Serbia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "In Too Deep" written by Borislav Milanov, Joacim Bo Persson, Johan Alkenäs and Lisa Desmond. The song was performed by Tijana Bogićević, who was internally selected by the Serbian national broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) to represent Serbia in the 2017 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine. Bogićević was announced as the Serbian representative on 27 February 2017, while the song, "In Too Deep", was presented on 11 March 2017.
Serbia was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 11 May 2017. Performing as the opening entry for the show in position 1, "In Too Deep" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Serbia placed eleventh out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 98 points.
Background
Prior to the 2017 contest, Serbia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest nine times since its first entry in , winning the contest with their debut entry "Molitva" performed by Marija Šerifović. Since 2007, seven out of nine of Serbia's entries have featured in the final with the nation failing to qualify in 2009 and 2013. Serbia's 2016 entry "Goodbye (Shelter)" performed by Sanja Vučić ZAA qualified to the final and placed eighteenth.
The Serbian national broadcaster, Radio Television of Serbia (RTS), broadcasts the event within Serbia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. RTS confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest on 5 October 2016. Between 2007 and 2009, Serbia used the Beovizija national final in order to select their entry. However, after their 2009 entry, "Cipela" performed by Marko Kon and Milaan, failed to qualify Serbia to the final, the broadcaster shifted their selection strategy to selecting specific composers to create songs for artists. In 2010, RTS selected Goran Bregović to compose songs for a national final featuring three artists, while in 2011 Kornelije Kovač, Aleksandra Kovač and Kristina Kovač were tasked with composing one song each. In 2012, the internal selection of Željko Joksimović and the song "Nije ljubav stvar" secured the country's second highest placing in the contest to this point, placing third. In 2013, RTS returned to an open national final format and organized the Beosong competition. The winning entry, "Ljubav je svuda" performed by Moje 3, failed to qualify Serbia to the final at the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest. In 2015, RTS selected Vladimir Graić, the composer of Serbia's 2007 Eurovision Song Contest winning entry "Molitva", to compose songs for a national final featuring three artists. In 2016, RTS internally selected the Serbian entry with the decision made by RTS music editors.
Before Eurovision
Internal selection
RTS internally selected the Serbian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the decision made by RTS music editors. The name of the artist to represent Serbia, Tijana Bogićević, was confirmed by RTS on 27 February 2017. In addition to attempting to represent Serbia at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2009 with the song "Pazi šta radiš", failing to qualify from the semi-final in the national final, Tijana Bogićević previously represented Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 as a backing vocalist for Nina Radojičić. It was also announced on the same day that the song Bogićević would perform at the Eurovision Song Contest would be written by members of the songwriting team Symphonix International, Borislav Milanov, Joacim Bo Persson, Johan Alkenäs and Lisa Desmond.
The Serbian entry, "In Too Deep", was presented through the release of the official music video via the official Eurovision Song Contest's YouTube channel on 11 March 2017. In regards to the song, songwriter Borislav Milanov stated: "The song is worldly but it has a Balkan element. It took us two or three months for the song to be ready. The Eurovision Song Contest has been modernized in recent years. New ideas are being presented, the quality is at a high level and the whole competition is moving forward into the future."