Jelena Tomasevic to represent Serbia

The Serbian entry for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest was selected in the Beovizija festival, which has been taking place every year since 2003. Yesterday evening, a semi-final took place with twenty entries, the ten best of which proceeded to tonight's final. Apart from the national final participants, the semi-final had already featured several representatives of other countries for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, who had all travelled to Belgrade to present their contributions to the Serbian public: Stefan Filipović from Montenegro, Rebeka Dremelj from Slovenia, Kraljevi Ulice feat. 75 Cents from Croatia, Laka from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tamara, Vrčak & Adrian from FYR Macedonia, and Isis Gee from Poland. Moreover, the organisers paid tribute to Toše Proeski, winner of the first edition of Beovizija in 2003 and representative of FYR Macedonia in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest, who had died in a car accident last year.

The show

During the interval act, the festival awards were given in the following categories:

• Best Novice - Drum'n'Zez
• Best Stage Performance - Aleksa Jelić & Ana Štajdohar (Beli Jablan)
• Best Arrangement - Saša Milošević Mare (Zavet)
• Best Lyrics - Jelena Galonić (U Život Kockam Se - Zana)
• Best Interpretation - Ivana Peters (S Tobom Bih Ostala - Negativ) and Jelena Tomasevic (Oro)
• OGAE Fan Club Award - Vladimir Graić (Zavet)

The annual awards were presented to the following artists:

• Best Female Singer - Marija Šerifović 
• Song Of The Year - Vladimir Graić and Saša Milošević (Molitva)
• Best Comeback - Dejan Cukić
• Best Video - Kristina Kovač (Kolena)
• Award For The Promotion Of Serbian Music Abroad - Bilja Krstić and the Bistrik Band
• Award For The Best Humanitarian Music Project - Ivan Plavšić 
• Best Music Event - Music Star Company (concert of the Rolling Stones)
• Best Concert - Belgrade Arena (Joe Cocker)
• Best TV Series Music - Željko Joksimović
• Best Single - Natasa Bekvalac
• Best Pop Band - Neverne bebe
• Best Album - Zdravko Čolić
• Best Ballad - Aleksandra Radovic 
• Best Concert Tour - Željko Samardžić
• Duško Trifunović Award - Bora Đorđević and Ana Stanić (awarded by the Serbian Record Company PGP RTS)

After the final round of the national selection, fan club OGAE Serbia organized an after-party for all participants, special guests and media representatives. 

The songs

The show featured ten songs, with the winner being chosen by both televoting and an expert jury. Their voting results were both converted to a scheme from one to twelve points and added up. This is the final ranking: 

1. Jelena Tomašević - Oro - 24 points
2. Aleksa Jelić & Ana Štajdohar - Beli Jablan - 20 points
3. Beauty Queens - Zavet - 16 points
4. Betty Boop - Kvar - 13 points
5. Studio Alektik & Cveta Majtanović - Iznad Nas - 11 points
6. Lejla Hot - Da Si Tu - 8 points 
7. Marko Vulinović - Sada Ili Nikada - 7 points
8. Drum'n'Zez - Dunav - 6 points
9. Zoe Kida U Zemlju Gruva - Čudesni Svetovi - 6 points
10. Ognjen & Prijatelji - Čućemo, Čućete - 5 points

The winner

Jelena Tomašević won the Beovizija already in 2005, but back at that time, the festival only served as a semi-final of the national selection procedure of Serbia and Montenegro. In the final, she was narrowly beaten by the band No Name from Montenegro. This time, however, she finally made it. Her song Oro was written by Željko Joksimović, who had represented Serbia and Montenegro in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest, reaching the second place. He will be one of the presenters of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade. Being the host country, Serbia is directly qualified for the Final of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest on 24th May.

Update 1:14 CET: Awards information added, contributed by RTS