"Nova Zora" goes to Eurovision

The winner of Montesong, Tamara Živković, will represent Montenegro with the song "Nova zora" at the Eurovision Song Contest, which will be held in Vienna next year.

She won thanks to 12 votes from the expert jury and the audience from Montenegro and the rest of the world, of which she received 10 points.

The members of the expert jury were Asja Džogović, this year's representative of Montenegro at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, the duo Shkodra Elektronike, representatives of Albania at the last Eurovision, Abor and Tina, who will represent Germany in Vienna, and Vladimir Graić Graja, composer. The president of the jury was Nina Žižić, who represented Montenegro at the Eurovision Song Contest last year with the song "Dobrodošli".

Voting was based on the Eurovision principle, so the votes of both the audience and the expert jury had equal weight.

"It's all about the audience at the end of the day. Both are important to me, but still, the audience comes to the performance to listen to you, to cheer you on and to applaud you, so I'm very proud of the points from the audience, but also from the jury," Živković told "Vijesti" after the winner was announced.

She admitted that she was "much more relaxed" after finishing Montesong.

"...But the adrenaline is still there, a kind of jitters, and I'm still not aware of all this. So it will take time for everything to settle down," she said, answering the question of whether she was already making plans for the Eurovision Song Contest.

"Honestly, we don't have anything planned right now. Although we were all hoping for the best, we were waiting for all this to be over, for everyone to have a break after Montesong, so we'll do everything we can... I think we have time to come up with the whole plan," said Živković, who had great support backstage throughout the festival, both from her family and from team members, whom she says she won't change.

"It's not that my team is the best, but it really is the best. They are truly professionals and they give their all to every project. First of all, I am grateful that they believed in me so much and that is why all this happened," she pointed out, and then revealed how much she believed in herself.

"I hoped, above all, that I would return to myself and that happened, and 'New Dawn' happened. I am really proud of myself," concluded the Montenegrin representative at the Eurovision Song Contest.

In addition to selecting the representative of Montenegro at Eurovision, the jury also had the task of selecting the performer with the best interpretation, and that award went to Majda Božović for the song "Ipak smo ljudi".

Lara Baltić received the most votes from the audience for the song "Rhythm Boy", finishing in second place. Lana and Đorđe came in third place with the song "Temperatura", receiving six points from the audience and seven points from the expert jury.

In addition to the aforementioned, the Montesong finalists were Krstina (Oli Oli), Luka Radović (Pjevaj vilo), Baryak (Minerva), Tina Džankić (Shadows), Đurđa (Dominos), Neno Murić (Ako čuješ glas), Lana (Doline), Dolce Hera (Casanova 91), Mila Nikić (Kao varnica), Stefan (Nedekodirana) and Andrea Demirović (I Believe).

As part of Montesong, the Montefon Awards, presented by the Association of Entertainers and Performers of Montenegro, were also presented by Danijel Alibabić, the president of the association.

The annual award for discovery of the year went to the group Baryak, and the award for group of the year went to Bubnjivi & psi. The award for contribution to Montenegrin musical culture was given to Ed Abdović, the Montefon award for hit of the year went to Nina Žižić for the song "Dobrodošli", while Nenad Knežević Knez and Andrijana Božović were declared the best singers of the year.