If Petar Aničić doesn’t win the 2020 Junior Eurovision Song Contest, he might just be a future Eurovision winner. Even fans, who do not follow Junior Eurovision Song Contest, are impressed by the talent Serbia has in this young man.
14 year old Petar Aničić has ambitions. Though he learned to play piano at the age of 4, and will represent Serbia at the 2020 Eurovision Song Contest, it’s not there his ambitions lay. He would like to become a lawyer or diplomat. Language skills might be important in such professions, so Peter is already in fluent in English and currently learning German and Spanish.
The 14 year old Belgrade resident mention the American singer Kesha as his musical idol. When asked what else he listen to, a lot of international names pops up like American Maren Morris and Irish Hozier, American Julia Michaels and Australian Sam Fischer and ditto Wafia.
Heartbeat – opinions from Fans
In order to find out what Eurovision fans think of this Serbian Junior Eurovision entry, we asked our Eurovision Fan Panel. It includes team members as well as fans from all over the world.
🇳🇱 Jacques H. – By Junior Eurovision Song Contest standards this is a remarkable pretty and modest song. Of course, the matter remains, will Petar Aničić be able to keep it just as modest and small on the big Eurovision stage? For a change, I am positive about a Junior song. And let me asure you, it is far from an easy to sing song. It has huge octave twists and it reaches both high and low. Let’s hope Petar’s Heartbeat sets a new trend towards better songs and thus a better Junior Eurovision Song Contest…
🇩🇰 Charlotte J. – This is the biggest talent I have come across in this year’s Junior Eurovision Song Contest. It’s hard to predict with boys, but if his voice develops in the right direction, Serbia has a future Eurovision Song Contest winner in Petar. I am impressed by him, and I love the song too, which is my personal favourite this year. Will it win Junior Eurovision this year? I am not convinced. It could do so as the fact that I really enjoy this one tells me that it’s probably not what the children will vote for. I can see many 13 year old girls with a crush on him though 😉
🇨🇴 🇫🇮 Alvaro S. – It is probably because I am not the target audience for these type of songs but I did not feel interested in this song. It sounds to me like a generic teenage pop song with a boy singing about his love interest.
🇮🇪 John D. – A pleasant enough ballad seemingly about young love and sung very nicely. The video enhances the sentiment well but there’s no memorable hook or anything outstanding about this for it to stand out on stage. This is the kind of Eurovision entry that might resort to a gimmick on the night like a hanging trapeze, a large hot air balloon or something else ridiculous and irrelevant. The last chorus sung in English doesn’t help either. Mid to bottom of the table I think for this.
🇳🇱 🇩🇰 Wouter V. – This is a very strong song, and despite it perhaps being slightly mature for the younger part of the audience it might actually bring home the victory. Depending, of course, on the staging and if Petar can bring the songs calm into living rooms across Europe in his life-on-tape performance. But whether he wins this Junior or not, I’m sure he has it in him to win some Eurovision someday.
🇬🇧 Michael O. – Another Junior entry that wouldn’t be out of place in the adult version. A pleasant pop song that doesn’t necessarily seem written for a child, but has enough youthful appeal without being too dramatic. A good attempt.
🇫🇷 Olivier R. – To be honest, the Serbian entry, even though it is not bad, is incredibly dull and, just like Malta last year, will struggle to stand out and not finish at the end of the scoreboard. Given the excellent entry they proposed last year, RTS’ choice for 2020 is disappointing (to say the least).
🇷🇸 Miljan T. – Although I’m not fond of JESC, sometimes the performances there do put ESC to shame. But this song is simply boring and the lyrics are horrendous. Also, his singing voice is meh. But what drives me absolutely nuts is the fact that the music was penned by Vladimir Graic (Serbia 2007, 2015, maybe more), Leontina (Serbia and Montenegro 2004 and several JESC songs for Serbia) And Charlie Mason (one of the lyricists of Rise Like A Phoenix and Serbia 2015)… can we please mix it up and let some other people do some work? Next!
🇨🇿 Josef Š. – I think Petar has the advantage of being one of the only two boys in the competition. His song is modern and this style is popular among teenagers as you can find a lot of similar songs about blooming love. That’s another thing that’s good as you believe Petar those feelings. But for me, it somehow is not enough. I believe he has bigger potential. So in my ranking he is slightly below the average.
In the video below, you can listen to Petar Aničić entry Heartbeat. Below the video you can read more about Serbia at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
Serbia at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Filip Vučić represented Serbia & Montenegro at the 2005 Junior Eurovision Song Contest. Following the split of the two nations, Serbia joined the contest on their own already in 2006 just a few months after Montenegro had voted for indenpency.
2020 will mark Serbia’s 11th appearance at the Eurovision Song Contest. They are yet to win the contest, with two third places as the country’s best results so far. The first time Serbia finished third was in 2007 when Nevena Božović performed the song Piši Mi. Back then, she was 13 years old, and no one knew that she would later be the first Junior Eurovision participant to also take part in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Nevena Božović has represented Serbia twice in the adult edition. First time in 2013 as part of the girl trio Moje 3. Unfortunately the song Ljubav Je Svuda failed to qualify for the final. In 2019, things went a bit better. With the song Kruna, she reached the final where she eventually finished in 18th place.
