Introduction

• Participant(s): Vladana
• Song: Breathe
  
• Writer(s): Vladana
• Composer(s): Vladana, Darko Dimitrov
• Broadcaster: RTCG
  
• Social media:      
  
• Team review: 

Great to see that Montenegro is back in the Eurovision Song Contest. The country has paused for two years. The Montenegrin broadcaster RTCG has made an internal decision. The choice felt to Vladana Vučinić with the song “Breathe”, which will be sung in English.

Vladana was born in Podgorica in 1986, when the city was still called Titograd. Influenced by her mother she studied the piano and singing at the Vasa-Pavić music school in Podgorica. Vladana also has a degree as journalist and is writing a column about design, music and politics. Her first TV appearance was in 2003 when she participated in a karaoke show. In the same year Vladana has released her first song “Ostaćes mi vječna ljubav” . In 2005 she was part of the national final “Montevizija” in Montenegro, with the song “Samo moj nikad njen” , unfortunately, she did not qualify for the final round. The year after, together with Bojana Nenezić and the song “Željna” she could come 15th.

With the direct nomination this year, Vladana has received her third chance. The song “Breathe” is probably her strongest so far, it has quite sophisticated lyrics:

Go to sleep and dream that we
We we‘ll be reborn
Our souls will find themselves again
In the sweat of the storm
Nothing will feel the same

A quite song in these turbulent times is what people are looking for. Judging by the video clip a fulminant stage show can be expected. With a clever staging this entry can shape up very well.

History

• Debut: 2007
• Participations: 12
• Victories: 0
• Finals: 2
• Top 10: 0

As a former part of Yugoslavia and the secession process, Montenegro has 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 Helsinki with “Adje Kroci” in 2007- Unfortunately the first entry did not qualify for the Grand Final, it only came 22nd.

Before Montenegro was a part of Yugoslavia, which had its 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, which was a Croatian band.

Montenegro has never made it into the Grand Final beside of 2014 and 2015. And Montenegro has paused two years from 2020 to 2021. The last Montenegrin entry “Heaven” by D mol made a 16th place in the semi-final of Tel Aviv 2019. It seems that Montenegro does not profit a lot from the “Balkan Block Voting”.

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. The chances to reach the Grand Final for Montenegro are decreasing right now.

Biggest success

• 1x 13th place
  Knez | "Adio" (2015)
  
  

Video Nostalgia

• “Ajde Kroci” | Stevan Faddy
  Rank 22 (Semi-Final), Helsinki 2007
  
• “Euro Neuro” | Rambo Amadeus
  Rank 15 (Semi-Final), Baku 2012
  
• “The Real Thing” | The Real Thing
  Rank 13 (Semi-Final), Stockholm 2016
  
  

First Rehearsal