SERBIA 2011 - Čaroban

Ah, Serbia!! I always look forward to seeing what the Serbians will bring to the contest, because they're responsible for literally my favorite ESC entry ever ... and that's from among more than 1200 songs now. o_O But although there are soo many good songs on that list, Molitva is still my all time favorite. Not even the Serbians have been able to come up with anything quite that wonderful since. ;-) But hope springs eternal, and the Serbian song is pretty much always well worth listening to.

This year is no different ... in fact, this year is another standout. The Serbian song is one of the best songs in the lineup this year. Yay!! :-D It's catchy, it's fun, it's well performed ... I really like the singer's voice, it's rather unusual, she's really good. I'm not entirely entranced by the presentation ... obviously, the sixties are back, but too much of a good thing and all that. If you watch the video below, you'll see that it works pretty well, but also that it's on a pretty small stage. In Düsseldorf the stage will be huge, and all that patterning may become rather overwhelming in that format. You may remember the Icelandic dolphin in Moscow (I know that at least one person reading this remembers it vividly ;-) ... that kind of thing may seem smart in theory, but in reality it may steal attention from what's really important. You know, the song. People should remember the song and not the dolphin, or whatever. I'm hoping that they will change the presentation at least somewhat. Because this song really deserves to be noticed.

It's a really good song, it's well performed with a lot of charm and liveliness by a beautiful young woman. What's not to like?? Good luck to Serbia, although they won't really need it. Top ten for sure, probably top five. They're in our semi, so I can't vote for them in that round, but I'm absolutely sure I'll get the chance to do so in the final. :-)

This is Nina, as she's calling herself professionally, performing Čaroban by Kristina Kovač who'll be competing for Serbia on Tuesday, May 10th.

Widescreen here.

Lyrics with translation here.

SERBIA 2010 - Ovo je Balkan

Yeah, I know - is it a boy or a girl? :-D It's a boy, and not a half bad one either.

OK, sure, I agree, it's seriously cheesy. Over the top. But it's fun!! I like this entry so much. I like it more and more the more I hear it. It's a fun song that he performs really well, he has great stage presence ... pretty good voice, and it goes well with the song. Fun performance, again, totally over the top, but that's the point. I dig it when the dancers in national costumes start pulling his clothes off. :-D A good song that's going to do well.

Some are pegging this song as the winner, but I don't think so ... despite what people say, an entry needs support from both the Eastern and Western blocs to win, and I don't see westerners voting for this song much. But I think it's going to do really well ... I hope it'll do really well, because if it does, lots of heads will explode here in the west. :-D

And I love the opening of this video ... !! Don't you just dig the folk music version of the Te Deum that plays over the performer bio?? :-D

This is Milan Stanković performing Ovo je Balkan - the title means These Are the Balkans - by Goran Bregović and Marina Tucaković, who will be competing on May 25th. Good luck to them!! :-D



Lyrics with translation here.

Check out this post about the Catholic church over on Pharyngula. Thought they only stick it to kids? Nah, they pull the same shit on women in developing countries, too. Don't you just love it when someone shares a horrible story about abuse and suffering, and then someone says, Those are her experiences, but ...

>:-(

Serbia, Poland, Norway

Serbia:
I really like this entry. Kudos for singing in Serbian. And I love what they're doing with the stage. A fun entry, a fun presentation. Great presentation. I dig this!
Only thing is it may be too weird. I'm not at all convinced that it will get through, but I hope so.
In comparison with the previous entry, which is also a somewhat weird song, this one has a great melody, you can hum along to it.
Go Serbia!! :-)

Poland:
Another lovely ballad. (Although the Croatian one is still my favorite of these two, I think. :-)
The presentation here is excellent. Beats the Croatians hands down.
Great presentation, really. :-)
Anne Ida is here with me and she says that it's a nice song, nice to listen to, but there's nothing very special about it. I agree. No real hook. Sorry, Poland, but I think we've seen the last of you this year.
Rather silly lyrics ... and the bridge of the song isn't very good, either. Weird.

Norway:
Oooh ... !! :-)
A great reception from the audience in the Arena, that's a good start. :-)
Oh, I love the backing singers' dresses!!! Ooh!! Want ... !!
I like what they're doing to the stage - although, apparently, it's not at all what the Norwegian delegation wanted. But I like it a lot. Especially all the colors on the floor ... nice.
Aw, he's such a cutie. Too babyfaced for my taste. But he definitely knows how to flirt with the camera.
The crowd seems to really love this entry. Well, that's understandable. :-) I think it went very well.
Good luck, little hobbit man!!
And in case anyone's wondering whether Rybak is really playing that fiddle? Yes and no. :-) Obviously he isn't playing it live - that's against ESC rules. But the recording is of him playing. So ... yes and no. :-)

SERBIA 2009: Marko Kon & Milan Nikolić - Cipela

The Serbians are tackling the ESC Portuguese style and sticking to their own language, something that I appreciate tremendously. More nations should do what they're doing. Serbia has only been competing as Serbia for three years (this is the third) and the very first time they tried, they won. :-) Very well-deservedly so, I might add. :-) 1999 was the first year that all nations were allowed to use whichever language they chose ... since then no song had won that had not been entirely or mostly in English. Until the Serbians came along. So yay for them, totally.

In -07 and -08 they sent beautiful ballads - this year they've gone in another direction. :-) The first time I heard this song I didn't know what to think, and didn't like it too much ... but it really grows on me and now I like it a lot. It's a good song, it has a good rhythm ... it's fun, and I like the performance. The guys are professional and the presentation of the song is entertaining. Check out the lyrics too, they're kind of fun. :-) I like this song and I wish them the very best of luck.

This is Marko Kon and Milan Nikolić performing Cipela, which they wrote themselves along with Aleksandar Milanović Kobac. They'll be competing for Serbia as #4 on May 14th. I think I may vote for them, I like this song better and better the more I hear it. :-)



Lyrics here.

SERBIA 2007: Marija Serifovic - Molitva

I have zero energy to come up with anything clever to write today ... so I won't. I'll just post a video and hope for better things to come. :-)

Paz and I got to talking about the ESC yesterday ... and that reminded me of how much I love the ESC. I listened to old ESC songs for hours last night. ;-) Diva, Nocturne, J'aime la vie, Fångad av en stormvind, Making Your Mind Up, Parlez-vous francais?, A-Ba-Ni-Bi, Ein bisschen Frieden, Insieme: 1992 ... Unite, unite, Europe!! Indeed. So true, so true. Although it must not be inferred from this that I support Norwegian membership in the EU, as that could not be further from the truth.

Anyway. I love the ESC. Which - dreadful thought - some of you reading this may be entirely unfamiliar with. :-( Well, what I'm talking about is the Eurovision Song Contest, the biggest show on earth. Which I love :-) and which I will tell you all about some other time. Seriously, I will tell you more than you could ever want to know about it. >:-) This year I plan to follow the whole thing from way before start to finish ... I won't settle for the regular previews, I will make my own previews by following the national finals and discovering the songs for myself as they are selected. Yay, youtube. ;-) I will of course post about it all here. Maybe that way, next May won't see me posting 100+ entries like I did this year. ;-) Some of you may want to - or be forced to - take the opportunity to try to learn to appreciate the ESC (Findabair, I'm looking at you ;-).

Anyway. This is one of my favorite entries ever. It's the winner from 2007, when Finland hosted the show. I had it pegged as the winner as of the semis (just ask KAS or trilltrall ;-) and although everyone else at the party mocked my faith in it, I was vindicated in the end. Any bullshit you may have heard about this being final proof of the evils of bloc voting and a sad day for the ESC, etc, forget it. This song winning was the best thing that could possibly have happened to the contest. Seriously. Every year there are soo many 'standard' girls sent to perform, tall slim blondes with gorgeous long hair and big boobs who can dance well but can't sing which doesn't matter anyway cause they're just there to look pretty in their skimpy dresses and all their songs sound the same anyway. Most of these songs are quicktempo upbeat songs so that the choreography can have sexy young people shakin' it. You see it again and again. Look at Portugal's entry in Helsinki, that's the perfect example. And then Serbia - Serbia! - send this chubby little bull dyke in a bowl haircut and glasses, she wears a man's suit and sings a sad ballad - in Serbian! - and they win the whole fucking thing. I thought it was absolutely fantastic.

The song also proves that it really is the song that counts - the vast majority in the audience did not understand the lyrics, but the melody is so beautiful and Marija performed it with such feeling that it touched us anyway. So go hide in a barn, Eirikur Hauksson ... nobody likes a sore loser, and least of all one who's deserved to lose. The right song won in 2007. :-) And this is it - Molitva, by Vladimir Graic and Sasha Milosevic Mare, performed by Marija Serifovic competing for Serbia. :-)



Molitva means 'prayer'. Lyrics with translation here.

Don't forget the giveaway! :-)

Serbia, Russia, Norway

Serbia:
Shades of Molitva and of Nocturne ...
This is a good song, another one that's been growing on me.
She has a wonderful voice and it's a beautiful song. But it's too much like last year's winner for my money.
They will definitely do well, but I don't think it's original enough to go all the way.

Russia:
Yees ... !!! My favorite! Go Russia!!
Dima is a little too intense, he needs to talk to somebody. ;-)
The presentation is very Soviet :-D but I like it.
A serious contender!! Go Russia! I like this song more and more every time I hear it.
Will definitely do extremely well. May well win.
Should win. ;-)

Norway:
A good song, performed well by a singer with a good voice who really knows how to use her voice as well. (There's something to be learned from that - Czech Republic, I'm looking at you ...)
This is a good song although the lyrics are a little embarrassing at times (obviously written by a fifteen year old). And the presentation is good, it's simple and tasteful.
I think we have pretty good chances this year.

The show is on ... !!! :-D

It's started ... !!

Amazing opening act!! A rocked up disco version of Molitva, totally gay :-D ... awesome!! Fantastic, I'm loving it.

An excellent opening to what I'm sure will be a fantastic show. :-)

SERBIA: Jelena Tomasevic featuring Bora Dugic - Oro

The guy who wrote this song is the same guy who will be hosting the show for Serbian TV. What happens if Serbia wins? Will he present the trophy to himself?

(For those who may not know it: the person/s actually competing in this contest is not the singer/s, but the composer/s of the song. Although that is not often made clear.)

I have to wonder about how smart it is to send an emotionally charged ballad the year after one has won with an emotionally charged ballad. Because traditionally the audience tends to want something different, and the winning song is usually something different from what has won in recent years. Plus of course it's statistically more difficult to win with a ballad than with an uptempo number.

But I'm sure there are many in Serbia's neighboring countries (and elsewhere, although perhaps to a lesser degree) who will think that this is absolutely beautiful. So they will get many votes from that. And it is beautiful. And she's pretty and she has a good voice. (Gorgeous dress, also. :-) I'm sure Serbia will do well again this year. But, well ...

Personally I just feel that Molitva was a much better song, with a much stronger melody line. They deserved to win last year. I don't think they do this year. I think this is a step down, so to speak, from last year's entry. It's a little boring.

And in any case, I don't want them to win, anyway, because I never want the host country to win. There should be a rule against it. :-) Both for the ESC itself and for the host country's national broadcasting company, it is much much better to keep the contest on the move. :-)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vP42KN6_Ss