several artists. Not all of them will be on the Eurovision stage in Malmö this year. That is why we want to highlight two interviews now; not with 2024 participants, but still very interesting. The first one is an interview with Luke Black! Luke was last year’s Serbian participant. Kal and Luke met before in Liverpool, so it was nice for both of them meeting again! Dag Erik Oksvold and Anne Fagermo participated in Norsk Melodi Grand Prix this year with the song “Judge tenderly of me”. Kal met the duo that became 5th in the Melodi Grand Prix final. Will we see them again in Melodi Grand Prix? More nice things to come! Keep an eye on all our channels!

Malmö messages: a lot of blue light, smoke and a demon

photos: EBU Today, the time has finally come: rehearsals in Malmö have begun. We had to gather our information from various sources because the reports are on Reddit, the photos on Instagram, and the videos on TikTok. All of this is to make it user-friendly for the fans. We at Eurovision Artists have compiled everything for you in one place. Silia Kapsis represents Cyprus and will open the first semifinal. When Silia performs, there is a lot of movement during her song “Liar,” that much is clear. She is accompanied by 4 dancers, but at the end, she appears to be standing alone, as far as we can see. There is also a dance break in this song. Silia wears a white top and white flared trousers during this first rehearsal. She starts in red light and ends with blue lighting. Serbia is represented by Teya Dora with the ballad “Ramonda.” If you know her music video, you won’t find many surprises in Teya’s performance. She is situated among rocks, and the smoke machine is heavily used during this performance. The graphics depict clouds, stars, and lightning. Teya Dora wears a dark gray glitter top and light trousers. Third is Silvester Belt; he will sing “Luktelk” entirely in Lithuanian for Lithuania. Silvester starts as a silhouette on a blue background. Then there is a lot of red: Silvester is dressed in red leather, and the graphics are also red. The dancers, dressed in black for a change, wear masks. Actually, there isn’t much different from the national final. Then we have Bambie Thug, who will represent Ireland. Bambie starts seated in their song “Doomsday Blue,” with a white-painted face and everything else black. The artist wears a black dress. Bambie starts sitting down. Then candles are lit, and a kind of demon appears on stage, seemingly grabbing them. The graphics, according to Reddit, depict “Crown the Witch.” Whether this text appears on screen or is portrayed is not clear. What is clear, without us having seen Bambie Thug perform, is that we can trust them to make theater. You’ll notice that we don’t discuss the singing abilities of the artists. We don’t have access to that information, and if we rely on eurovision.tv, everything is fantastic.

🇷🇸 Road to Malmö: Serbia

We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Serbia. Teya Dora Teodora Pavlovska, known professionally as Teya Dora, was born on May 1, 1992, in Bor, Serbia. Balancing her academic endeavors in Belgrade with a musical education specializing in piano at the “Dr. Vojislav Vučković” Music School, she furthered her studies at Berklee College of Music. There, she focused on vocal studies alongside Charlie Puth and contributed backing vocals for American Grammy winners like Patti Austin and Valerie Simpson. After Berklee, she moved to New York, engaging in English songwriting for ARKTKT Publishing. Her Serbian music industry debut came with “Nema limita” for Nikolija in 2018, leading to numerous songwriting contributions for artists like Nataša Bekvalac. As a solo artist, her release “Da na meni je” in July 2019 marked the start of her vocal career, followed by her notable work “Džanum” for the “South Wind” series sequel, which achieved viral success on TikTok and significant streaming numbers on Spotify. By 2024, Teya Dora’s innovative musical contributions and unique blend of genres propelled her to represent Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Ramonda”, highlighting her as a significant figure in the Serbian music scene. Pesma Za Evroviziju The Serbian national final for the Eurovision Song Contest is called Pesma Za Evroviziju. The name exists since 2022. Before that, the national final was named Beovizija. This year the contest contained two semifinals with 14 songs each. The final consisted of 16 songs. A familiar name in the contest was the one of Konstrakta, who had a song and act being a close follow up of the 2022 song “In corpore sana”. Konstrakta reached a 4th place. Teya Dora was the no. 1 in both televote and jury vote. Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest Serbian artists have taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest in the past when Serbia was a part of Yugoslavia, and later Serbia and Montenegro. Serbia’s debut as an independent country was in 2007, when Maria Šerifović sang “Molitva” and won the contest. It was the only time Serbia won so far, but Željko Joksimović reached a 3rd place in 2012. Konstrakta was 5th in 2022. Last year, Luke Black reached the final but ended up in 24th place. photo: Indrek Galetin, Wikimedia Commons The bookmakers Currently, Serbia is in 18th place in the odds to win the Eurovision Song Contest. Although the odds for semifinal 1 are not ready, we can safely say that Serbia might reach the final. What they will do there depends on a lot of things. The song And this is the song:

Teya Dora

© EBU/Sarah Louise Bennett About Quick Facts NameTeodora Pavlovska Born01 May 1992 Nationality🇷🇸 Serbia National SelectionPesma za Evrovizija 2024 In Eurovision2024 Malmö SongRamonda (2024) Biography Teodora Pavlovska (born May 1, 1992, in Bor), known as Teya Dora, is a Serbian singer, composer, and producer. Biographical Overview Born on May 1, 1992, in Bor, within the former SFR Yugoslavia, Teodora Pavlovska balanced her academic pursuits in Belgrade with music education, specializing in piano at the “Dr. Vojislav Vučković” Music School. Her musical journey continued at Berklee College of Music in Boston, focusing on vocal studies, where she shared a classroom with Charlie Puth. Her experience expanded as she provided backing vocals for renowned American artists including Grammy winners Patti Austin, Siedah Garrett, Jerry Allen, and Valerie Simpson. Post-graduation, Pavlovska spent time in New York, where she engaged in English songwriting for ARKTKT Publishing. Her introduction to the Serbian music industry came in 2018 with the song “Nema limita” for Nikolija, leading to further songwriting contributions for Serbian talents such as “Dođi mami” (2019) for Nataša Bekvalac, “Jasno mi je” for Zoi, and “Pazi se” (2020) for Jovana Nikolić. Her own vocal career took off with the release of “Da na meni je” in July 2019 under Basivity label, followed by “Oluje” in March 2020 for the TV series “South Wind.” March 2023 saw the release of “Džanum” for the sequel series “South Wind: On the Edge,” which quickly went viral on TikTok, securing the fourth spot on Spotify’s global chart of viral songs by May 22. By June, Teya Dora joined the ranks as the third Serbian artist to garner over a million monthly listeners on Spotify, following the footsteps of Konstrakta and Luke Black who had similarly surged in popularity after their Eurovision appearances. The track also made its mark on Billboard’s music chart in Croatia, landing in the sixth position by the end of April. In addition to her solo projects, Teya Dora has contributed as a songwriter to the works of other prominent artists, including Nikolija, Nataša Bekvalac, Jovana Nikolić, Anastasija, and Zoi. On March 2nd, 2024, Teya Dora was chosen to represent Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Ramonda”. The song reached the Grand Final of the contest and gained a 17th place there. Entries Ramonda Country🇷🇸 Serbia Year2024 LanguageSerbian LyricsTeodora PavlovskaAndrijano Kadović Ajzi MusicTeodora PavlovskaLuka Jovanović Backings– Results Semi Points: 47Position: 10Running order: 2 Results Finals Points: 54Position: 17Running order: 16 https://youtu.be/4hUg64uIY_4?si=P7UBm8ED4Wn-0Wo2

🇷🇸 Teya Dora wins in Serbia!

After an exciting voting, Teya Dora has won the Serbian national final with the song “Ramaonda”. This is the full result: Teya Dora – ” Ramonda” Breskvica – “Orlovo gnezdo” Zorja, – “Lik u ogledalu” Konstrakta, – “Novo, bolje” Zejna – “Najbojla” Dušan Kurtić – “Zbog tebe živim” Bojana & David – “No No No” Džordži – “Luna Park” Lena Kovačević – “Zovi me Lena” Hristina – “Bedem” Keni nije mrtav – “Dijamanti” Iva Lorens – “Dom” M.Ira – “Percepcija” Marko Mandić – “Dno” Nemanja Radošević – “Jutra bez tebe” Milan Bujaković, “Moje tvoje”

🇷🇸 Tonight is the night for Serbia

Tonight is the night for Serbia. Pesma za Evroviziju 24 comes to an end, which means we know the Serbian entry tonight. Out of 16 songs, the Serbians will select their song. The show starts at 21:00 CET and you can watch it on YouTube. These are the contestants: nr. Title Artist(s) 1 Dom Iva Lorens 2 Luna Park Džordži 3 Orlovo gnezdo Breskvica 4 Ramonda Teya Dora 5 Bedem Hristina 6 Dno Marko Mandić 7 Percepcija M.Ira 8 Jutra bez tebe Nemanja Radošević 9 Moje tvoje Milan Bujaković 10 Dijamanti Keni mije mrtav 11 Lik u ogledalu Zorja 12 Najbolja Zejna 13 Novo, bolje Konstrakta 14 No no no Bojana & David 15 Zovi me Lena Lena Kovačević 16 Zbog tebe živim Dušan Kurtić Zorja was 3rd in 2022.Zejna took part in 2022 (13th) and 2023 (7th).Konstrakta represented Serbia in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “In Corpore Sano”.

🇷🇸 Serbia: 2nd semifinal Pesma za Evrovizija

Tonight Pesma za Evroviziju, the Serbian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, starts. 14 songs will compete, 8 of them will qualify. The final will be held this Saturday. The show starts at 21:00 CET and you can watch it on the RTS YouTube Channel and on the Eurovision YouTube Channel. These are the contestants: Nadia sings “Sudari” Hydrogen sings “Nemoguća misija” Iva Lorens sings “Dom” Zejna sings “Najbolja” Filip Baloš sings “Duga je noć” Nemanja Radošević sings “Jutra bez tebe” Yanx sings “Kolo” Kat Dosa sings “Tajni začin” Džordži sings “Luna Park” Dušan Kurtić sings “Zbog tebe živim” Teja Dora sings “Ramonda” Konstrakta sings “Novo, bolje” Milan Bujaković sings “Moje tvoje” Durlanski sings “Muzika” Nadia took part last year and was 3rd.Zejna took part in 2022 (13th) and 2023 (7th).Filip Baloš was 4th last year.Konstrakta represented Serbia in the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “In Corpore Sano”.