Marija Serifovic held an exceptional press conference on 14 September 2007 in Media Center in Belgrade. She expressed her dissatisfaction with the fact that heads of RTS prevented her presence at the handover celebration of the Eurovision Host City Exchange at the Town Hall in Belgrade...

... Hereby the realization of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade has symbolically begun. At the reception at the Town Hall in Belgrade were present: the executive supervisor of the Eurovision Song Contest, Mr. Svante Stockselius and the members of the EBU board. Those were the same persons who followed Marija’s departure from Helsinki with the words: „See you in Belgrade!“. The Deputy Lord Mayor of the city of Belgrade, Mrs. Radmila Hrustanovic, as well as other persons involved, received an information from the heads of the project Eurovision Song Contest 2008 of the RTS (the official Radio Television of Serbia) that “Marija was not in Belgrade and was prevented to attend the celebration of the Eurovision Host City Exchange“.
At the personal invitation of the Deputy Lord Mayor of the city of Belgrade, Mrs. Radmila Hrustanovic and the Lord Mayor of the city of Helsinki, Mr. Jussi Pajunen, Marija Serifovic came to the Town hall after the press conference. Mr. Jussi Pajunen personally delivered Marija greetings from the city of Helsinki and he handed over the Key of the city of Helsinki to her. Mr. Pajunen also conveyed the official invitation to Marija to be a welcome guest of the city of Helsinki whenever she would like to. Guests from Finland were interested in Marija’s impressions of Finland, her impressions of the Eurovision Song Contest and impressions of her stay in Helsinki as well as in her personal plans for the continuation of her career in future.