Introduction

As one of the first countries, Montenegro announced the representative for Vienna last year already. The popular singer Knez has been chosen by the Montenegrin broadcaster RTCG, the song “Adio” has been announced later.
Knez, whose full name is Nenad Knežević was born in Cetinje, Montenegro (former Yugoslavia) in 1967. He started singing during high school times in Podgorica, where he joined several groups. Later on he founded the “Montenegro Band” together with his father. In 1992 Knez started his solo career at the Belgrade Pop Festival, shortly after that he released his first album. By now Knez is one of the most popular singer in Montenegro and even beyond, giving concerts and winning events such as the Budva Festival and composing songs for other singers. Singers from the Balkan often enjoy popularity in several countries. This also explains the “Balkan Bloc Voting” phenomenon, as most of the singers are well known all over the region. The 46 years old singer Knez has released several albums and is under City Records contract. He already tried to qualify for the national final in 2008 and came 3rd.

The entry from Montenegro is called “Adio”, which means adieu or good bye. This is the only entry in this year’s ESC which is a real folkloristic one. Traditional instruments accompany the sweetly sad melody. This piece of music has been composed by nobody less than Željko Joksimović, who had good successes in the ESC both as singer and composer (and as a host). Željko’s songs in the ESC are always from the similar character, catchy, dreamy and with an instant appeal. Normally Knez is more known for faster music. One of his biggest hits was “Donna”, which also showed some Latin elements. Due to the fact that Željko’s songs always shape up very well, this one has good chances for a qualification.

History

Debut: 2007
Participations: 7
Finals: 1
Top 10: 0
Chance for Top 10: 0%

In the short history of Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest it’s only the seventh time for the Balkan country this year in Vienna. Montenegro has also taken part two times as “Serbia & Montenegro” in 2004 and 2005. These entries have been very successful “Lane Moje” by Željko Joksimović in 2004 (2nd place) and “Zauvijek Moja” by the group No Name in 2005 (7th place).
Before Montenegro was a part of Yugoslavia, which had the debut in 1961 in Cannes with “Neke Davne Zvezde” by Ljiljana Petrovic (8th rank). There was one victory for Yugoslavia in 1989 with “Rock me” by Riva. Unfortunately, Montenegro has never made it into the Grand Final until last year. Even with a little help of the other ex-Yugoslav countries it did not reach the Grand Finals before, where Sergej Ćetković could make a 19th place with the folkloristic ballad “Moj Svijet”.

Even the German composer Ralph Siegel has tried to bring some success to the Mediterranean country with “Just get out of my life” by Andrea Demirovic in 2009 (11th in the Semi Final) but it was not successful either. The other songs have mainly been unglamorous rock songs like “Ajde Kroci” by Stevan Faddy in 2007 (21st in the Semi Final) and “Zauvijek Volim Te” by Stefan Filipović in 2008 (14th in the Semi Final). Maybe the composers did have not the right hand of composing something for an international audience in the ESC. One exception was the entry “Igranka” by the group Who See, which was a truly outstanding performance with astronaut costumes, unfortunately the song did not qualify for the Grand Final in Malmö.