Serbia: RTS receives 75 submissions for Eurovision 2018

by Jessica Weaver 1,110 views

RTS, the Serbian national broadcaster, has revealed that a total of 75 entries have been received in the search for the country’s representative at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.

Way back in August, the Serbian national broadcaster – RTS – confirmed a new selection method in the search for their Eurovision act at the 2018 competition, set to be hosted in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon.

In a change of tactics, RTS revealed that submissions would be judged by the assisting jury anonymously, allowing bidding artists and composers to be assessed fairly in the process.

A total of 75 entries received

With submissions closing back on the 10 November following a deadline extension, the specialist selection committee has since assessed each of the submitted entries.

Each submission was assigned a special code, meaning that the identity of each author was completely anonymous during the assessment phase.

The final set of shortlisted entries in the bid to represent Serbia at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest will be announced at a later date.

New language requirement

Further changes to the Serbian selection process for 2018 saw a change in rules regarding submission language rules.

With recent entries from the Balkan nations having recently been performed in the English language, RTS has now introduced a new rule which requires composers to submit songs in one of the official languages of Serbia.

Whether there will be a language change in the later stage of the selection process remains to be unseen.

Last year, RTS internally selected Tijana Bogićević to represent the nation at the 2017 competition in the city of Kyiv.

With the internally selected entry In too deep, Serbia received a total of 98 points in the second semi-final and finished in 11th position, only just missing out on a place in the Eurovision final.