Slavko Kalezić

Slavko Kalezić is a Montenegrin singer, songwriter and actor, born on 4 October 1985 in Titograd, today's Podgorica. He represented Montenegro at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Space".

He graduated from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Cetinje and later joined the ensemble of the Montenegrin National Theatre, playing roles on stage and in films such as Lokalni vampir (2011) and Budva na pjenu od mora. Alongside acting he sang at music events, and in 2011 he released his first single, "Muza".

He became more widely known in 2013 through the first series of X Factor Adria. At the Podgorica auditions he sang Beyoncé's "End of Time" and went through to the over-27s category mentored by Željko Joksimović. He reached the judges' houses, where he sang "Ljuljaj me nježno", but did not make the live shows. In 2014 he released the album San o vječnosti, ten songs including "Krivac", "Kraj", "Zašto", the duet "Borim se" with Neda Papović and "Muza". The singles "Feel the Music" (2015) and "Freedom" (2016) followed.

On 29 December 2016 the broadcaster RTCG announced him as Montenegro's entrant for Kyiv. "Space" was written by Adis Eminić, Iva Boršić and Momčilo Zeković and produced by Stefan Örn and Jovan Radomir in Stockholm, and its video, directed by Dejan Milićević, was filmed in Bjelopavlići and Podgorica. In the first semi-final on 9 May 2017 he finished 16th with 56 points and did not reach the final.

That summer he auditioned for the fourteenth series of The X Factor in the UK, encouraged by judge Louis Walsh, whom he had met in Kyiv. He passed bootcamp and reached Nicole Scherzinger's judges' house, where his run ended. He also sang at Pride shows across Europe and at the 2017 WorldPride gala in Madrid alongside Eurovision names such as Loreen and Conchita Wurst.

In 2018 he performed remixes of "Space" and the new single "El Ritmo" at fan events in Lisbon, and published the book Moja istina about his Eurovision and X Factor experiences; in 2019 he turned it into a one-off musical show in Podgorica. Later releases include "Moonlit Night", "Love Letter" and "Ko smo mi?".