Željko’s first international success came at the age of 12, when he won the title of First Accordion of Europe on the prestigious music festival in Paris.

Željko Joksimović graduated as an honours student at the University of music. He started his professional career in 1997 when he released an album produced by record label PGP-RTS. In 1999, he made a deal with the City Records music label owned by a private Serbian television station RTV Pink. His first style of singing was folk and pop. However, later on in his career, his style changed, performing and composing mostly ballads and Ethno Serbian songs.

In 2003, Željko wrote a song for Macedonian legend Toše Proeski, and Toše won on Beovizija (Serbia).

In 2004, Joksimović shocked many after changing his music label to City Records' biggest rival BK Sound. That same year he represented Serbia & Montenegro in the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Lane moje. This was the country's debut at the contest. In the semi-finals, Joksimović finished first. However, in the finals, he came second behind Ukrainian singer Ruslana and he won "The MACEL BEZENCON Press award" (Best Composer Award). Lane moje was the best selling single in Serbia and Europe for a long period. This turning point gave a special tone to his musical opus and the songs he made after. In 2004, Željko Joksimović founded MINACORD PRODUCTION. Since then, he works and composes in this studio.

In 2005, he once again composed a song for Serbia's national pre-selection for Eurovision called Beovizija. Željko composed the ballad Jutro (Morning) which was performed by Jelena Tomašević. The song seemed well-placed to make it to the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 contest in Kiev after it emerged as the highest-scoring qualifier from the Serbian pre-selection, but ultimately missed out in controversial fashion at the overall Serbia and Montenegro final (Evropesma), when all four Montenegrin jurors overlooked it in distributing their points. No Name, a qualifier from Montenegro's pre-selection, instead represented Serbia and Montenegro in Eurovision 2005, finishing in 7th place. This was to be the countries last ever appearance in the contest and in 2006, Serbia and Montenegro withdrew from Eurovision after a similar controversy to 2005. Since then, Serbia and Montenegro have become independent states.

In October 2005, he composed and performed a duet with Austrian singer Tamee Harrison. The song was titled I live my life for you and was a success throughout Europe. Around this time, Željko wrote his first film score. In cooperation with Cobra production he composed music for the movie Ivkova slava (Ivko's slava).

In 2006, he composed the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 song Lejla for Bosnia and Herzegovina, performed by Hari Mata Hari. The song finished in third place, making it Bosnia's best performance in the contest. He also won the prestigious Best Composer Award (COMPOSERAWARD 2006), assigned to Željko by all composers who participated in that festival.

His album called Ima nešto u tom što me nećes or just IV released that year was a great successes all over former Yugoslavia. The CD sold over 800,000 copies.

In 2007, in front of an audience of 18,000, Željko Joksimović performed all of his hits in the Belgrade Arena.

In 2008, Željko Joksimović composed a song that was performed by Jelena Tomašević in the Serbian national final for the Eurovision song selection, Beovizija 2008, which is called Oro. The song, a ballad, represented Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 in Belgrade. On March 24th 2008, it was announced by the 2008 Eurovision organisers RTS that together with Jovana Janković he would host the Eurovision Song Contest, giving him two roles in the contest.

Today, Željko is one of few musicians that can play more than 14 musical instruments.