Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Montevizija 2019 was the national final organised by RTCG in order to select the Montenegrin entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. Five entries competed in a televised final on 9 February 2019, which was held at the RTCG studios in Podgorica and hosted by Ajda Šufta and Ivan Maksimović. The show was televised on TVCG 1, TVCG SAT and TVCG HD as well as broadcast online via the broadcaster's website rtcg.me.[4]

On 28 October 2018, RTCG opened a submission period where artists and songwriters were able to submit their entries until 28 November 2018. Songwriters of any nationality were allowed to submit entries, but artists were required to be citizens of Montenegro and each songwriter was able to submit a maximum of two entries.[5][6] RTCG received 27 entries at the closing of the deadline. A selection jury that consisted of Radio Montenegro music editor Vladimir Maraš, music teacher and solo singing professor Aleksandra Vojvodić Jovović, TVCG music editor Branka Banović and composers Slobodan Bučevac and Mihailo Radonjić evaluated and marked the received submissions against a number of criteria: up to 50 points for composition, up to 30 points for lyrics and up to 20 points for the production potential of the composition.[7][8] The top five entries were selected for the national final and announced on 18 December 2018.[9]

The final took place on 17 February 2018. The five competing entries were performed and the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the combination of the votes of an international jury (25%), a Montenegrin expert jury (25%), a radio jury (25%) and public televoting (25%) selected the top two entries to proceed to the second round, the superfinal. In the superfinal, "Heaven" performed by D-moll was selected as the winner entirely by public televoting.[10] The international jury panel consisted of Ruslana (winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 for Ukraine), Eldar Gasimov (winner of the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 for Azerbaijan), Lea Sirk (represented Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018), András Kállay-Saunders (represented Hungary in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014), Ira Losco (represented Malta in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 and 2016) and Jovan Radomir (Swedish television presenter), while the Montenegrin jury panel consisted of Vjera Nikolić (professor at the Music School "Vasa Pavić"), Verica Čuljković (violinist), Saša Barjaktarović (conductor), Igor Perović (composer) and Marko Pešić (represented Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 as a member of Highway).[11][12] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the show also featured a guest appearance by 2006 Bosnian Eurovision entrant Hari Mata Hari.[13]

Detailed International Jury Votes

Draw	Song	UKR	AZE	SLO	HUN	MLT	SWE	Total	Points
1	"Heaven"	2	1	3	2	1	2	11	5
2	"Ja sam ti san"	4	5	5	1	4	3	22	1
3	"Nepogrješivo"	1	3	4	4	3	4	19	2
4	"Nevinost"	3	4	1	3	2	1	14	3
5	"Uzmi ili ostavi"	5	2	2	5	5	5	24	0

D mol made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Heaven" as the Montenegrin Eurovision entry. On 6 April, D mol performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the AFAS Live venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Edsilia Rombley and Marlayne.[14] The members of D mol later split into two groups of three to take part in additional promotional activities; Mirela Ljumić, Željko Vukčević and Rizo Feratović performed during the PrePartyES 2019 event, which was held on 21 April at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain and hosted by Tony Aguilar and Julia Varela, while Tamara Vujačić, Ivana Obradović and Emel Franca performed during the Moscow Eurovision Pre Party 2019, which was held on 24 April at the Vegas City Hall in Moscow, Russia and hosted by Alexey Lebedev and Andres Safari.[15][16][17]

D mol during a rehearsal before the first semi-final

D mol took part in technical rehearsals on 4 and 9 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 13 and 14 May. This included the jury show on 13 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.[21]

The Montenegrin performance featured the members of D mol on stage in white and red outfits. The performance began with the group members scattered throughout the stage before meeting up to the middle of the stage to form a circle during the chorus. At the end of the song, the group performed a simulation that involved five of the members supporting the remaining member Mirela Ljumić who was about to fall to the floor.[22][23] The stage director for the performance was Gorčin Stojanović and the choreographer was Staša Stanković.[24]

At the end of the show, Montenegro was not announced among the top 10 entries in the first semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Montenegro placed sixteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 46 points: 15 points from the televoting and 31 points from the juries.

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results will be released shortly after the grand final.[25]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Montenegro and awarded by Montenegro in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

The following members composed the Montenegrin jury:[25]

• Vjera Nikolić (jury chairperson) – music professor
• Verica Čuljković – music professor
• Marko Pešić – musician, represented Montenegro in the 2016 contest as member of Highway
• Saša Barjaktarović – music professor
• Igor Perović – musician, journalist

Detailed voting results from Montenegro (Semi-final 1)[26]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		V. Čuljković	M. Pešić	S. Barjaktarović	V. Nikolić	I. Perović	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Cyprus	2	4	2	3	6	3	8	7	4
02	Montenegro
03	Finland	12	13	10	16	11	12		15
04	Poland	9	12	13	15	14	15		13
05	Slovenia	14	16	12	11	9	10	1	3	8
06	Czech Republic	4	5	7	9	10	8	3	8	3
07	Hungary	6	11	4	4	7	5	6	14
08	Belarus	16	10	14	10	13	14		6	5
09	Serbia	3	8	5	2	1	4	7	1	12
10	Belgium	8	14	16	14	12	11		11
11	Georgia	10	7	8	8	5	9	2	16
12	Australia	7	3	9	5	8	6	5	4	7
13	Iceland	11	6	6	7	4	7	4	5	6
14	Estonia	13	15	15	12	16	16		9	2
15	Portugal	15	9	11	13	15	13		12
16	Greece	1	2	1	6	2	1	12	10	1
17	San Marino	5	1	3	1	3	2	10	2	10

Detailed voting results from Montenegro (Final)[27]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		V. Čuljković	M. Pešić	S. Barjaktarović	V. Nikolić	I. Perović	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Malta	12	6	4	4	5	5	6	19
02	Albania	16	3	2	3	2	3	8	4	7
03	Czech Republic	10	15	8	16	8	10	1	18
04	Germany	11	25	24	25	23	23		26
05	Russia	15	1	1	1	3	2	10	2	10
06	Denmark	4	17	20	9	13	8	3	17
07	San Marino	26	26	26	6	26	19		3	8
08	North Macedonia	2	5	5	5	6	4	7	5	6
09	Sweden	8	12	13	15	22	17		20
10	Slovenia	19	10	19	14	7	15		7	4
11	Cyprus	24	4	6	18	4	6	5	14
12	Netherlands	20	13	12	7	9	12		10	1
13	Greece	25	7	25	26	25	20		23
14	Israel	17	19	23	24	21	25		25
15	Norway	5	22	17	22	12	14		13
16	United Kingdom	21	18	21	21	20	24		24
17	Iceland	6	24	10	19	14	13		9	2
18	Estonia	23	23	9	11	15	18		21
19	Belarus	13	16	14	20	24	22		16
20	Azerbaijan	14	11	7	10	16	11		8	3
21	France	18	21	22	23	19	26		22
22	Italy	7	9	15	8	17	9	2	6	5
23	Serbia	1	2	3	2	1	1	12	1	12
24	Switzerland	9	14	11	12	18	16		11
25	Australia	3	8	18	13	10	7	4	15
26	Spain	22	20	16	17	11	21		12