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Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026

Serbia is set to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "", written by , , , , and and performed by the band Lavina. The Serbian participating broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), organised the national final in order to select its entry for the contest.

Background

Prior to the 2026 contest, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Serbia seventeen times since its first entry in , winning the contest with its debut entry "" performed by Marija Šerifović. Since then, 13 out of the 17 total Serbian entries have featured in the final with RTS failing to qualify in , , , and most recently in , when "" performed by Princ placed 14th in its semi-final, Serbia's worst result to date.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, RTS organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster has used both internal selections and national finals to determine its entries throughout the years. Between 2007 and 2009, RTS used the national final, but after its 2009 entry failed to qualify to the final, the broadcaster shifted its selection strategy to selecting specific composers to create songs for artists. After a successful internal selection in , in 2013 RTS returned to an open national final format, titled Beosong, but it failed to qualify to the final. After reverting to internal selection in and 2017, it returned to use the national final between and , managing to qualify to the final in both 2018 and 2019, with Eurovision having been cancelled in 2020. In , RTS returned to organising a national final under the name , with this format being used every year since.

On 27 May 2025, RTS confirmed its commitment to not withdraw from the contest. On 15 September 2025, RTS announced its intention to select its entry through .

Before Eurovision

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The fifth edition of was organised by RTS in order to select its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. It marked the first edition of the format without the involvement of , who was removed from the role of supervisor after she allowed participants of the 2025 edition to make statements supporting the Serbian anti-corruption protests during the shows; she was replaced by Uroš Marković.

Semi-finals

  • The first semi-final took place on 24 February 2026. "Unseen" performed by , "" performed by Zejna, "" performed by Yanx, "" performed by , "" performed by , "" performed by Mirna and "" performed by advanced to the final, while "" performed by , "" performed by Makao, "" performed by Manivi, "" performed by and "" performed by Đurđica were eliminated from the contest.
  • The second semi-final took place on 26 February 2026. "" performed by Geminni, "" performed by , "" performed by , "" performed by Lu-Ka, "" performed by Lavina, "" performed by and "" performed by Harem Girls and advanced to the final, while "" performed by , "" performed by , "" performed by , "" performed by Avgust and "" performed by were eliminated from the contest.

Final

The final took place on 28 February 2026. The winner was selected based on the 50/50 combination of votes from five jurors and from a public televote. The winner was "", written by Andrija Cvetanović, Bojan Ilić, Ivan Jegdić, Luka Aranđelović, Nikola Petrović, Pavle Aranđelović and Pavle Samardžić and performed by Lavina.

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will take place at the in Vienna, Austria, and consist of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May 2026. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final will progress to the final. On 12 January 2026, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country will perform in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. Serbia was scheduled for the second half of the first semi-final.

References