Introduction

• Participant(s): Vanja Radovanović
• Song: "Inje" 
  
• Writer(s): Vladimir Radovanovic
• Composer(s): Vladimir Radovanovic
• Broadcaster: RTCG
  
• Social media:      
• Team review: 

Congratulations to the 10th anniversary of Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest. It all started in 2007 when Montenegro started as an independent participant. Two times Montenegro could reach the Grand Final.

This year there has been a national final by the Montenegrin broadcaster RTCG called “Montevizija 2018” with five entries. The traditional entry “Inje” by Vanja Radovanović could win the golden ticket for Lisbon with 37% of the votes in the superfinal.

Vanja was born in Belgrade in 1982 and is a singer and songwriter, also for other artists. He studied economics but always wanted to be a musician. He took part in the Budna Festival in 2004 with his self-composed song “Dripac” . Over the years Vanja has composed several songs and albums like “Kiša i sunce” ; “Pricaj dodirom” . As a lead singer for the band VIII2 he released “Luda” .

In Lisbon Vanja is going to perform his song “Inje” in the Montenegrin language. Vanja is convinced that the language does not have to be understood, the international audience should feel the emotion of his song. This is a really traditional Balkan song to let the tradition to live on. Vanja does not want to be reduced to a certain genre, it’s all about quality, he mentioned. Gone are the days when Montenegro tried to enter with daring entries, it will be harked back to the traditional.

The translation of “Inje” means frost and has beautiful text phrase like:

Frost has formed between us
Blood in our veins freezes thus
Your heart is a dying ember
So you no longer remember

History

• Debut: 2007
• Participations: 10
• Victories: 0
• Finals: 2
• Top 10: 0
• Chances for Top 10: 0%
• Chances for Final: 20%

This is the 10th anniversary of Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest – congratulations! 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). The debut as independent country happened in 2007 in Helsinki with “Adje Kroci” by Stevan Faddy, unfortunately the first entry did not qualify for the Grand Final, it only came 22nd.

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 beside of 2014 and 2015. The extraordinary entry “Space” by Slavko Kalezić, did not convince everybody, so it also failed with the qualification for the Grand Final in Kiev, it ended on rank 16 in the Semi Final. The best place Montenegrin entries, which reached the Grand Finals were “Moj Svijet” by Sergej Ćetković (#19 in Copenhagen 2014) and “Adio” by Knez (#13 in Vienna, 2015).

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 (22nd 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 matching the European taste at 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 and only made a disappointing 12th place in the Semi Final.

Biggest successes

1x 13th place

• Knez | Adio (2015)

Video Nostalgia

• “Ajde Kroci” | Stevan Faddy, Rank 22 (Semi Final), Helsinki 2007
• “Just Get Out of My Life” | Andrea Demirovic, Rank 11 (Semi Final), Moscow 2009
• “Euro Neuro” | Rambo Amadeus, Rank 15 (Semi Final), Baku 2012