Tonight, the host nation of this year’s contest selected the song which will defend the title in May. As hosts, Serbia naturally qualifies automatically for the final on 24th May.
Events started last night with a semi-final at the end of which, ten songs were eliminated and ten songs qualified for tonight’s final.
Betty Boop – Kvar. Don’t be fooled. Not a soloist as you might expect, but a female trio who performed this pop/rock song with gusto.
Beauty Queens – Dobra Vila. Another misleading group name? It might conjure up an image of europop performed by a bunch of not very talented young girls. Wrong! It’s a beautiful ballad sung by the ladies who backed Marija Serifović last year.
Drum’n’Zez – Dunav. This is an unusual song for which, the performers were dressed in what can only be described as beachwear.
Marko Vulinovic – Sada ili Nikada. This is a very traditional Serbian ballad which was given a strong performance.
Aleksa Jelić I & Ana Štajdohar – Beli Jablan. One of the more modern songs of the night, this is essentially a song which might go down well in the nightclubs of Belgrade.
Studio Alektik & Cveta Majtanović – Iznad Nas. The introduction to this song has a strong guitar riff which continues throughout the song.
Jelena Tomašević – Oro. This is the pre-contest favourite which was written by contest co-host and former Serbian competitor, Željko Joksimović. Needless to say, the audience loved it.
Ognjen i Prijatelji – Čućemo, čućete. The eighth song gave us something different to listen to, a bit of light jazz.
Zoe Kida & Zemlji Gruva – Čudesni svetovi. With Caribbean rhythms and an unusual dress sense, the presentation will certainly be remembered even if the song isn’t.
Lejla Hot – Da si tu. Although a pleasant enough song, it needed to be drawn last to have a chance.
When the songs were over, the voters of Serbia got to work. They had plenty of time to vote while about half a dozen acts sang songs. Finally, Marija Serifović took to the stage and sang four songs and then ended with ‘Molitva’.
Just as you thought the results were coming, some awards were handed out followed by an ad break. After what seemed like an eternity, the results of the public and the jury votes were given in true Eurovision style. The winner, with maximum points is…………………Jelena Tomašević with ‘Oro’.
So the host of the contest has also written one of the songs. Is this a first? I think it is but if you know better, please tell us.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KzqR7Z8mCs
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In my view
Serbia will be represented by a song which is traditional of their country hopefully in a way which is also tradtional. This is a welcome echo of how the contest used to be. The free language rule has a lot to answer for.
The opinion expressed in "In my view" are those of the author and are not necessarily the one of EuroVisionary.com.
