As one of the last countries to pick their entry for the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, this year's host Serbia will decide tonight. The Serbian representative will be the winner of the Beovizija festival, which takes place in the Sava Centar in Belgrade - the place which will host the press centre for accredited journalists during the time of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. The Beovizija festival was carried out for the first time in 2003, when Toše Proeski won with his song Ćija Si.
The participants
Yesterday, the ten finalists have been chosen in a semi-final out of twenty participants. Here is the running order of the singers and songs:
Betty Boop - Kvar
Beauty Queens - Zavet
Drum'n'Zez - Dunav
Marko Vulinović - Sada Ili Nikada
Aleksa Jelić & Ana Štajdohar - Beli Jablan
Studio Alektik & Cveta Majtanović - Iznad Nas
Jelena Tomašević - Oro
Ognjen & Prijatelji - Čućemo, Čućete
Zoe Kida U Zemlju Gruva - Čudesni Svetovi
Lejla Hot - Da Si Tu
The list contains both newcomers and well-known faces. One of them is Jelena Tomašević, who already came second in the national final of Serbia and Montenegro for the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest with her song Jutro. This time, she will sing the ballad Oro, which was written by the very same composer: Željko Joksimović, second-placed singer in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest and, interestingly enough, one of the presenters of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest! The backing vocalists who supported last year's winner of the Eurovision Song Contest, Marija Šerifović, on stage in Helsinki are back with their own song as well. They decided to call themselves Beauty Queens, and they will sing Zavet, a ballad written by the same team that wrote Marija Šerifović's Molitva.
The show
The final of the Beovizija festival will start at 21:00 CET tonight. You can follow the show via satellite on RTS Sat as well as through Eurovision.tv´s esctv! Being the host country of the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest, Serbia will be one of the five countries that are directly qualified for the Final on the 24th May.
