Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest 2025

Eurovision Song Contest 2025
Participating broadcaster	Radio i Televizija Crne Gore (RTCG)
Country	Montenegro
National selection
Selection process	Montesong 2024
Selection date(s)	27 November 2024
Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2022 • 2025

Montenegro will be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2025, which will be held in Basel, Switzerland. The Montenegrin participating broadcaster, Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG), will organise the national final Montesong 2024 [sr] to select its entry for the contest. The broadcaster will return to the contest after a two-year absence.

Prior to the 2025 contest, Radio and Television of Montenegro (RTCG) has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Montenegro as an independent country twelve times since its first entry in 2007.^[1] Its best placing in the contest was thirteenth position, which they achieved in 2015 with the song "Adio" performed by Knez. In 2014, Montenegro qualified to the final for the first time since they began participating and have since featured in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest two times. RTCG briefly withdrew from the competition between 2010 and 2011 as well as in 2021, 2023, and 2024, citing "modest results" and/or financial difficulties as the reason for their absences.^[2][3] In 2022, it failed to qualify for the final with the song "Breathe" performed by Vladana.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, RTCG organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. On 6 January 2024, RTCG outlined its aim to introduce a popular music festival, which could serve as its selection process for the 2025 contest, dependent on funding.^[4] On 7 August 2024, RTCG published a document outlining the rules of Montesong 2024.^[5] An official confirmation of both participation in the 2025 contest and the organisation of a national final was announced by RTCG on 15 August 2024.^[6] RTCG had used various methods to select the Montenegrin entry in the past, such as internal selections and televised national finals to choose the performer, song or both to compete at Eurovision. The reintroduction of a national final for the 2025 contest marked the first time since 2019 that the broadcaster organised a national selection, with Montevizija held in 2018 and 2019.

Montesong 2024 is set to be the national final format organised by RTCG to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2025. Organised in a collaboration between the broadcaster and the Association of Variety Performers of Montenegro, a live final was initially scheduled for 26 November 2024, with an awards ceremony to be held the following day. However, the event was later revised to a final on 27 November 2024.^[7][8] The competition will take place at the Voco Hotel in Podgorica, and will be broadcast live on TVCG 1 [sr] and MNE Play.^{[9][10][11][12]}

The competition will consist of a live final to be held on 27 November 2024. Sixteen entries will compete.^[13] The winner of the final will be selected through a 50/50 combination of votes from a 7-member jury and from a public televote, with the same system used to award points in the Eurovision Song Contest final: the jury and the public each award one set of 12, 10 and 8–1 points to their 10 favourite entries.^[14][15] The professional jury will consist of both local music professionals and music representatives from across Europe.^[13]

This section contains numerous links to pages on foreign language Wikipedias. They are shown as red links with the language codes in [small blue letters] in brackets. Click on the language code to see the page in that language.

On 7 August 2024, RTCG opened a submission platform for interested artists and composers, which remained open until 1 October 2024. Performers are required to be citizens of Montenegro, while songwriters may be of any nationality. All submitted songs are required to be written in at least 51% of one of the official languages of Montenegro. From there, a committee set up by the broadcaster reviewed the submissions and selected sixteen songs for the competition. The panel consisted of Boris Šarančić (entertainment editor for TVCG), Dražen Bauković (journalist and editor of music shows), Eva Papović (music editor at TVCG), Ana Petrović (music editor at RCG), Renata Perazić (musician and author), Marija Božović (musician and author), and Natalija Pavićević (songwriter). Each juror judged each song using a points system, giving a maximum of 50 points for composition, 30 points for lyrics and 20 points for production, meaning each song could earn a maximum of 100 points. However, songs had to achieve at least 75 points from this process in order to reach the competition stage. RTCG also stipulated that it had the right to internally select its entry for the contest if no submitted entry reached the threshold. At a press conference on 5 September 2024, Montesong director Danijel Alibabić, who represented Serbia and Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 as part of No Name, confirmed that up to sixteen entries would be performed in the national final.^[13] On 2 October 2024, RTCG revealed that it had received 32 submissions, and that they would allow any further late applications due to postal delays.^[16] In total, 37 submissions were received, with 4 of those being disqualified.^[17][18] The competing entries (plus three backups) were announced on 10 October 2024 during the RTCG show Jutarnji program, which was broadcast on TVCG 1 [sr]. On 4 November 2024, Boban Rajović withdrew from the competition due to personal comittments, and RTCG confirmed that reserve artist, Tamara Živković, would replace his entry for the contest.^[19][20]

Among the competing artists is Nina Žižić, who provided uncredited vocals for Who See at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013.^{[21][16][22][23][24]} Also among the competing acts are Kejt, who competed in Montevizija 2018 and Milena Vučić, who competed in Evropesma-Europjesma 2004 as a part of the group Negre [sr], as well as a solo artist in Montevizija and Evropesma-Europjesma 2006. Among the backup entries is Danijel Popović, who won Jugovizija 1983, Yugoslavia's national final for Eurovision, and subsequently represented the country in the 1983 contest with the song "Džuli"; he competed in Yugoslavia's national selection a further 4 times: in 1984, 1986, 1987 and 1991. He previously applied his entry "Kano kastigan" to Dora 2023, Croatia's national selection for the 2023 contest.^[25] The competing songs were released on 10 November 2024.^[23]

  Entry withdrawn   Replacement entry

The final will take place on 27 November 2024. The running order was revealed on 19 November 2024.^[29][30]