The first semi-final of Serbian national selection for Eurovision Song Contest 2025, Pesma za Evroviziju is set to take place on 25th of February.

One of the fifteen artists competing is a returnee to the show and a singer which already appeared at the stage of Eurovision three times. Jelena Aleen took a moment to share with us what are her thoughts ahead of the contest.

Hello Jelena, first of all congrats for being one of the artists competing at Pesma za Evroviziju 2025. You competed at the show in 2022 with the song “Pogledi” how was that experience for you and how does it feel to be back?
It was a valued experience. As you know “we do not learn when we succeed but rather when we fail.” I couldn’t say I failed but it was very stressful experience in so many segments. That is why I will not wear dress this time and will have a hand-held mic! 🙂

Before the show you also changed your stage name from Jelena Pajić to Jelena Aleen so your PzE entry “Kameleon” is the first one under that name how did that happen and what does Aleen stand for?
For some time now I was trying to come up with a stage name, but didn’t have any good ones. My daughter Ema also consulted ChatGPT but it didn’t give us any good suggestion. Eventually, Ema and I went to my mom and father-in-law, who live in Nice France for vacation and when I told them about this issue my father-in-law remembered a great hit song from 1965 sang by French artist Christophe – Aline. I just changed a couple of letters but pronunciation stayed the same.

How was the creative process behind “Kameleon” can you tell us more about the inspiration for the song and what does it mean for you?
Music and lyrics were written by my friend Bane Opacic so this is more question for him. “Kameleon” for me represents a big change; change in life and especially career.

What can we expect from your performance at Pesma za Evroviziju 2025? Any hints?
You can expect good vocal performance but for everything else I am not sure, I might “fall on stage”, I don’t know! This will be the first time that I’ll be having a dancing choreography.

Which artist competing at this year’s Pesma za Evroviziju do you see as your biggest competitor? And whose performance are you most excited for?
I do not think about that, I am focusing on my performance and will try to give my best.

You already graced the Eurovision stage three times as a backing vocals with Knez in 2015, Tijana in 2017 and Hurricane in 2021, how were those experiences? Is there any anecdote or a memory which you would like to share with the readers?
Yes, I was a background vocalist three times at the Eurovision, and thinking of an anecdote, from top of my head first thing that hits was 2015 with Knez in Wien, there was four other girls with me singing background vocals and we had a moment in choreography when we are passing each other very fast in very precise and delicate manner. We named that part “zmijica” which stands for “small snake”. When we first started rehearsing that part it was hilarious, we were constantly stepping on each other’s feet and laughing when we were supposed to look seriously at each other’s eyes. It was a very hard, but very precious task.

Do you watch Eurovision regularly? Which song is your favourite?
I do, I watch it with my kids and they love to prepare voting papers and compete who will guess the winner. Considering the best Eurovision song, for me it will always be “Waterloo“

What do you do when you are not singing? Any hobbies?
When I don’t sing, I am a mum, wife, cleaning lady, cooking chef, taxi driver and all of those things every mum with small kids are doing. One thing I love doing the most in my spear time is riding my Yamaha Tracer 7GT motorcycle. 🙂

Which three things you always have with you when you leave your house?
I always have my phone, car keys and bottle of water.

What are your plans after Pesma za Evroviziju 2025?
I will probably return to my day job which is singing in the daily show on RTS “Dobar dan” and preparing some new songs.

Thank you so much for your time Jelena. We wish you the best of luck at PzE 2025.
You can also check Jelena’s entry for Pesma za Evroviziju 2025, “Kameleon” below:

In the case Jelena’s entry is your favourite of Pesma za Evroviziju 2025 semi final 1 don’t forget to vote for it in our poll below: