RTS, the Serbian national broadcaster, has officially opened submissions for Pesma za Evroviziju 2026 (PZE).
As in previous years, Serbia’s Eurovision representative will be chosen through the established national final format, PZE. The submission window opened today and will remain open until November 10.
According to the festival’s Terms and Conditions, the RTS Selection Committee will select entries based on their artistic quality. If none of the applications meet the required criteria, RTS reserves the right to independently choose the entry that will represent Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026.
It was also confirmed that the rule requiring at least 51% of a song’s lyrics to be written in one of Serbia’s official languages remains in effect for this year’s edition. The winner will be determined through a 50/50 voting split between a professional jury and the audience. The entry with the highest combined score will represent Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna.
This will mark the fourth consecutive year that RTS will use PZE as its national selection format. Earlier in August, it was reported that Olivera Kovačević, the executive producer of PZE, had been dismissed from her role. She stated in an interview with N1 that her dismissal was the result of disobeying the general director’s order not to allow statements in support of student protests during the last edition of the contest.
Princ represented at Eurovision 2025 Serbia with “Mila”. He placed 14th in the second semi-final, scoring 28 points, including 12 points from the Montenegrin audience. This marked the first time since 2017 that Serbia failed to qualify for the final.
Image source: Alma Bengtsson / EBU | Source: RTS
Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest
Serbia has competed as an independent nation in the Eurovision Song Contest since 2007, and has seen great success in the competition. Their first entry in 2007, “Molitva” by Marija Šerifović, won the contest in Helsinki with 268 points, making Serbia one of only two countries to win on their debut. Since then, Serbia finished in the top 10 a further four times, including a 3rd place finish in 2012 with “Nije ljubav stvar” by Željko Joksimović.
Like this:
Like Loading…
Posted by:Tamara Vecic
Tamara is originally from Slovenia but currently lives in The Netherlands. She became a Eurovoix member in February 2025. She has been actively following the Eurovision Song Contest since 2007 and gained interest for national selections in 2018. She closely follows the Balkan music scene and enjoys covering the region in her work.