The participation of Serbia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest first began in Bucharest, Romania at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006, having previously participated in 2005 as part of Serbia and Montenegro. Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) a member organisation of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) are responsible for the selection process of its entrants. Serbia used the national selection format broadcasting a show entitled Izbor za dečju pesmu Evrovizije (Serbian Cyrillic: Избор за дечију песму Евровизије) for its participation at the contests between 2006 and 2010.
In 2007, the country was represented by Nevena Božović, who went on to represent Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 as part of the girl group Moje 3. Serbia's best result came in 2007 and 2010 when it finished in third place at both contests. There have only been four absences from the contest, between 2011 and 2013, and once again in 2023. Serbia returned to the competition in 2014 represented by Emilija Đonin, who was selected internally by the national broadcaster RTS, a selection mechanism that it continued to use in 2015 when it internally selected the song "Lenina pesma" (Serbian: Ленина песма), performed by Lena Stamenković.
It is one of three countries, along with Belarus and Kazakhstan, to have participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest before debuting in the adult one.
History
Prior to the Montenegrin independence referendum in 2006 which culminated into the dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro,[1] both nations use to compete at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest and Eurovision Song Contest as Serbia and Montenegro.[2] Serbia were the first of the two nations to compete at a Junior Contest, making its debut at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2006.[3] While it was at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014 when Montenegro would make its debut as an independent nation.[4] Neustrašivi učitelji stranih jezika went on to being Serbia's first participant in 2006 as an independent nation with the song "Učimo strane jezike" (Serbian Cyrillic: Учимо стране језике).[3]
Serbia continued to participate at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2007, in which it had selected Nevena Božović to represent Serbia with the song "Piši mi" (Serbian Cyrillic: Пиши ми). Božović also became the first Junior Eurovision participant to take part in the senior Eurovision Song Contest as part of the group Moje 3, performing the song "Ljubav je svuda" (Serbian Cyrillic: Љубав је свуда),[5] which achieved forty-six points and failing to qualify to the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 after finishing in 11th place.[6] However, she managed to qualify in the grand final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "Kruna" (Serbian Cyrillic: Круна) and finished in 18th place with 89 points.
The nation continued to participate at every Junior Contest until 2010,[3] before announcing on 5 June 2011 that Serbia would not participate in the 2011 contest.[7] On 25 July 2014, Serbia announced its return to the 2014 contest, after a three-year absence.[8] Serbia selected its 2014 entry through an internal selection for the first time in its history. On 1 October 2014 it was revealed that Emilija Đonin would represent Serbia in the contest with the song "Svet u mojim očima".[9]
On 4 May 2015, it was announced on a Eurovision news website that Serbia's national broadcaster, RTS, had not started any planning in regards to their participation at the 2015 contest, and that such decision would be taken after the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. On 20 August 2015, Serbia confirmed its participation.[10] RTS announced on 21 September 2015, that they had internally selected Lena Stamenković with the song "Lenina pesma" (Serbian Cyrillic: Ленина песма) to represent them at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015,[11] which took place at the Arena Armeec, in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, on 21 November 2015.[12] On 14 September 2016, Serbia confirmed its participation in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2016 in Valletta, Malta, with the country going on to participate in all subsequent editions until 2022.[13]
On 1 August 2023, RTS editor-in-chief Olivera Kovačević announced the broadcaster's plan to not participate in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Nice, France for financial reasons.[14]
For the most recent participation see
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