I promised you a review of PZE Semi One

I’m nothing if a webmaster of his word and here os that review i promised Bluesky now, at this point, I have to say I watched it back today (Wednesday) so it could be a little bit stale but, who cares!

Running order and results

With twelve songs finished and scored inside roughly two hours forty, the show felt tight for RTS standards, helped by a clear results structure and no endless voting waffle. The Dragana/Kristina/Stefan trio has now bedded in: the main‑stage links still go a bit “Saturday‑night RTS” in places, but the green‑room material feels more integrated than in the early PZE years. Studio 8 again showed its limits in wide shots, yet the directed lighting and camera work clearly aimed at creating Eurovision‑ready performance cuts rather than just domestic variety TV.​

Songs and running order

The draw actually told a coherent story, if you were looking for one that is,  starting with Mirna’s dark, atmospheric “Omaja” and ending on the more immediate “Jugoslavija” and “Moma mala”. Slots 1–3 (Mirna, Kosmos trip, Iva) established a “Serbian contemporary” identity straight away – ethno‑leaning drama, band energy and modern balladry, which is the perfect mix for that part of the world.  This, though made the later, more straightforward pop entries work as contrast pieces. Mid‑show, from Eegor through Bella, the semi dipped slightly into mid‑tempo clutter; each song had ideas ( Everyone has them) but in sequence they risked blurring, which is probably why only Lores broke out of that section to qualify.​

Standout performances

On paper and on stage, Mirna, Zejna and Lores were the spine of the semi. Mirna’s opener “Omaja” combined tight live vocals with moody, controlled staging, landing exactly in the sweet spot Serbia has carved at Eurovision since 2022. Zejna’s “Jugoslavija” leaned into big gestures and deliberate provocation, the sort of performance that splits juries but eats televote attention and recap space. Lores delivered the cleanest “export pop” of the night with “Unseen”, visually pared‑back but confident enough to look like a genuine threat in the final scoreboard.​

Further down the list, YANX’s “Srušio si sve” and Ana Mašulović’s “Zavoli me” felt like solid, modern filler‑plus: not yet winners on staging alone, but credible finalists with obvious room for a second‑run step‑up. Iva’s “Otkrivam sebe” and Kosmos trip’s “Sve je u redu” rounded out the qualifier set with a quieter, more introspective ballad and a looser live‑band vibe respectively, which helps the final avoid wall‑to‑wall solo pop.

Results, talking points and verdict

From a pure results‑sheet perspective, the seven qualifiers make structural sense: juries get their artistry (Mirna, Lores), televoters get their big characters (Zejna, YANX), and RTS gets a stylistically varied final. The main “headline” casualty is Bella’s “Trampolina”, which looked like a televote‑friendly pop entry on paper but simply got squeezed in a crowded middle order, plus a few smaller exits like “Svaki dan” and “Moma mala” that tidy up overlaps rather than spark outrage.

And that’s that.  I might even bother to watch Thursday’s semi final – or record a radio show and watch it from Youtube on Friday is actually more like it.