Montenegro to return to a national final for 2018!
We’ve come to know a Montenegro who selects their Eurovision act and entry through an internal selection, however things are going to change for 2018. For the first time in a long while, Montenegro is opting to use a national final selection process to choose their 2018 Eurovision act, and we now have more information on their process.
The selection process is called Montevizija, and the last time this format was used was back in 2006 as the semi-final to determine the Serbia and Montenegro representative (just to recap, Serbia and Montenegro first participated as independent nations in 2007). So what we know so far is that the 2018 Montevizija will consist of one final which will be held on the 17th of February. During this show, there will be five acts competing, and the winner will be chosen solely through public voting, which is starting to become a rare occurrence in Eurovision national selections which often include a jury or expert panel to help decide the winner. Montenegrin broadcaster RTCG is obviously putting their faith into the public, but perhaps it’s what the nation needed to produce a successful entry for Eurovision 2018!
Here are some of the rules and regulations of the contest, which will also show us what we can expect from the competition next year. Firstly, the artists and composers can be from across the world, however the lyrics of the entries must be in an official language of Montenegro. Each artist is allowed to submit up to two entries, and the submission period will finish mid-December.
Montenegro has had mixed success since their independent debut at the contest in 2007. The nation participated between 2007 and 2009 with no qualifications to their name, and upon their return in 2012, found themselves in the same predicament. It wasn’t until 2014 that Montenegro finally found themselves a spot in the Eurovision final with Sergej Ćetković and his song Moj Svijet. The following year, Knez improved on their 19th place of the year previous, as he finished in 13th place with his song Adio. The nation’s luck ran out there, as the last two years have seen Montenegro stuck in the semi-final, even despite of Slavko’s memorable performance of the song Space, which you can watch below!
