Beovizija 2009 was the seventh edition of Beovizija organised by RTS in order to select the Serbian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2009. The selection featured a semi-final and a final held on 7 and 8 March 2009, respectively.[1] Both shows, hosted by Jovana Janković, Milena Vasić and Srđan Timarov, aired on RTS1, RTS Sat, Radio Belgrade, RTRS in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as online at rts.rs.[2]
Competing entries
Artists and songwriters were able to submit their entries between 24 December 2008 and 24 January 2009. Songs were required to be written and performed by Serb citizens and in Serbian.[3] At the closing of the deadline, 90 submissions were received by RTS. A selection committee reviewed the submissions and selected twenty entries for the national final. The selected entries were announced on 30 January 2009. The selection committee consisted of Jelena Ilić, Ana Milićević and Jelena Vlahović.[4]
Twenty songs competed during the semi-final at the Sava Centar in Belgrade on 7 March 2009. The ten qualifiers were decided by a combination of votes from a jury panel, consisting of Jelena Jovičić (actress), Jovan Maljoković (musician, composer) and Ivan Ivačković (rock critic), and the Serbian public via SMS voting. Due to technical errors in the SMS vote, non-qualifiers Ana Nikolić and Ivana Selakov were later announced to have qualified for the final, however Nikolić declined to participate.
Since Serbia is not one of the "Big Four" and is not the host of the 2009 contest, it had to compete in one of the two semi-finals. At the semi-final allocation draw on 30 January, it was decided that the country would compete in the second semi-final on 14 May 2009.[5][6][7]
Marko and Milaan performed 4th in the running order of the semi-final, following Latvia and preceding Poland. The duo failed to qualify Serbia to the final for the first time in the country's Eurovision history.
Serbia
