This weekend, Montenegro's National Broadcaster, RTCG, confirmed to esctoday.com that they will participate at the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest. The news comes just a few days after it was revealed that the broadcaster may not participate at the event next May.
Last week, esctoday.com learnt that the decision to participate had not been agreed upon, but after news leaked out in the local media, those fighting to keep Montenegro at the event were given external support and an application to particiapate was delivered to the EBU before the submissions deadline. The story bares a striking similarity to what happened to Moldova last year before a last minute change of heart set in motion what turned out to be one of the success stories of the year, with Natalia Barbu finishing in the top ten in Helsinki.
Montenegro took part at the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time as an independent country in 2007 with Stefan Faddy and his song Ajde kroci. The song won only 33 points in the semi final to finish 23rd out of 28 countries, missing out on a place at the Eurovision Song Contest final one of only two former Yugoslav countries not to qualify.
With Montenegro confirming participation for 2008, and with San Marino and Monaco both expected to be participating, as reported by escotoday.com last week, it seems likely that the Eurovision Song Contest maximum participation limit has been reached with the return of the 42 countries participating in 2007, alongside Monaco, San Marino and Azerbaijan. The EBU has informed esctoday.com that the provisional list will be published in December.
