Marija Šerifović

Marija Šerifović (Cyrillic: Марија Шерифовић, born 14 November 1984 Kragujevac) is a Serbian singer and the winner of the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest. She is the daughter of singer Verica Šerifović.

Marija recorded her debut album in 2003 entitled "Naj, najbolja" (very very best), which was well received by the public. The biggest hit from the album was "Znaj da znam". Marija participated in Budvanski Festival (in the city of Budva) with a song "Gorka čokolada", but didn't achieve any major success. Next year, she entered again with a song called "Bol do ludila" and won the first prize. The song topped the charts in Serbia, Montenegro and other ex-Yugoslav republics and was a major hit. In 2005, she tried her luck by entering another festival. This time it was Beovizija, a Serbian semifinal of Evropesma (the preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest), where she managed to qualify into the final with the song "Ponuda". After a national scandal in which the Montenegrin jury boycotted the Serbian participants, Marija came only 18th in the final, with just 5 points. On the summer of 2005, she released a single "Agonija", which was a cover version of Despina Vandi's (a Greek superstar) "I believe it (Olo lipis)". That same year, she entered and won the Serbian Radijski Festival (Radio Festival) with a song "U nedelju", composed by Leontina Vukomanović. She was a clear favourite from the very beginning and managed to get most of the SMS votes. She also received the award for the best vocal performance.

Her second album "Bez ljubavi" (released in 2006) was quite a success and included 10 new song and several hits, most notably "Nije mi prvi put", "101." ("Sto prvi") and "Bez ljubavi". The CD also included some songs that had been previously published (such as "U nedelju", "Bol do ludila" and "Gorka čokolada").

In early 2007, she released her second single called "Bez tebe".

On February 21, 2007, Marija held her first concert. About 4000 people attended this music event at Sava Centar, Belgrade. Marija not only interpreted her songs, but also the ones of Nina Badrić and other famous artists. Saša Kovačević, who was a special guest, performed a few of his songs, and Marija sang a duet with a well known artist Maja Odžaklijevska.

Marija entered the qualifying round of Beovizija 2007 with a song "Molitva" (Prayer), where she easily managed to soar into the final on March 7. On March 8, after giving an amazing vocal performance, she won the combined votes of jury and televoting (received a maximum 12 points from the televoting and 10 points from the jury), thus becoming the Serbian representative in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007. Marija won the Eurovision Song Contest 2007.