Tijana will now compete in Serbia’s ‘Pesma za Evroviziju ’22’, the show that will select the Serbian act for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. She replaces previously announced contestant Stefan Zdravković, who will no longer be taking part.
Tijana Dapčević will sing ‘Ljubi, ljubi doveka’. This is the song that Stefan was originally slated to perform in the selection, with lyric tweaks and a title change because the song is now being sung by a female. The title of Stefan’s version was ‘Ljubi svog čoveka’.
The song’s author Leontina Vukomanović informed the Serbian broadcaster of the line-up change.
Leontina Vukomanović told the Serbian broadcaster that Stefan Zdravković, known as ‘Prince of Vranje’, would not be singing his composition because “he gave up inappropriate terms of preparation and realisation of the festival”.
Serbia’s Selection for 2022
The rules of ‘Pesma za Evroviziju ’22’ do allow for the composer to change the singer for their composition should that need to happen.
Tijana and another 35 acts will compete in Serbia’s national selection to represent the country in Turin. The show will have two semi-finals that will take place on Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th March with the Final happening on Saturday 5th March, the winner representing Serbia at Eurovision 2022.
The rest of the line-up was announced earlier this month.
No Stanger to Eurovision
Tijana has previous experience at Eurovision, she took part in the national selection for Serbia and Montenegro with ‘Greh’ in 2006 and came 8th Place. Tijana would then go on to be internally selected to represent F.Y.R. Macedonia (now North Macedonia) with ‘To the Sky’ in 2014 when the contest took place in Copenhagen. The song did not qualify to the Grand Final.
Eurovision seems to be a family affair as Tijana is the sister of another Eurovision star Tamara Todevska, who also provided backing vocals for Tijana in 2014.
Serbia’s Eurovision Journey
In 2007, Serbia made its debut as an independent country (they previously participated through Yugoslavia and Serbia & Montenegro), where they were represented by Marija Šerifović with “Molitva, which managed to win the competition. Since their debut, Serbia has participated 13 times (10 of which, where they qualified for the Grand Final).
Their recent participation saw them being represented by Hurricane (who was due to represent them in 2020), with the song “Loco Loco”. At this year’s competition, Serbia managed to qualify for the Grand Final, where they managed to place 15th after receiving 102 points from the jury and televoters.
How do you feel about the addition of Tijana Dapčević to ‘Song for Eurovision ’22’? Are you looking forward to Serbia’s national selection? Let us know in the comments or on social media. Be sure to follow THAT Eurovision Site on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
News Source: RTS
Photo Source: Eurovision.tv
