Following Serbia’s withdrawal from the 2023 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, RTS head of delegation Olivera Kovačević confirmed to ESCplus that they would not return in 2024. Serbia last participated in 2022.
Serbia opts to focus their resources
Kovačević explained that the decision was made in part on financial grounds; RTS wishes to focus their budget on the adult version of Eurovision at this time. Additionally, Junior Eurovision received low viewership in Serbia over the past few years. In 2022, the broadcast only achieved 1.25% audience share, or just over 32,500 viewers, in Serbia.
Serbia’s Junior Eurovision journey
Before participating at Eurovision as an independent country, Serbia debuted in the 2006 Junior Eurovision Song Contest with the group Neustrašivi učitelji stranih jezika. Their song “Učimo strane jezike” (Учимо стране језике) placed 5th. The Balkan nation competed until 2010 and returned to the contest in 2014, where they participated yearly until 2022. Serbia also boasts a Junior Eurovision record: Nevena Božović, who achieved Serbia’s best-ever Junior Eurovision result in 2007, was the first Junior Eurovision alumna to compete at the big contest. She has, in fact, done so twice–as part of Moje 3 in 2013 and as a solo artist in 2019.
Katarina Savić, with the song “Svet Bez Granica”, represented Serbia in 2022. Savić placed 13th overall in the competition and received 92 points from the jury and online voting.
Will you miss Serbia at JESC this year? Will this decision pay off come Eurovision 2025? As always, let us know what you think by commenting below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Bluesky as we head towards Junior Eurovision 2024!
News Source: ESCplus
Photo Credit: Corinne Cumming/EBU
Tim J
Then it’s up to the following to happen.
🇩🇰 TV2 to send Sophia Cederqvist Stege and Naya Kjærsgaard Valen, who won Denmark’s Melodi Grand Prix Junior in 2023 and 2024, respectively, as a duo…unless DR starts to realize how important Junior Eurovision was before 2006
🇮🇸 RUV to confirm Iceland’s debut and encourage the rest of the Nordic bloc to participate
🇳🇴 NRK to send Norway’s Melodi Grand Prix Junior 2021 winners Josefine Westgaard and Oskar Høgetveit to Madrid with a song that could be a sequel to “Smitte deg med glede”, as long as they’re involved in songwriting
🇸🇮 RTVSLO to be happy that the contest will take place on a Saturday night for the first time since 2015
https://www.tvp.pl/77519969/eurowizja-junior-2024-co-wiemy-o-konkursie-piosenki-dla-mlodych-wokalistow