Serbia and Montenegro originally planned to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. The union of public broadcasters of Serbia and Montenegro, Udruženje javnih radija i televizija (UJRT) organised the national final Evropesma-Europjesma 2006 in order to select the Serbian and Montenegrin entry for the 2006 contest in Athens, Greece. The Serbian national broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), and the Montenegrin broadcaster Radio i televizija Crne Gore (RTCG) each submitted twelve entries from their respective selections Beovizija 2006 and Montevizija 2006 with twenty-four entries in total competing in the national final on 11 March 2006. The song "Moja ljubavi" written by Milan Perić and Dalibor Nedović performed by the band No Name, which had previously represented Serbia and Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005 where they placed seventh in the final with the song "Zauvijek moja", was initially selected as the winner following the combination of votes from an eight-member jury panel and a public televote. However the results were not recognized by UJRT due to controversy surrounding tactical voting of the Montenegrin jury, and the broadcaster ended up not submitting any entry.
As one of ten highest placed finishers in the 2005 contest Serbia and Montenegro directly qualified to compete in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 20 May 2006. However, Serbia and Montenegro was removed from the contest on 20 March due to UJRT not being able to submit an entry by the submission deadline with the empty slot in the final being replaced by Croatia.
Background
Prior to the 2006 Contest, Serbia and Montenegro had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest two times since its first entry in 2004 when they achieved their best placing in the contest with the song "Lane moje" performed by Željko Joksimović, placing second in the final. The Serbian and Montenegrin entry in 2005, "Zauvijek moja" performed by No Name, placed seventh in the final. Up to this point, Serbia and Montenegro had featured in every final of the Eurovision Song Contest they participated in.
The union of public broadcasters of Serbia and Montenegro, Udruženje javnih radija i televizija (UJRT), organises the selection process for the nation's entry with Serbia and Montenegro's respective broadcasters, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) and Radio i televizija Crne Gore (RTCG), broadcasting the event within their respective republics. UJRT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest on 23 November 2005. In 2004 and 2005, the Evropesma-Europjesma national final had been used in order to select their entry, a procedure that continued for the selection of the 2006 entry as announced along with their participation confirmation.
Before Eurovision
Montevizija 2006
Montevizija 2006 was the second edition of Montevizija. It served as the Montenegrin semifinal for choosing the Serbo-Montenegrin entry for Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens, Greece. The final was held on 24 February 2006 at the RTCG Studios in Podgorica, presented by Zoja-Spahić Kustudić, Andrija Milošević, Danilo Čelebić, Irena Ivanović and Milena Ristić. Twenty songs competed and nine juries – 8 jury members and a public televote determined the twelve songs to progress to the final of Evropesma-Europjesma.
Beovizija 2006
Beovizija 2006 was the 4th edition of Beovizija. The final was held on 10 March 2006 in Sava Centar in Belgrade. 23 songs competed in the Beovizija 2006 contest, one song, due to be performed by Nevena Paripović, was not featured, though no reason was given for this. Nine juries – 8 jury members and a public televote determined the twelve songs to progress to the final of Evropesma-Europjesma.
Evropesma-Europjesma 2006
Evropesma-Europjesma 2006 was national final organised by UJRT in order to select the Serbian and Monetengrin entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. The competition took place at the Sava Centar in Belgrade on 11 March 2006, hosted by Jelena Jovičić and Boda Ninković. The show was broadcast in Serbia on RTS1 and RTS Sat as well as streamed online via the broadcaster's website rts.co.yu, and in Montenegro on TVCG 1 and TVCG Sat.