Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest

As Serbia was part of Yugoslavia, it had the opportunity to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest after Yugoslavia's debut at the contest in 1961. It debuted the same year as Spain and Finland and became the first and, for three decades, only socialist country to participate in the competition. The best result of Yugoslavia occurred in 1989 when it won with "Rock Me", sung in Serbo-Croatian and English by Riva. Yugoslavia participated regularly until its breakup between 1991 and 1992.

After a period of absence from 1993 until 2003, Serbia and Montenegro returned to the contest in 2004. They finished in second place with song "Lane moje" performed by Željko Joksimović. By 2006, Serbia and Montenegro split, and with Serbia making its debut entry as an independent nation with the ballad "Molitva" by Marija Šerifović. "Molitva" won the 2007 contest, receiving 268 points, making Serbia the first country to win with a debut entry after Switzerland's win at the first edition. Subsequently, Serbia was host of the 2008 contest in its capital Belgrade.

The second Serbian entry, performed in Belgrade was written by past entrant for Serbia as part of Serbia and Montenegro and contest host Željko Joksimović. The song "Oro", an ethnic ballad, performed by Jelena Tomašević came 6th and received 160 points in the overall rankings.

In 2009, Serbia selected Marko Kon and Milaan to represent them in the second semi-final on 14 May. The duo failed to qualify for the final, marking it the first time Serbia failed to qualify for the final since the introduction of semi-finals.

In 2010, Milan Stanković was selected to represent the country in the contest with "Ovo je Balkan", an upbeat song with ethno elements, and is about a love story set in Belgrade. It qualified for the final and in the end achieved 13th place with 72 points.

In 2011, Nina was selected with her 1960s inspired song, "Čaroban". She was accompanied with three other singers who would be dancing throughout the performance. In the semi-finals She performed 6th and qualified for the final. In the final, she performed 24th and achieved 14th place.

After finishing second in 2004 when representing Serbia and Montenegro, Željko Joksimović returned to compete in 2012 with the song "Nije ljubav stvar". On the second semi-final he took second place, while he finished third in the final, below second-placed Russia and the winner, Sweden.

Moje 3 represented Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö with the song "Ljubav je svuda". They would finish 11th in the first semi-final, therefore not qualifying for the final. This was the second time that Serbia did not qualify for the final.

On 22 November 2013, Serbian broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) announced that it would withdraw from the 2014 contest due to financial difficulties and a lack of available sponsorship for a potential Serbian entry.[1]

In April 2014, Serbia announced that they will broadcast all three shows. In addition, they said that it is likely to return at 2015 and that they will probably hold a national selection to find their representative. On 26 September 2014, it was reported that Serbia had decided to return to the 2015 contest to be held in Austrian capital, Vienna.[2]

On 15 February 2015 Serbia chose their own representative in the TV show "Odbrojavanje za Beč". Odbrojavanje za Beč (English: Countdown for Vienna) was the national final organised by RTS in order to select the Serbian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. The selection featured three songs composed by Vladimir Graić, the composer of Serbia's winning entry "Molitva" in 2007. Two of the songs were performed by established Serbian artists Bojana Stamenov and Aleksa Jelić, while one was performed by Danica Krstić, a new talent chosen by Graić through a scouting process.

Bojana Stamenov was selected as the Serbian representative for Vienna through a 50:50 voting system, where both the audience and the jury voted for her song "Ceo svet je moj" (The whole world is mine) to represent Serbia in Austria. It was later announced that she would perform her song in English (a first for a Serbian entry) titled "Beauty Never Lies". Despite being low with the odds and fan votings, Bojana surprised everyone in the first semifinal and became one of the big press and fan favourites. She qualified to the final with 9th place in Semi-Final 1, but managed to achieve another top 10 result for Serbia in the Grand Final, scoring 53 points and the 10th place.

In March 2016, Radio Television of Serbia internally decided for Sanja Vučić to represent Serbia in Stockholm, Sweden with the song "Goodbye (Shelter)".[3] In the Eurovision 2016, she performed in the second semi-final, qualifying through. In the grand final, Vučić placed 18th by scoring 115 points.[4] The following Eurovision, Serbia was represented by Tijana Bogićević in Kyiv, Ukraine, again chosen by the national broadcaster.[5] She failed to qualify from the second semi-final by finishing 11th.[6]

In February 2018, Sanja Ilić and the world music group Balkanika were declared the winners of the returning Beovizija contest.[7] They performed in the second semi-final of the Eurovision 2018, hosted in Lisbon, Portugal. In the final, Sanja Ilić and Balkanika finished in 19th place with 113 points.[8] Subsequently, the Beovizija 2019 was won by Nevena Božović and "Kruna", who therefore represented Serbia in Tel Aviv, Israel.[9] Božović, who qualified from the first semi-final, scored 89 points in the final and thus placed 18th.[10]

On March 1, 2020, girl group Hurricane won Beovizija 2020 with "Hasta la vista" and were supposed to compete in Rotterdam, Netherlands.[11] The Eurovision 2020 was, however, eventually cancelled due the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2020, Radio Television of Serbia selected Hurricane internally to represent Serbia in the Eurovision 2021.[12] Hurricane performed their new entry, "Loco loco", in the second semi-final, going through. In the final they went on to place 15th with 102 points.[13]

The following year, Beovizija was replaced by the newly-established national selection contest, Pesma za Evroviziju. The contest's first edition, held in March 2022, was won by Konstrakta and "In corpore sano", who was therefore chosen to represent Serbia in the Eurovision 2022, hosted in Turin, Italy.[14] Konstrakta qualified from the semi-final 2. In the final she placed 5th with 312 points.[15] "In corpore sano" became the most successful Serbian entry since 2012. Furthermore, Konstrakta also won the Artistic Marcel Bezençon Award and two Eurovision Awards - the Most Innovative Staging and the Best Lyrics.[16][17]

At the beginning of March 2023, RTS organized Pesma za Evroviziju '23, where Luke Black with "Samo mi se spava" was declared the winner and Serbian representative in Liverpool, United Kingdom.[18] In Liverpool, Luke finished in 24th place with 30 points.

Pesma za Evroviziju '24 will be held to select the Serbian representative in 2024.[19]

All the events were broadcast on RTS1, except the 2013 final and the 2015 second semi-final, which were broadcast on RTS2 and 2023 semi-finals which were broadcast on cable channel RTS3.

• From 1961 until 1992, Serbia competed as part of Yugoslavia and from 2004 to 2005 as part of Serbia and Montenegro.