The venue opened officially in 2004, and the first event it housed was the European Championship in basketball. The hall is situated in the New Belgrade city and can offer about 14 000 seats for the contest in May next year.
Serbia was one of the newly joined countries participating for the first time in the ESC this year. This was due to the fact that Montenegro got its independence and the country no longer entered the contest as Serbia and Montenegro. Before this Serbia and Montenegro had entered the ESC twice, the most successful representatives being boy band no Name. This year, Maria Serifovic, chosen on a national selection, managed to get the ESC trophy with a song performed in Serbian language. Bookmakers had predicted that her song "Molitva" (Prayer) would qualify very well at the Final. I think we can call her performance very good, can't we!