RTCG have confirmed that Montenegro will not participate in Liverpool, next May, at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023.
The news of Montenegro’s withdrawal have been rumoured since May when Montenegro became embroiled in the rigged-jury scandal, whereby the EBU officially condemned the broadcaster as one of six delegations that had attempted to cheat the voting of the Turin 2022 contest. Montenegro were one of the main countries that strongly rebutted the EBU’s claim and they went onto issue a statement calling it all nothing more than circumstance. This included, at the time, a threat of withdrawal. Unlike Montenegro, every other country who were accused of cheating have already declared their intention to participate in Liverpool.
The official reason Montenegro have given for withdrawing is roughly the same as the one they issued in 2019 which also followed a non-qualification.
In addition to the significant costs of the registration fee, as well as the cost of staying in Great Britain – we also faced a lack of interest from sponsors, so we decided to direct existing resources to the financing of current and planned national projects and organizational and program reforms, which entail significant investment interventions in equipment and premises.
RTCG
Montenegro came 37th overall in May, after sending Vladana to Turin. In 2019, after which they also withdrew, they had come 38th overall.
So far, 34 countries have confirmed their participation for Liverpool 2023, and if, without any surprise returnees, the maximum we’re likely to see is now 39 countries, that leaves five more countries left to confirm. They are Armenia, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Moldova and North Macedonia. It is expected that most, if not all, of these countries will confirm in the next few weeks.
