Sara Jovanović

**Sara Jovanović** (Cyrillic: Сара Јовановић); born 29 October 1993, also known as  **Sara Jo**, is a Italian-born Serbian pop singer.

## Career

Sara Jovanović was born on 29 October 1993 in Rome, Italy, to Serbian parents Saša and Jasna Jovanović, and was raised bilingually in Serbian and Italian. Her family moved back to Belgrade, Serbia, when she was fifteen years old. She has a degree in Italian language at the University of Belgrade Faculty of Philology.

### Prvi Glas Srbije

In early 2011, Jovanović won a singing contest organized by Serbian magazine Story with the covers she was posting on YouTube. As a reward, she recorded her debut single "Zauvek" (Forever), which she performed on the popular late-night talk show Veče sa Ivanom Ivanovićem, broadcast on Prva TV. The following year Jovanović was featured on four songs released by rapper MCN for his self-titled debut album.

Jovanović became known to wider audience as a contestant and the second runner-up of the second season of Serbian singing competition Prvi glas Srbije. She successfully went through the audition and the battle phase to progress to the live performances. Recognised for her showmanship, Serbian edition of Cosmopolitan cited her as the "new energy on the music scene".

### Eurovision Song Contest

In February 2013, it was announced that Jovanović, alongside two other show finalists Nevena Ivanović and Mirna Radulović, would take part in the search for Serbia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden as the girl group Moje 3. They subsequently won the national selection with the song "Ljubav je svuda" (Love Is Everywhere). On 14 May, Moje 3 performed last at the first semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 and failed to qualify for the final, placing 11th in the semi-final and scoring 46 points. They also received the Barbara Dex Award for the worst dressed act.

In June 2013, Jovanović released a duet, titled "Ujutru" (In the Morning) with Marko Mandić a d designed her own t-shirt collection. From September to December, she participated in the Serbian spin-off of Your Face Sounds Familiar, where she finished as the runner-up.

In the meantime, Jovanović was featured on the charity single "Molio Sam Anđele" (I Prayed to the Angels). In June 2014, she released her first solo single, "Ko Je Ovde Ko" (Who Is Who Here), which saw moderate success. She also covered Boban Rajović's song "Provokacija" (Provocation) for the movie *Mali Budo*. In December, Jovanović released her new single, "Mahovina" (Moss) and in July 2016, "Probaj" (Try), which were less stressful. In October, she collaborated with Marko Mandić once again on "Troje" (The Three) for the movie *Jesen Samuraja*.

### Mainstream success

In May 2017, Jovanović collaborated with Belgrade-based record label Bassivity Digital on her hip-hop infused electropop single "Nemam Vremena Za To" (I Don't Have Time For That), which saw great success and brought her back to mainstream. In June 2017, she released a dancehall promotional single "Samo Ti" (Only You) for Tuborg GreenFest under Universal Music Serbia, which contains a sample from Major Lazer 'Tuborg Beat' courtesy of Mad Decent. Jovanović successfully continued her collaboration with Bassivity on her following singles "Lava" and "Bez Sna" (Without Sleep), released in May 2018 and January 2019, which became great hits as well.

## Countries

* Italy (place of birth)
* Montenegro (borrow rule)
* Republika Srpska (borrow rule)
* Serbia (main country)

### **BalkanVision Song Contest**

 #12 |  Montenegro | "Lava"
 #19 |  Serbia | "Bez Sna"

## Discography

### **Singles**

* *Zauvek* (2011)

* *Ko Je Ovde Ko* (2014)

* *Mahovina* (2014)

* *Probaj* (2016)

* *Nemam Vremena Za To* (2017)

* *Samo Ti* (2017)

* *Lava* (2018)

* *Bez Sna* (2019)