Yugoslavia participated for the first time at the Eurovision Song Contest 1961, held in Cannes, France.
Before Eurovision
Jugovizija 1961
The first Yugoslav national final to select their entry, was held on 16 February at the Ljubljana Slovene National Theatre Drama in Ljubljana. The host was Milanka Bavcon. There were 9 songs in the final, from the three subnational public broadcasters of Yugoslav Radio Television - JRT; RTV Ljubljana, RTV Zagreb and RTV Belgrade. The winner was chosen by the votes of an eight-member jury of experts, one juror for each of the six republics and the two autonomous provinces [a]. The winning entry was "Neke davne zvezde", performed by Serbian singer Ljiljana Petrović, composed by Jože Privšek and written by Miroslav Antić. [1]
| Final – 16 February 1961 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Broadcaster | Artist | Song | Points | Place |
| 1 |  RTV Ljubljana |
Ljiljana Petrović | "Neke davne zvezde" | 19 | 1 |
| 2 | RTV Ljubljana |
Marjana Deržaj & Stane Mancini | "Kako sva si različna" | 6 | 5 |
| 3 | RTV Ljubljana |
Jelka Cvetezar | "Črni klavir" | 3 | 9 |
| 4 |  RTV Zagreb |
Ivo Robić | "Pjesma o životu" | 11 | 3 |
| 5 | RTV Zagreb |
Gabi Novak | "Drage misli" | 17 | 2 |
| 6 |  RTV Belgrade |
Lola Novaković | "Plave daljine" | 9 | 4 [b] |
| 7 | RTV Belgrade |
Anica Zubović | "Sreća" | 4 | 8 |
| 8 | RTV Belgrade |
Đorđe Marjanović | "Reč il´ dve" | 5 | 7 |
| 9 | RTV Zagreb |
Duo Hani | "Obećaj mi to" | 6 | 5 |
At Eurovision
Ljiljana Petrović performed 5th on the night of the Contest following Finland and preceding Netherlands. At the close of the voting the song had received 9 points, placing 8th equal in a field of 16 competing countries. [2]
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Notes
References
- ^ "Yugoslavian National Final 1961 at Eurodalmatia official ESC club". Archived from the original on 26 February 2008. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
- ^ "Eurovision Song Contest 1961". EBU. Retrieved 25 May 2020.
- ^ a b "Results of the Final of Cannes 1961". Eurovision Song Contest. Archived from the original on 28 March 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.