Serbia has been represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 18 times since making its debut in . The Serbian participating broadcaster in the contest is (RTS). Serbia won the contest on its debut with "Molitva" by Marija Šerifović. The country's other top five results are third place in with "Nije ljubav stvar" by Željko Joksimović, and fifth place in with "In corpore sano" by Konstrakta. Serbia's other top ten results are sixth place () and tenth place ().
Before its independence, the Socialist Republic of Serbia participated in the contest as part of (both the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from to and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in ), and the Republic of Serbia participated as part of (from to ).
Participation (RTS) has been a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 2006, thus eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest since then. It has participated in the contest representing Serbia since the in 2007.
Before the country became independent on 5 June 2006, entries from Serbia had participated in the contest as part of and later . Four Yugoslav entrants in the contest came from the former SR Serbia: , , , and ), and one of Serbia and Montenegro's entrants came from the former Republic of Serbia ().
History 2000s Serbia made its debut in the contest as an independent nation with the ballad "Molitva" by Marija Šerifović. "Molitva" won the , receiving 268 points, making Serbia the first country to win with a debut entry after Switzerland's win at the first edition. Subsequently, Serbia was host of the in its capital Belgrade.
The second Serbian entry, performed in Belgrade was written by past entrant for Serbia as part of Serbia and Montenegro and contest host Željko Joksimović. The song "Oro", an ethnic ballad, performed by Jelena Tomašević came 6th and received 160 points in the overall rankings.
In 2009, Serbia selected Marko Kon and Milaan to represent them in the second semi-final on 14 May. The duo failed to qualify for the final, marking it the first time Serbia failed to qualify for the final since the introduction of semi-finals.
2010s In 2010, Milan Stanković was selected to represent the country in the contest with "Ovo je Balkan", an upbeat song with ethno elements, and is about a love story set in Belgrade. It qualified for the final and in the end achieved 13th place with 72 points. In 2011, Nina was selected with her 1960s inspired song, "Čaroban". She was accompanied with three other singers who would be dancing throughout the performance. In the semi-finals She performed 6th and qualified for the final. In the final, she performed 24th and achieved 14th place. After finishing second in 2004 when representing Serbia and Montenegro, Željko Joksimović returned to compete in with the song "Nije ljubav stvar". On the second semi-final he took second place, while he finished third in the final, below second-placed Russia and the winner, Sweden. Moje 3 represented Serbia in the in Malmö with the song "Ljubav je svuda". They would finish 11th in the first semi-final, therefore not qualifying for the final. This was the second time that Serbia did not qualify for the final. On 22 November 2013, RTS announced that it would not participate in the due to financial difficulties and a lack of available sponsorship for a potential Serbian entry. They did, however, broadcast all three shows.
On 26 September 2014, it was reported that Serbia had decided to return to the contest to be held in Austrian capital, Vienna. On 15 February 2015 Serbia chose their own representative in the TV show "Odbrojavanje za Beč". Odbrojavanje za Beč (English: Countdown for Vienna) was the national final organised by RTS in order to select the Serbian entry for the . The selection featured three songs composed by Vladimir Graić, the composer of Serbia's winning entry "Molitva" in 2007. Two of the songs were performed by established Serbian artists Bojana Stamenov and Aleksa Jelić, while one was performed by Danica Krstić, a new talent chosen by Graić through a scouting process. Bojana Stamenov was selected as the Serbian representative for Vienna through a 50:50 voting system, where both the audience and the jury voted for her song "Ceo svet je moj" (The whole world is mine) to represent Serbia in Austria. It was later announced that she would perform her song in English (a first for a Serbian entry) titled "Beauty Never Lies". Despite being low with the odds and fan votings, Bojana surprised everyone in the first semifinal and became one of the big press and fan favourites. She qualified to the final with 9th place in Semi-Final 1, but managed to achieve another top 10 result for Serbia in the Grand Final, scoring 53 points and the 10th place.
In March 2016, RTS internally decided for Sanja Vučić to represent Serbia in Stockholm, Sweden with the song "Goodbye (Shelter)". In the , she performed in the second semi-final, qualifying through. In the grand final, Vučić placed 18th by scoring 115 points. The , Serbia was represented by Tijana Bogićević in Kyiv, Ukraine, again chosen by the national broadcaster. She failed to qualify from the second semi-final by finishing 11th.
In February 2018, Sanja Ilić and the world music group Balkanika were declared the winners of the returning Beovizija contest. They performed in the second semi-final of the , hosted in Lisbon, Portugal. In the final, Sanja Ilić and Balkanika finished in 19th place with 113 points. Subsequently, the Beovizija 2019 was won by Nevena Božović and "Kruna", who therefore represented Serbia in Tel Aviv, Israel. Božović, who qualified from the first semi-final, scored 89 points in the final and thus placed 18th.
2020s On March 1, 2020, girl group Hurricane won with "" and were supposed to compete in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The was, however, eventually cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In December 2020, RTS selected Hurricane internally to represent Serbia in the . Hurricane performed their new entry, "Loco loco", in the second semi-final, going through. In the final they went on to place 15th with 102 points.
The following year, was replaced by the newly-established national selection contest, . The contest's first edition, held in March 2022, was won by Konstrakta and "", who was therefore chosen to represent Serbia in the , hosted in Turin, Italy. Konstrakta qualified from the semi-final 2. In the final she placed 5th with 312 points. "" became the most successful Serbian entry since 2012. Furthermore, Konstrakta also won the Artistic Marcel Bezençon Award and two Eurovision Awards - the Most Innovative Staging and the Best Lyrics.
At the beginning of March 2023, RTS organized , where Luke Black with "" was declared the winner and Serbian representative in Liverpool, United Kingdom. In Liverpool, Luke finished in 24th place in the finals with 30 points.
was held to select the Serbian representative in 2024, and was won by Teya Dora with the song "Ramonda". In Malmö, Teya finished in 17th place in the finals with 54 points.
was held to select Serbia's entry for the 2025 contest, with Princ winning with the song "Mila". The entry failed to qualify from the semi-finals, ending a six-year streak of reaching the final. It was later revealed that it finished in 14th place with 28 points in the semi-final, which marked their worst result to date.
was held to select the entry for 2026. Lavina won the selection with the song "". The song qualified from the semi-final. Lavina finished in 17th place in the finals with 90 points.
Participation overview
Prior to and 's dissolution, artists from the Serbian federal unit represented Yugoslavia in , , and as a republic unit in and . + Table key 1 First place 2 Second place 3 Third place ◇ Entry selected but did not compete
Year Artist Song Language Final Points Semi Points Marija Šerifović "" Serbian 1 268 1 298 Jelena Tomašević Bora Dugić "" Serbian 6 160 colspan="2" Marko Kon and Milaan "" Serbian colspan="2" 10 60 Milan Stanković "" Serbian 13 72 5 79 Nina "" Serbian 14 85 8 67 Željko Joksimović "" Serbian 3 214 2 159 Moje 3 "" Serbian colspan="2" 11 46 Bojana Stamenov "Beauty Never Lies" English 10 53 9 63 Sanja Vučić Zaa "Goodbye (Shelter)" English 18 115 10 105 Tijana Bogićević "In Too Deep" English colspan="2" 11 98 Sanja Ilić and Balkanika "" Serbian 19 113 9 117 Nevena Božović "" Serbian 18 89 7 156 Hurricane ◇ "" ◇ Serbian ◇ colspan="4" Hurricane "" Serbian 15 102 8 124 Konstrakta "" Serbian, Latin 5 312 3 237 Luke Black "" Serbian, English 24 30 10 37 Teya Dora "" Serbian 17 54 10 47 Princ "" Serbian colspan="2" 14 28 Lavina "" Serbian 17 90 5 187
Hostings
Year Location Venue Presenters Image Belgrade Belgrade Arena Jovana Janković and Željko Joksimović
Awards Marcel Bezençon Awards
YearCategorySongPerformerFinalPointsHost city Artistic Award"Molitva" Marija Šerifović1 268 Helsinki Artistic Award"In corpore sano"Konstrakta5312 Turin
Winner by OGAE members
YearSongPerformerFinalPointsHost city "Molitva" Marija Šerifović 1 268 Helsinki
Barbara Dex Award
YearPerformerHost cityMilan Stanković OsloMoje 3 Malmö
Related involvement Heads of delegations Each participating broadcaster in the Eurovision Song Contest assigns a head of delegation as the EBU's contact person and the leader of their delegation at the event. The delegation, whose size can greatly vary, includes a head of press, the performers, songwriters, composers, and backing vocalists, among others. YearHead of delegation –Anja Rogljić –Dragan Ilić–Anja Rogljić–presentUroš Marković
Jury members Each participating broadcaster assembles a five-member jury panel consisting of music industry professionals for the Eurovision Song Contest, ranking all entries except for their own. The modern incarnation of jury voting was introduced beginning with the , and , the juries' votes constitute just under 50% of the overall result in the final alongside televoting.
+ Jury members Year Juror 1 Juror 2 Juror 3 Juror 4 Juror 5 Dejan Cukić Marko Kon Ksenija Milošević Nevena Božović Slobodan Marković Nikola Čuturilo Vladimir Graić Ana Milenković Ivana Peters Vojkan Borisavljević Ana Štajdohar Bojana Stamenov Dejan Cukić Bane Krstić Sanja Ilić Leontina Vukomanović Silvana Grujić Vojislav Aralica (Extra Nena) Ivana Peters Milan Stanković Slobodan Marković Tijana Bogićević Dušan Alagić Jelena Tomašević Miloš Luka Roganović Srđan Marjanović Dragan Đorđević Zoran Živanović Ana Đurić Sandra Perović Sara Jovanović Luka Ivanović (Luke Black) Lena Kovačević Zejna Murkić Aleksandar Habić Luka Jovanović (Luxonee) Bojana Stamenov Ivana Peters Olga Biserčić
Broadcasts Viewership YearShow First semi-final Second semi-final FinalShareShareShare 3,350,000 52.2% 660,000 2,262,000 30.3% 15.2% 29.9% 2,500,000 43.1% 1,200,000 1,800,000 1,150,000 47% 500,000 227,186 8,43% 149,391 5,4% 2,000,000 673,706 29,45% 1,860,832 837,678 37% 303,000 15%
Commentators and spokespersons For the show's broadcast on RTS, various commentators have provided commentary on the contest in the Serbian language. At the Eurovision Song Contest after all points are calculated, the presenters of the show call upon each voting country to invite each respective spokesperson to announce the results of their vote on-screen.
From until , Serbia competed as part of Yugoslavia, and from to as part of Serbia and Montenegro. The Serbian affiliates of the Yugoslav Radio Television (JRT) first and (UJRT) later broadcast the contest there with Serbian commentary.