Maria Sestic is only 19 years old but she is already one of the best voices in Balkans. She will represent Bosnia-Herzegovina this year at the Eurovision Song Contest in Helsinki and although she is so young, she already has a rich curriculum. After Hari Mata Hari's thrid place finish in Athens, Public Broadcasting Service of Bosnia and Herzegovina (PBS BIH) has chosen the format of internal selection again. Together with eurovision-croatia.com we present you some facts about Marija.

Marija was born in 1987, daughter of Dusan Sestic composer of the Bosnian national anthem. Marija Sestic has graduated piano in Music Acadamy of Banja Luka, and she is currently involved with her postgraduation program. Since the age of six, took part in many festivals winning an impressive number of awards:

• "St. George's Day Festival," in Banja Luka 1995 – third place
• "St. George's Day Festival," in Banja Luka 1996 – first place
• "Naša radost," in Podgorica, Montenegro 1998 – award for interpretation
• "Zlatno zvonce," in Novi Sad, Serbia 1999 – first place for interpretation
• "International Festival of Young Talents," in Zenica 2000-2002 – first place for interpretation
• "Banja Luka pop music festiva," 2003 – award for best young vocal performer
• "The Golden Star," in Bucharest, Romania 2004 – earned the FIDOF diploma.

When she was 13 years old, Marija was the first ex Yugoslavian solo singer to be invited by MTV Berlin. Marija also participated in the Bosnian national final in 2005, when she came 4th with the song In this world. The year 2000 was a very important year for the child star. Apart from releasing her first CD, she was chosen to perform in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) elections' song and music video Zgrabi svoju srecu.

Regarding the song that she'll perform in Helsinki we allready know that the authors of the song, Aleksandra Milutinovic and Goran Kovacic. Aleksandra Milutinovic is the author along with Zeljko Joksimovic of the well known song "Jutro", performed by Jelena Tomasevic at the Serbian final two years ago, ranked second, which was a great hit all over ex-Yugoslavian countries. Aleksandra Milutinovic worked with many stars. Some of them are: Goca Trzan, Tose Proeski, Jelena Tomasevic, Zeljko Joksimovic, Boris Rezak, Zak Houdek, Sergej Cetkovic and Maja Tatic. Some of them represented several ex Yugoslavian countries at the Eurovision Song Contest. Another artist that Milutinovic collaborated with is Goran Kovacic. He played guitar-parts of well know song Lejla (Bosnia and Herzegovina 2006).

This year's slogan of Bosnia and Herzegovina is "SOUND OF RIVERS". Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country of rivers, many beautiful songs are dedicaded to B&H rivers. Some of the most beautiful female names are the names of rivers. Could it be a possible that Marija will be singing in Helsinki some beautiful ethno ballad dedicaded to B&H rivers?

TodayMarija and her team are traveling to Ljubljana, Slovenia, wherenext weeka song will be recorded. Asour partner site eurovision-croatia wasinformed, on this particular song a lot of peopleare expected to work from all over ex-Yugoslavia. Onthe song will work members of symphonic orchestra of RTV Slovenia, well known producer Niksa Bratos and several well know vocalists from Zagreb, Dragan Brnas, Ivana Cabraja, Jadranka Krisoft, Darija Hodnik.