Who Is Jovana Joksimović

Jovana Joksimović (born Janković; Belgrade, 25 April 1981) is a Serbian television presenter and journalist, best known for the morning shows she has hosted for years on RTS, Pink, Prva and K1 television. Beyond Serbia, she is also remembered as one of the two hosts of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade, alongside singer Željko Joksimović, whom she later married.

She has been on Serbian screens for more than two decades. She began her career in 2001 at BKTV and gained wide popularity from 2005, when she joined Radio Television of Serbia and became Srđan Predojević’s co-host on the morning show Jutarnji program. Viewers long regarded the two of them as one of the best-known presenting duos in the country.

Since 2020 she has hosted the morning show UranaK1 on K1 television. Since March 2021 she has also served as editor-in-chief of the Tanjug news agency. This article follows her path from her first steps in the media, through the major television transfers, to her present position on the Serbian media scene.

Early Life and Childhood

Jovana Janković was born on 25 April 1981 in Belgrade, then part of the Socialist Republic of Serbia and the SFR Yugoslavia. She grew up in the capital during years of major social change, the breakup of the common state and the difficult 1990s.

She speaks of her childhood rarely and sparingly. She has told the public that as a girl she dreamed of a scientific career, even of working at NASA. She later admitted that physics was one of the harder subjects at school.

Although the public knows her mainly for her television work, her path into the media was not planned in advance. Her parents wanted her to secure a stable professional future, so she first considered the natural and technical sciences, and only then economics.

Education

She finished secondary school at the Fourteenth Belgrade Gymnasium. After graduating, around 1999, she enrolled at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, largely on her parents’ advice. In later interviews she revealed that studying at such a large faculty felt chaotic and that she rarely attended lectures.

She did not complete her economics studies. Instead, she graduated from the Academy of Arts at Alfa BK University in Belgrade, majoring in arts management. This is reported by several media outlets, including Danas and Glossy.

Start of Her Career at BKTV

In the early 2000s, while still a student, Jovana applied to what she thought was a marketing job. It turned out to be a casting for new on-screen faces. According to media reports, she was selected from thousands of applicants.

In 2001 she began working as an entertainment reporter at the private broadcaster BKTV. She was only nineteen. She hosted two shows devoted to cinema, Blockbuster and Trailer, in which she presented premieres, film news and conversations with guests.

At BKTV she acquired her first professional habits: live broadcasting, confidence on camera and quick conversation with guests. She drew on that knowledge when she was offered a job at the national broadcaster.

Move to RTS and Jutarnji program

In 2005, Aleksandar Tijanić, then director-general of Radio Television of Serbia, offered her a move to the public broadcaster. At RTS she became co-host of Jutarnji program (Morning Programme), an informative and entertaining show broadcast on weekdays from six to nine in the morning.

On that show she worked with Srđan Predojević. The two quickly won a loyal audience, and Jovana also appeared on the covers of magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Gloria, Svet and TV Revija. The combination of a cheerful morning atmosphere and serious topics became the recognizable style of their show.

Alongside her television work she made her first film appearance. According to IMDb, in 2007 she appeared in the Serbian film The Fourth Man (Četvrti čovek), directed by Dejan Zečević, where she played a journalist.

Eurovision 2008 in Belgrade

Choosing the Hosts

Serbia became the host of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2008, after Marija Šerifović won the previous year with the song “Molitva”. In early March 2008 it was announced that the 53rd edition of the contest would be hosted by Jovana Janković and singer Željko Joksimović. He had earlier gained international recognition by finishing second at Eurovision 2004 with the song “Lane moje”.

Before the contest itself, Jovana also hosted the draw ceremony for the semi-finals at the Belgrade City Assembly building, which introduced her to the European audience.

The Contest Nights

The contest took place from 20 to 24 May 2008 at the Belgrade Arena, with two semi-finals and the grand final. Jovana and Željko hosted all three evenings, in roles that combined stage performance, scripted hosting segments and interaction with the audience. The winner was Russian singer Dima Bilan with the song “Believe”.

For Jovana it was the biggest international assignment of her career. That same year her relationship with Željko Joksimović began, and it later grew into marriage.

Transfer to Pink

In March 2010 it was announced that Jovana Janković and Srđan Predojević were leaving RTS for Pink television, one of the most-watched private broadcasters in Serbia. There they continued to host the morning programme, which brought them an even wider audience.

They stayed at Pink for eight years. During that period Jovana married, became a mother and cemented her reputation as one of the best-known Serbian presenters.

Departure to Prva Television

In early 2018 came news that the media called the “television transfer of the year”. According to reports by Tanjug and other outlets, on 11 January 2018 it was confirmed that Jovana Joksimović and Srđan Predojević were moving from Pink to Prva television. Pink’s owner Željko Mitrović stated that the two sides had parted by mutual agreement after years of cooperation.

At Prva they launched a new morning show titled “Jutro sa Jovanom i Srđanom” (“Morning with Jovana and Srđan”). In the meantime Jovana had given birth to twin daughters in October 2017, and she returned to work after a short maternity leave.

At Prva she also conducted live political interviews, including a conversation with Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić, whose style the public debated. The newspaper Danas wrote about her journalistic approach on that occasion.

Cooperation with Prva television ended in September 2020. The station then announced that it was ending its collaboration with Jovana Joksimović and Srđan Predojević, stating that the presenting duo had not fulfilled their work obligations. Jovana later said that she wishes the people at Prva success and will never speak ill of them.

Return to the Screen: UranaK1

After leaving Prva, Jovana moved to K1 television, which was launched by her husband Željko Joksimović. Since 7 December 2020 she has hosted the morning programme UranaK1, together with Manja Grčić.

The show airs on weekday mornings and covers current affairs, culture, lifestyle and guests from public life. In interviews Jovana has stressed that it matters to her to work in a new environment at K1 and not to look back.

Editorial Role at the Tanjug Agency

In March 2021, Jovana Joksimović was appointed editor-in-chief of the Tanjug news agency, as announced by Radio Television of Serbia. This added an editorial side to her media work alongside hosting.

In 2025 the investigative outlet BIRN reported on an alleged conflict of interest in connection with the purchase of an apartment and garage from Jovana Joksimović by the former president of the Regulatory Authority of Electronic Media, in the same month that Tanjug was granted a broadcasting licence. According to available reports, the matter was reviewed by the competent authorities; its outcome is not confirmed in this article.

Private Life

Marriage to Željko Joksimović

Jovana and singer Željko Joksimović met during the preparations for Eurovision 2008. They made their relationship public at the end of the summer that year, as reported by Blic at the time. In January 2012 they married in the Maldives.

Željko has a daughter, Mina, from a previous marriage. The couple is often cited in the public as one of the more successful and stable marriages on the domestic scene.

Children and Family

Their first child, son Kosta, was born on 10 April 2014. In October 2017 twin daughters Ana and Srna were born. The family lives in Belgrade. Jovana speaks about her private life sparingly and rarely shares details, apart from an occasional family moment.

Trivia

• She applied for her first job at BKTV believing it was a marketing ad, not a casting for new on-screen faces.
• As a girl she dreamed of working at NASA.
• She has appeared on the covers of Cosmopolitan, Gloria, Svet and TV Revija.
• Her first film role came in 2007, in “The Fourth Man”.
• She hosted one of the most-watched television evenings in the country in May 2008, when Belgrade hosted Eurovision.
• Three major television transfers (RTS – Pink – Prva – K1) have marked her professional path and often made the front pages.

Legacy and Influence

For audiences in Serbia and the region, Jovana Joksimović is above all the face of the morning programme. The long partnership with Srđan Predojević shaped how morning television is perceived in Serbia: warm and conversational, but with serious topics.

Eurovision 2008 remains one of the peaks of her career and one of the biggest television events in the country in recent history. Her later move into editorial work at Tanjug further linked her professional path to broader media influence.

Her public appearances and business decisions draw both praise and criticism, as is usual for people who spend long periods at the forefront of the media scene.