It was Magical night in Serbian Broadcasting Coopeartion and in that spirit Nina and her team is coming in Dusseldorf for this year ESC.

The composer of the Serbian Eurovision song, Kristina Kovač, discovered Nina's sophisticated voice on YouTube and offered to set stage for the new chapter in her already dynamic life. The rest is history.

While preparing for the contest in May, along with the music and stage practice, some contestants are doing fitness exercises, swimming, skiing, jogging... and Serbian Eurovision representative Nina is - learning.

Nina: "Yes, that's me.... With all the obligations, I'll try not to miss my exams. I have my family to support me, and my boyfriend, of course... Eurovision is, naturally, my absolute priority, but since I have always been a "grind", I hope that I'll be able to fulfill all my goals! Not only to pass the exams, but also not to miss out on some important events, cool downtown parties in April... and of course, I hope my boyfriend will be tolerant... Although he has already offered to give me a ride to Düsseldorf..."

Nina's message for the end:

NINA: "Motto of the 56^th Eurovision Song Contest is "Feel Your Heartbeat". It is a deep and positive message, I really like it. Taking into consideration all the catastrophes that have recently befallen our planet, it is clear that love is all that matters, that only love remains and survives. Searching for love should be a priority. I wish you all to be loved and to love! Just as my song, written by composer Kristina Kovac says - Take care of people who make you feel special, and you'll have a better life.. I want you to be loved so much, that people start saying you are just "magical".

The concert is actually a kind of dress rehearsal for the participants before the initial competition at the Eurovision Song Contest. Eurovision fans from the Netherlands are the actual organizers of this event in cooperation with the EBU and local sponsors. It is expected that some 20 to 25 national representatives will take part in this years event, which represents more than half of those who will be competing in just a month in Düsseldorf. For the time being, 15 representatives have confirmed their appearance in Amsterdam, although the list of participants is changing every day. The Serbian representative Nina with the song "Glamorous" will appear before the European audience for the first time.

The concert in Amsterdam will include the participation of: Nadine Biler from Austria, Magda Tul from Poland, Music from Latvia, Vlatko Stefanovski from Macedonia, Poly Genoa from Bulgaria, May Keuco from Slovenia, Jiksek Sadakat from Turkey, Vinik Anastasia from Belarus, Paradis Oscar from Finland, Anna Rosinelli from Switzerland, Aurelius Gace from Albania, Emi from Armenia, and Senita - representing San Marino.

The appearance at the concert in Amsterdam is one of the most important moments in the Eurovision tour of the national representatives, because along with the actual performance at the concert which is open and has commercial purposes, it involves intense media activities in the presence of reporters from all over Europe and many fans who largely determine the "taste" of voters at the upcoming competition.

The first draw in January this year it was determined that Serbia will be presented during the first semi-final on May 10 th and today it was confirmed that Nina will sing the song "Caroban"(Magical) under number six.

The draw of Semi-Final 1

In each half of one respective Semi-Final, one country received a wildcard to choose its starting position. The remaining positions were drawn afterwards.

The draw for the first Semi-Final:
1. Poland (wildcard)
2. Norway
3. Albania
4. Armenia
5. Turkey
6. Serbia
7. Russia
8. Switzerland
9. Georgia
10. Finland
11. Malta
12. San Marino
13. Croatia
14. Iceland
15. Hungary
16. Portugal
17. Lithuania
18. Azerbaijan
19. Greece (wildcard)

The draw of Semi-Final 2

The draw for the second Semi-Final brought the following result:
1. Bosnia & Herzegovina
2. Austria
3. The Netherlands
4. Belgium
5. Slovakia (wildcard)
6. Ukraine
7. Moldova
8. Sweden
9. Cyprus
10. Bulgaria
11. FYR Macedonia
12. Israel
13. Slovenia
14. Romania
15. Estonia
16. Belarus
17. Latvia (wildcard)
18. Denmark
19. Ireland

The automatic Finalists

For the Grand Final, the starting positions of the „Big 5 countries" (Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and The United Kingdom) were also drawn, with one of them, again, getting a wildcard to freely choose their starting position:

11. France
12. Italy
14. United Kingdom
16. Germany
22. Spain (wildcard)

Download Nina - "Caroban" (mpg format)

Nina - Čaroban (wav format)

Nina - Magical (wav format)

Nina - Čaroban (wav format)

Nina - Magical (wav format)

Her first public appearances as a vocal interpreter and later as a singer/songwriter are related to the Children's Cultural Centre and competitions called "Zlatna sirena (Golden Mermaid) where she was a three-time first prize winner and once received a special reward. She also won several times the first prize for interpretation and composition at the "FEDEMUS" competition.

Since 2003, she participates in national music festivals where she wins first prizes, as well as in regional festivals. She also participated in festivals abroad, such as "Coventry Peace Month" in England or "Srebrna Jantra" festival in Bulgaria where she was awarded first prize for interpretation.

In February 2010, she started a band called "Legal Sex Department" and has taken part in the Belgrade club scene more and more often as a lead singer.

In this year's competition for Serbian representative at European Song Contest 2011, on the national television (RTS) show, Nina sang a Kristina Kovac composition. It is interesting that Kristina chose her to perform the song "Čaroban" (Magical) at the last moment. She watched her videos on You Tube, decided to call her to make a test recording and had right away understood that Nina was the best solution for the song. With her specific interpretation, voice quality, young energy and charm, Nina has captivated not only Kristina, but also a wide TV audience. Even though this was her first appearance at this kind of festival, she won a convincing victory and rightfully represents Serbia in Europe.

Her musical influences are Muse and Duffy as well as other musicians of pop and alternative genres.

The show was opened by 2007 Eurovision Song Contest winner Marija Šerifović who performed Molitva, the song which brought her victory for Serbia in Helsinki. The presentation of the three competing songs was at the very start of the show, in order to maximise the time for the SMS public voting window. First to perform were the group Breeze, who sang Ring Ring Ring, penned by Kornelije Kovac. Second on stage was Aleksandra Kovac singing her own song, a rousing power ballad entitled Idemo Dalje, and finally Nina performed the retro themed up tempo Caroban which was Kristina Kovac's entry.

The show then went on to show a short documentary film about how Kornelije, Aleksandra and Kristina created the competing compositions, highlighting the co-operation between composers and performers, and also some history of the previous participation of Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest. There were many invited guests for this evenings TV show who performed songs of Kovac family not only Serbian artists but some famous names from both Croatia and FYR Macedonia. The invited solo singers were Nina Badric, Aleksandra Radovic, Tanja Banjanin, Ana Stanic and also four performers who have all themselves competed in the Eurovision Song Contest. They were Dado Topic, who represented Croatia in 2007, Jelena Tomasevic who performed for Serbia in 2008, Karolina Goceva who represented FYR Macedonia in both 2002 and 2007, and Boris Novkovic who flew the Croatian flag in 2005.

Serbian selection for this year's Eurovision Song Contest will be live broadcast on February the 26th.

Composing trio of family Kovac was chosen by the Radio Television of Serbia as the composers of this year's national song election for the song that will represent Serbia in Düsseldorf in May. In cooperation with the organizer of the competition, they have selected the following as their compositions:

• Group "(Breeze) will be singing song called " Ring ring  ring". The lyrics are signed by Aleksandar Erakovic, Damjan Dasic  i Marko Calic.  

The bend members are: Aleksandar Erakovic (guitar and bass), Radovan Spasojevic (guitar and vocals), Marko Calic (bass and vocals), Damjan Dasic (drums and vocals), Nikola Dundjerovic (guitar and vocals). "Breeze" was founded five years ago, and from 2010 when they recorded their first single "Catch the air" quickly took the top spots of the television and radio charts. They are producing good pop music, inspired by "Beetles" and other popular bends from 60's and 70's.

• Danica Radojčić Nina will perform the composition entitled "Magical". Nina (21) has been a vocal performer since her childhood, she is a multiple winner of the Musical festivals "Golden Mermaid" and "FEDEMUS" that have a great tradition in Serbia. She attended numerous music festivals in the country and in the region and is front woman of the band "Sex Legal Department." Kristina Kovac is the author of the both lyrics and the music, and together with Ante Gelo has created the song arrangement.

• Aleksandra Kovac will sing the song "Let's go further." The lyrics for this song were written by Spomenka Kovac, Alexandra and Kristina's late mother. Song arrangement is done by Aleksandar Filipovic, Roman Gorsek and Alekandra Kovac.

Songs will be performed on the premier night of 26^th of February in a live broadcast on Channel RTS, Satellite Channel and through internet portals rts.rs  and eurovision.tv.   

The order of the participants in the musical show called "Song for Europe-Düsseldorf 2011" will be determined at the beginning of the program by a public draw. The winner will be decided through SMS voting and the best participant (i.e. the one that gets the most SMS votes) will represent Serbia at this year's election in Düsseldorf in May. 

The voting system is as follows: the Serbian public votes for one of the three compositions, via SMS, during the show which is going to be broadcast live from the studio. Special control over a voting process will be provided by the RTS and the regularity of the voting and calculating the points is guaranteed.

Radio Television of Serbia as a member of the EBU is the organizer of the national Eurovision Song Contest. Beside the interesting and unpredictable two-hour program that is expected, the RTS is preparing many surprises that will be waiting for the viewers during the evening of  February 26^th . We recall that the winning composition will be performed to the international Eurovision audience in the first Semi-Final on the 10th of May in Düsseldorf.

More about the Eurovision Song Contest, composers and performers can be found on the website rts.rs.

RTS will use the same selection process as in 2010. A SMS votes will decide which of the artist will be the Serbian representative.

Serbia debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2007. Serbian debut entry as an independent nation, the ballad "Molitva" by Marija Šerifović, won the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, receiving 268 points. Thanks to this, we were the host of the 2008 contest in the Serbian capital of Belgrade. second Serbian entry, performed in Belgrade was written by past entrant for Serbia as part of Serbia and Montenegro and contest host Željko Joksimović. The song "Oro", an ethnic ballad, performed by Jelena Tomašević came 6th and received 160 points in the overall rankings. In 2009 Serbia selected Marko Kon and Milaan to represent them in the second semi-final on 14 May. The duo failed to qualify for the final for the first time in Serbia's history in the contest. In 2010 in Oslo, Serbia was represented by Milan Stankovic and finished on 13^th place.

Previously it participated as part of Yugoslavia (both the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1961 to 1991 and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992) and Serbia and Montenegro (from 2004 to 2006).

Born in Niš during World War II , Kovač came from a prominent artistic family - his grandfather was a conductor, his father a music professor and a violinist, his mother a singer in the opera choir.

Kornelije Kovač received his early music education at his hometown's Subotica College Of Music, after which he attempted to enroll in Belgrade's Music Academy. He didn't pass the entrance exam so he entered the Academy Of Music Art in Sarajevo where he graduated from the Theory And Piano Department.

Along with his classical music education, he was devoting a great deal of his time to the pop and rock music.

His career as a professional musician started in 1961. Profoundly educated, he was able to exercise successfully in various fields of activities: as composer, pianist, keyboard player, producer and arranger. In 1961, he formed his first band, BKB, which became a prominent jazz trio at the time . In 1963 they entered The Yu Jazz Festival, that took place in Bled (Slovenia). After conducting the various orchestras in Bosnia, he finally joined Sarajevo's most popular pop band Indeksi. With them he had a 2-months long tour in Russia. In 1968, he moved to the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, where he founded one of the most significant Yugoslav pop-rock bands ever, Korni Grupa. As a composer and a musician,he won many music contests that took place in former Yugoslavia.

With Korni Grupa he entered following music festivals in Europe:

1969 - Singing Europe (The Netherlands), Voted the most original entry

1970 - Rock Festival Katowitze (Poland)

1972 - Montreux (Switzerland)

1974 - Eurovision Song Festival (Brighton, United Kingdom)

In 1979 Kornelije Kovač moved to England where he collaborated in various projects, such as :

1980 - Reading Rock Festival - As the keyboard player of Jenny Darren Band.

Among the prominent British musicians with whom Kornell Kovach collaborated while living in UK, were:

Bernie Marsden, guitar player of "White Snake"

Hans Zimmer, a prominent composer of the soundtracks like: The Rain Man, The Last Emperor, The Lion King, etc.

Paul Jones, ex-singer of Manfred Mann

Andy Pask, base player of Landscape

Colin Hodgkinson, bass player of Back Doors

Joji Hirota, Japanese percusionst

Kornelije Kovač has been writing music for theatre, movies and television. Like the composer of pop and rock music he has been greatly successful. His songs were released on numerous LP-s in Yugoslavia, Spain, France, USA, Holland, Sweden, Finland, Norway etc. . Many of them were Golden or Platinum Records .

Since 1979, Kornelije Kovač has participated in many projects in Spain, as a producer, composer or arranger.

In next five years, K2 worked with great names in music, such as Derek Bramble, who worked with Whitney Houston and Nona Gaye, the writing duo Rod Argent and Peter Van Hooke, who produced albums for Tanita Tikaram, and many others. After their contract with Mismanagement expired in 1995, the sisters returned to Belgrade and wrote, arranged and produced their debut album K2, that hit number one on the charts. K2 sold more than 70 000 copies, and the band had a successful tour all over the country. Their second album, „Malo soula", was released in 1996, and hit the charts.In 1997 K2 signed a recording contract with EMI to release an album for the Spanish market, and the sisters traveled to Madrid to record it. In 1998 K2 released their album Vamos de Fiesta. After a successful promotion of the album and a tour, the group returned to Belgrade and stopped working.

Kovač's first solo forays came between tours and gigs with her sister. In 1993 she performed in Spain with latino dance group Locomia, playing the keyboards and singing back vocals. She also backed singer Mikel Herzog on his Spanish tour.

Soon after K2 stopped performing in late 1990s, Aleksandra decided to continue solo, but now not only as a performer and composer, but as an arranger and producer as well.

She met a talented and perspective young producer and musician, Roman Goršek (of the group Plejboj), and with him formed the production team "RAProduction", that has been successfully creating music for the past 14 years.

Aleksandra was asked to write songs for performers from Croatia and Bosnia, such as: Nina Badrić, Ivana Kindl, Jacques Houdek, Deen, Severina Vučković, Goran Karan, Boris Novković, Vesna Pisarović, Sandi Cenov, etc... Aleksandra and Roman also produced the songs and albums for the majority of these performers.

In 2001 they begin work on the EP "You and Me", which they single-handedly produced and published. In the same year, Aleksandra and Roman were invited by some of the top world managers to come and present their music and work, in LA, USA.

Aleksandra has signed publishing contracts with companies such as Air Chrysalis, EMI Spain, Croatia records, Menart and she is a member of HDS and HUZIP in Croatia and STIM in Sweden.

In 2006 she released her long awaited solo album called "Honey And Milk", after a very difficult period in her personal and family life. Alex says about the making of the album: ''It was the most creative and releasing moment of my life... I used to come very early in the studio, before anyone else, write, arrange, edit, listen to the stuff we've done and then write some more. Roman would continue in the afternoon, and we would work deep into the night. It wasn't rare to find me sleeping in front of the computer, my head safely nested on the keyboard:)I put all my energy, everything I was feeling, all the love and pain into each and every song on that album and I knew I had something special on my hands!''The album hit the charts imidiately. It was the Best Selling Album Of The Year, Aleksandra got the MTV Award as the Best Adriatic Act on the 2006 EMA's in Copenhagen, and toured all over Serbia, with great success. The stage is the place where she proved that she is the one and only Balkan Soul Lady.

Alex has been the lightening rod for young people in Serbia, showing them that if you believe in yourself and what you do, and if you work really hard and put everything you've got into it, you will succeed.

Alex is a true supporter of animal rights, which she proved by running a rescue shelter for abandoned animals in Belgrade, for three years, and rehomed more than 50 animals. She is a vegetarian, with a healthy, strong and positive life philosophy. In 2007., The British Council in Serbia asked Aleksandra and Roman, to organise a workshop for young people interested in learning about the music business in Serbia, and afterwards, write an essay about the subject.

Alex was the first Serbian to appear on the cover of Cosmopolitan, the first Serbian artist to get the MTV Award ... voted one of the ten most popular women in Serbia 2010!

With her new, best -selling album "In my room", which was written, produced and released by Roman and herself, she proved once again that she is here to stay.In the last year they also founded a private music school "Belgrade voice", and released an album promoting the best student-singers.

Roman and Aleksandra are a songwriting and production team with a song catalog ranging from soul and funk, rock and country, to mainstream ballads.

Kristina Kovač was born in Belgrade, Serbia, SFRJ in 1974. She is the daughter of the prominent Serbian composer Kornelije Kovač. Kristina traveled a lot while she was a child and also lived in many places in Europe, such as London. She was working in London for the management company Mismanagement until the second half of the 1990s.

Kristina become popular in a group K2 where she performed along with her sister Aleksandra. They have released four albums. In 1989 under their father's guidance, using the name Next of kin the girls recorded an English language album Way to the top in Spain. The album was also released in their home country in 1990, but failed to make much of a splash without proper media support. In 1991, the duo sang back vocals for Bebi Dol who represented Yugoslavia at the 1991 Eurovision Song Contest. They moved to London in September 1991 to support Labi Siffre on tour. Towards the end of the year they came back to Belgrade, before departing for Norway in the summer of 1992 where under the name "You dirty sisters" they recorded a promo material for composer Sway. Year 1993 brought another trip to England where the sisters performed in various London clubs such as Mean fiddler, The orange and Tea room des artistes. After hearing them perform in Mean fiddler in 1993, Errol Brown (the former singer of Hot Chocolate) booked Aleksandra and Kristina as an opening act and as backing vocals on his tour. For this occasion they performed as The Cornelias. With this, K2 got positive reactions from major records labels - Sony, Polydor and Warner Bros.. In the next five years, Aleksandra and Kristina worked with many important names from the music industry, such as Derek Bramble (composer and producer, worked with Whitney Houston, Nona Gaye) and the composing duo Rod Argent-Peter Van Hooke (composed and produced for Genesis, Tanita Tikaram). Their first album "Ajmo u zivot" released in 1995 was very popular and the girls became famous. They released few videos - such as "Ajmo u zivot" , "Dzangl manija", "Milo moje". They all were 1^st  on Serbian pop-rock charts. Only year after the girls started to make new material for the second album. The second album, called "Malo soula" was released in late 1996 and still had 1^st  singles. The girls also did few videos - Dabadamdam, Sestre, Bicu tvoja devojka. In 1997 Komuna Belgrade, their label released a compilation album "Time out" which contained 2 new K2 songs and some other songs by other Serbian hip hop artists. A video for Srebro i zlato was released and became one of group's biggest hits. Because of being biggest Serbian attraction, K2 released an album in Spain in Spanish for EMI in 1998. The debut Spanish album was named just K2 and was successful. It contained Spanish versions of their previous songs. For example, their 1^st  hit Dabadamdam became Debedamdam, Sestre became Hermanas, Ajmo u zivot became Vamos de fiesta etc. The same year the remix album called Vamos de fiesta - Remixes was also released for EMI.

In 1997 they released a compilation with Serbian hip hop artists, which also included two new K2 songs: "Srebro i zlato", and "Da li znaš". Video for Srebro i zlato was also released. In later days, turbo folk music got more attention in Serbia, so the girls split up and started doing solo projects.

Kristina started to mostly compose. She composed melodies for many advertisements, and also formed the boy band "Peti element"  in 2001 which was quite popular that days. She also did music for many music stars - from Tanja Banjanin to Karolina Gočeva. But, in 2004 she did music for movie Mi nismo andjeli 2 which was the biggest movie hit in 2004. She also sang one song Sta se dobije kad se dva andjela klade but it was not released as single nor got any media attention. That days she also performed song Pesma za kraj and also made a video-it's one of the most important Kristina songs. Some press wondered if that was song for K2, although it was clear that it's finally a solo Kristina Kovač song.

Kovač started to work on her debut album in summer of 2006. The album is called U Nebranom Grožđu and KK Production released it in summer of 2007. The album contains ten songs. All songs were produced and written by her. The album features Croatian band Cubismo, and Vinnie Colaiuta (drums, played with Sting, Eros Ramazzoti, Anastacia, Pussycat Dolls), Dominic Miller (guitar, Sting's "right hand") and Paul Turner (bass for Jamiroquai and Annie Lennox) also did some instrument playing on the album. Her first single was "Kolena", the biggest summer hit of 2007 in Serbia. It was a Latin pop song and featured Cubismo. For now, the single spent 9 weeks on 1^st . "Kolena" reached the MTV Adria Top 20. The second single was "Zivot je ljut", which is Kovač's favourite song from her album, according to her. The video and the song are about love, love-troubles and similar. Kovač's fans were also able to act in the making of "Zivot je ljut" video. The second single also reached MTV Adria Top 20, and was more successful on the chart than previous single, "Kolena". The video gained popularity and awards, such as award for the best video on Beovizija 2009 and Suncane skale festivals. Kristina chose "Milica i ja" as the third single and made unofficial statement on her official forum that her fans would be able to act in the video too. But, Kovač got pregnant during late 2007, and the release and filming of the video was scrapped. Kristina stated that she would "not film a video for Milica i ja" and that she will do a video for Ko instead, a fan and critic favourite. The video was not filmed, and Kovač gave birth to a girl called Tara on 1^st  July 2008. Her pregnancy remained almost publicly unnoticed, since Kristina did not want to make it "a public thing". After giving birth, Kovač started to work on organization of her fist concert in Belgrade and also continued to work on the story of Ko video.