Disclaimer: The video and written reaction below features the opinions and views of the reviewers and does not necessarily represent the views of That Eurovision Site as a whole!
As the songs competing for this year’s competition in Basel continue to be selected, the team at That Eurovision Site will react to the entries that will be participating at Eurovision 2025. The first entry we will react to is Monetnegro, which will be competing in this year’s competition with “Dobrodošli” by Nina Žižić.
Our thoughts on “Dobrodošli”
In this series, we will provide our opinions via two methods. One of our team members will be reacting on video, which you can see below, whilst up to three members will give their written opinion on the entry. Molly will be on the main seat and will be showing her reaction to “Dobrodošli”
What did the other team members think of “Dobrodošli”?
Daniel: I’m not a fan of the manner in which this became Montenegro’s entry, but I’d be telling a lie if I said I don’t think their chances at returning to the final have gone up. Nina’s performance at Montesong was to me one of the most impressive, she’s a good vocalist, and I think the song is a throughly well put together Balkan ballad, which is high praise, but I feel it will need elevating when it comes to May. The NF performance showed there was a vision, and the revamped Eurovision version has built on it really well. Especially in a year of people seemingly competing for who can shout the loudest, this has a very decent shot at qualification, but do worry that they could haemorrhage votes to Greece who have a fairly similar, in my opinion, stronger, song. All things considered I think the ceiling for Nina would be a lower mid table finish.
Euan: While I did think the performance Nina did at Montesong was a lot flatter than I’d have expected of her, it was by no stretch of the imagination bad. If she can deliver such a perfromance on a stripped back NF, then I have great hopes of this song being elevated dramatically at Eurovision itself. This is definitely a song that will be leaning more on the jury in the final, but I don’t think we should underestimate the impact this could have on the televote. Obviously we don’t have any other songs to compare this to, but this is the sort of emotive and powerful ballad that should do more than scrape through to the final. I don’t think we have a winner on our hands, though for Montenegro I feel that the goal should be qualifying which this has a strong possibility of doing. If the stars align I wouldn’t be surpirsed to see this scrape the top ten, and feel this could be a comfortable mid-table finish for them.
With regards to the revamp, I think that keeping the changes simple were a strong choice. They’ve kept all the important emotion in the song, but added a more dramatic and memorable twist to it that I think should really help it stand out more.
Kittens: I’m very torn on this. For me, the song does not stand out for me on it’s own, but Nina is a showstopping performer. It really depends whether the performance can be made to stand out enough, as the staging from the national final was very stripped back. I do think it might suffer in a televote only semi-situation, even though the revamp is certainly much better, turning up the drama a notch. Still, with an accomplished performer to do it with, I think they have the capacity to rise to the challenge, but it is quite a challenge ahead of them.
Listen to “Dobrodošli” on streaming platforms
You are able to listen to Monetenegro’s Eurovision 2025 entry on the following streaming platforms:
Spotify
Apple Music
Montenegro’s Eurovision Journey
Before Montenegro announced its return to the Eurovision Song Contest for 2025, they had a scattered appearance at the competition.
There has been a Montenegrin presence at the Eurovision Song Contest as far back as 1983, when the nation was a part of Yugoslavia. Montenegrin entries went on to represent Yugoslavia in 1983 and 1984, placing 4th and 18th respectively. Similarly, the nation also sent an entry as part of Serbia and Montenegro in 2005, placing 7th with No Name’s “Zauvijek moja”.
As an independent nation, Montenegro debuted in 2007 with Steven Faddy’s “Ajde, kroci”. This began a string of non-qualifications, until their first appearance in a Grand Final in 2014. Montenegro’s best result came in 2015 with Knez’s “Adio”, scoring 44 points and placing 13th. Their most recent appearance in the Contest was in 2022, when Vladana finished in 17th place in the semi-final with 33 points with her song “Breathe”.
What do you think of “Dobrodošli”? Are you excited to see what Nina will do in Basel? As always, let us know what you think by commenting below. Also, be sure to follow “That Eurovision Site” on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Tumblr, Threads and Bluesky as we gear up for Eurovision 2025!
News Source: That Eurovision Site
Photo Credit: Nada Vojinović