The second semi-final of “Pesma za Evroviziju 24” takes place tomorrow evening. Eight out of fourteen acts will be advancing to the final which is set to take place this Saturday, 2nd of March. We had a chance to talk with Milan Bujaković who will be competing as 13th act of the second-semi-final tomorrow evening. Milan is a singer who already took part at the Serbian national selection in 2020 when he performed “Niti” in a duet with Olivera and they ended on 9th place in the show as well as last year when he competed with “Fenomen”.

Hello Milan, first of all I would like to congratulate you for being selected for Pesma za Evroviziju 2024. How does that feel and what made you decide to return to the show?
Hi, it’s always a pleasure talking to you. Thank you for the congratulations. It’s a great feeling when you’re among the 28 contestants, considering that thousands of songs were submitted to the contest. My love for festivals and Eurovision decided to apply again.

This will be your third time competing at the Serbian national selection for Eurovision how is this different from your previous two attempts ?
Yes, this is my third appearance at the festival. This time we will focus on the graphics that will appear on the big led screens. There will be dancing and of course lots of singing. Let’s not reveal much, you’ll see.

Last year you competed at the music festival Belgrade spring with the song “Mala” how was that experience for you?
It’s always good to participate in festivals, because that way continuity is maintained in the creation of new songs, which is good for authors, singers, radio and TV stations, and finally the audience for whom we do all this. Belgrade Spring is one of the oldest music festivals in this part of Europe and it is a great honor for me that I had the opportunity to present myself with the song “Mala”, which was very well placed on radio stations throughout Serbia. And that is the essence of participating in festivals.

How did the song “Moje tvoje” come to life and what does it mean to you?
The song “Moje-tvoje” was first created as a song called “Wherever” which was supposed to be performed at a festival in the United States, but since that festival did not take place, we made a Serbian version of the song and sent it to “PZE”

On the creation of the song you cooperated with your friend, Petar Pupić (Egret) who competed last year at PzE with “Ako Shvatim Kasno” and with Maya Sar who represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at Eurovision 2012 with “Korake ti znam” how did the cooperation with the two of them start?
Yes, Petar is my friend since childhood, and we have many joint projects whose time is yet to come. He, in collaboration with Lionel Lombard, an American songwriter (who had the opportunity to collaborate with the biggest names of the world music scene such as Rihanna, Bruno Mars, Mick Jagger…) wrote the song “Wherever”, which was supposed to go to the festival in USA, but since the song is going to “PzE”, we got in touch with our dear friends Mahir Sarihodžić and Maya Sar. Mahir is one of the best producers in this region who has a lot of experience with Eurovision, and Maya is one of the best performers and authors from the former Yugoslavia. They expressed their desire to participate in the creation of the Serbian version, so Maya wrote a completely new text and Mahir did the perfect arrangement.

What can we expect from your performance? Can you give us a hint?
No 🙂 I’m kidding, since it’s a ballad, you can’t expect any spectacular choreography, but it will be a very nice performance that will be connected to the events on the big screen.

In our previous interview you mentioned that watching Eurovision is a family tradition for you. So can you share with us how did you like last year’s show and who was your favourite to win it?
Yes, I really liked last year’s show. My favorite was the winner. 🙂

While you were growing up you lived in Argentina, Italy, Macedonia, Croatia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia, which of those countries is your favourite and would you like to return to live in any of them?
Of the mentioned countries, my favorite is Italy. Somehow, they are the most similar to us, in terms of mentality, love for music, family, friends, life… If I were to go anywhere outside of Serbia to live, it would be there. But I wouldn’t trade Serbia for anything in the world. On this occasion, I invite your readers from all over the world to come and visit Serbia, there are so many beautiful things to see and visit.

If you could choose any singer to perform with who would you like that to be and why?
Eros Ramazzotti, I grew up listening to his music and he is one of the reasons I got into music.

What are your plans after Pesma za Evroviziju 2024?
There are many plans, we are collecting songs in order to finish the recording of the first album, so on this occasion I invite all interested songwriters to send ideas, so if we like something, we could achieve cooperation.

Thank you so much for your time Milan. We wish you the best of luck at the Pesma za Evroviziju. Do you want to share something else or you maybe have a message for readers of escbubble?
In the world we live in, there is everything, but there is a lack of love, tolerance and understanding for others. On this occasion, I want to wish everyone more of that, and it is up to us, the artists, to spread the love and I believe that we will succeed in that.

You can listen to “Moje-tvoje” by Milan Bujaković below: