We can not wait for the Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö. Therefore, we have a closer look at one of the contestants every day. Today: Serbia.
Teya Dora
Teodora Pavlovska, known professionally as Teya Dora, was born on May 1, 1992, in Bor, Serbia. Balancing her academic endeavors in Belgrade with a musical education specializing in piano at the “Dr. Vojislav Vučković” Music School, she furthered her studies at Berklee College of Music. There, she focused on vocal studies alongside Charlie Puth and contributed backing vocals for American Grammy winners like Patti Austin and Valerie Simpson. After Berklee, she moved to New York, engaging in English songwriting for ARKTKT Publishing.
Her Serbian music industry debut came with “Nema limita” for Nikolija in 2018, leading to numerous songwriting contributions for artists like Nataša Bekvalac. As a solo artist, her release “Da na meni je” in July 2019 marked the start of her vocal career, followed by her notable work “Džanum” for the “South Wind” series sequel, which achieved viral success on TikTok and significant streaming numbers on Spotify.
By 2024, Teya Dora’s innovative musical contributions and unique blend of genres propelled her to represent Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Ramonda”, highlighting her as a significant figure in the Serbian music scene.
Pesma Za Evroviziju
The Serbian national final for the Eurovision Song Contest is called Pesma Za Evroviziju. The name exists since 2022. Before that, the national final was named Beovizija. This year the contest contained two semifinals with 14 songs each. The final consisted of 16 songs. A familiar name in the contest was the one of Konstrakta, who had a song and act being a close follow up of the 2022 song “In corpore sana”. Konstrakta reached a 4th place. Teya Dora was the no. 1 in both televote and jury vote.
Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest
Serbian artists have taken part in the Eurovision Song Contest in the past when Serbia was a part of Yugoslavia, and later Serbia and Montenegro. Serbia’s debut as an independent country was in 2007, when Maria Šerifović sang “Molitva” and won the contest. It was the only time Serbia won so far, but Željko Joksimović reached a 3rd place in 2012. Konstrakta was 5th in 2022. Last year, Luke Black reached the final but ended up in 24th place.
photo: Indrek Galetin, Wikimedia Commons
The bookmakers
Currently, Serbia is in 18th place in the odds to win the Eurovision Song Contest. Although the odds for semifinal 1 are not ready, we can safely say that Serbia might reach the final. What they will do there depends on a lot of things.
The song
And this is the song:
