Serbian “modern” metal band LAVINA will represent the Balkan nation at the 70th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria in May.
The final of Serbia’s national selection process, “Pesma Za Evroviziju 26” (“PZE 26”),was held Saturday night (February 28). The 14 acts who advanced from the semi-finals took the stage again last night. The winner was chosen by a combination of public and jury votes (with a 50% weighting given to each).
The national final was conducted on RTS, the Serbian broadcaster responsible for the country’s Eurovision Song Contest entries.
LAVINA’s “Kraj Mene” won both the public vote and the jury vote. In the public vote it garnered a huge 29,759 votes, more than double that of the song that finished second in that section of the vote, “Fräulein” by Brat Pelin.
LAVINA will perform “Kraj Mene” in the second half of Eurovision Song Contest’s first semi-final on Tuesday, May 12.
LAVINA is a six-piece metal band from Niš, Serbia, formed in the middle of 2020. After forming, the members spent most of the time writing and recording the songs for the band’s debut album, “Odyssey”, which was released in November 2022. The group has since played promotional shows and festivals in various countries around Europe (Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, etc.) as part of the “Odyssey” tour.
LAVINA is best described as a mix of wide range of metal and rock influences with a dramatic and poetic sensibility. A truly unresting group of musicians, LAVINA challenges their perception of metal by ever-changing influences and energetic, larger-than-life live performances.
In August and November of 2024, LAVINA released two singles, titled “In Your Absence” and “Iron Will”. In March of 2025, they released their latest single, “This, Too, Will Pass.”, which marked a transition in sound and style.
LAVINA’s sophomore album is expected later this year.
The world hasn’t seen a metal band win the Eurovision Song Contest since Finns LORDI shocked the audience with their brand of horror metal in 2006, providing the winning song “Hard Rock Hallelujah”. LORDI remains the only metal band to ever win Eurovision.
LORDI caused a sensation by winning the 2006 Eurovision with “Hard Rock Hallelujah”, which in turn made the band’s third release, “The Arockalypse”, a hit throughout Europe. On the back of their Eurovision win, they scored a lucrative series of promotions including LORDI-branded cola, boiled sweets and credit cards; and played live at the MTV European Music Awards. A square was renamed in LORDI’s honor in the Lapland city of Rovaniemi; a LORDI-themed postage stamp was issued in Finland and the group starred in its first film, called “Dark Floors”.
According to Aussievision, Serbia has competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 17 times as an independent country. Before its 2007 debut, Serbia had competed as part of Yugoslavia (1961-1992) and then as Serbia and Montenegro (2004-2006). Serbia’s only Eurovision Song Contest win to date came in 2007, with Marija Šerifovic’s song “Molitva”. Last year Serbia was represented by Princ with his song “Mila”, which failed to qualify for the final.