Milan Mladenović Award 2026 announces 12 finalists

The jury for the 2026 Milan Mladenović Award, composed of Pavica Čabrijan (Croatia), Nemanja Đorđević (Serbia), Lada Furlan Zaborac (Croatia), Jovan Matić (Serbia) and Ana Radonjić/Zoe Kida (Serbia), selected 12 finalists from a pool of 173 submitted songs after narrowing the field to 47 semi‑finalists. The chosen entries include Zhiva (Serbia) – “ATOM”, Tingo (Serbia) – “BERNARDINO RIZZI”, Tarej (Croatia) – “BISER”, Pocket Palma (Croatia) – “BOLI ME”, Roba bez greške (Montenegro) – “BEZ TEBE”, Darkoff (North Macedonia) – “CEKOJ (TI I JAS)”, Dunja Đoković (Serbia) – “DOK SPAVA”, Lelee & Jelena Petošević (Slovenia/Serbia) – “IGRA BELA MEČKA”, Deminutiv (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – “KLETVA”, Dolores feat. Retrospektiva (Serbia) – “KO GASI SVETLO”, Milošev (Croatia) – “ODLUKE” and Žbađ (Serbia) – “U ZAMRZIVAČU”. These songs will appear on a promotional CD released by the Milan Mladenović Foundation. After a further voting round, five will become super‑finalists and the overall laureate will be announced on 21 September, the birthday of Milan Mladenović. The winner receives a €3,000 cash prize, a specially crafted statuette and contracted performances at regional festivals.