Montenegro participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 but failed to qualify for the finals. The Montenegrin broadcaster Radio i televizija Crne Gore (RTCG) organised the national final Montevizija 2018 in order to select the Montenegrin entry for the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal.
Prior to the 2018 Contest, Montenegro had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest as an independent nation nine times since its first entry in its own right in 2007.[1] The nation's best placing in the contest was thirteenth, which they achieved in 2015 with the song "Adio" performed by Knez. In 2014, Montenegro qualified to the final for the first time since they began participating and have since featured in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest two times up to this point. The nation briefly withdrew from the competition between 2010 and 2011 citing financial difficulties as the reason for their absence.[2][3] In 2007 and 2008, the Montenegrin entry was selected via the national final MontenegroSong. Since 2009, the broadcaster had opted to internally select both the artist and song that would represent Montenegro. For the selection of the 2018 entry, RTCG opted to return to a national final format.[4]
Before Eurovision[]
Montevizija 2018[]
Montevizija 2018 was the national final organised by RTCG in order to select Montenegro's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. Five entries competed in a televised final on 17 February 2018, which was held at the Hilton Hotel in Podgorica and hosted by Dajana Golubović Pejović and Ivan Maksimović.[5] The show was televised on TVCG 1 and TVCG SAT as well as broadcast online via the broadcaster's website rtcg.me.[6]
Competing entries[]
Artists and songwriters were able to submit their entries between 1 November 2017 and mid December 2017. Songwriters of any nationality were allowed to submit entries, but songs were required to be in the Montenegrin language.[7] At the closing of the deadline, RTCG received 31 entries. A selection jury consisting of singer Ismeta Dervoz, composer Kornelije Kovač, composer and producer Dejan Božović, composer Slaven Knezović and singer Vladimir Maraš evaluated the received submissions and selected five entries for the national final.[8] The selected entries were announced on 16 January 2018.[5]
Final[]
The final took place on 17 February 2018. The winner was selected over two rounds of public SMS voting. In the first round, the top three entries proceeded to the second round, the superfinal: "Inje" performed by Vanja Radovanović, "Neželjena" performed by Katarina Bogićević and "Dušu mi daj" performed by Lorena Janković. In the superfinal, "Inje" performed by Vanja Radovanović was selected as the winner. The public SMS vote in the two rounds combined was 10,006 votes.[9]
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 29 January 2018, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Montenegro was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 10 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[10]
Once all the competing songs for the 2018 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Montenegro was set to perform in position 16, following the entry from Sweden and preceding the entry from Slovenia.[11]
Voting[]
Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.
Montenegro
Serbia
Slovenia
Malta
Ukraine
Norway
Romania
San Marino
Denmark
Russia
Moldova
Netherlands
Australia
Georgia
Poland
Hungary
Latvia
Sweden
Spain
Lithuania
Austria
Estonia
Portugal
United Kingdom
Germany
Albania
France
Czech Republic
Finland
Bulgaria
Israel
Ireland
Cyprus
Italy