BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA

The 21st February was the date of when the Bosnian entry for Eurovision was finally be presented. The Bosnia-Herzegovina entry, as the previous 6 years, was an internally selected by BHRT. Back in December, it was announced that Dino Merlin was to take the stage once more at Eurovision. Dino Merlin wrote the first ever independent Bosnia-Herzegovina entry in 1993 and then in 1999 he performed his song “Putnici” with Beatrice where they finished 7th.

During the presentation Dino Merlin duets again with Beatrice with “Putnici” and she sings one of her own new songs. Later, the floor is taken my Jalisse, the last Italian entryin1997. They sing wonderfully, and look very different now! They wish the best to Raphael and Italy in this year’s contest. He is then joined by Mustafa Sandal who sings one of Dino’s songs in Turkish.

Finally we get to the song “Love In Rewind”. It is a mid-tempo number that starts of quite small but the song gros by the involvement of the instruments and backing singers. The song has Balkan undertones but are very subtle in the big booming drum beats and the occasional brass. There is a constant drum and bass line which makes the song not only memorable but catchy too. The chorus is a little weak but the parts between the choruses and verses are much more memorable. The ending is quite strong builds up to the very definate ending. The layout of the performance is quite interesting there are 4 other singers/instrumentalists on stage and an acrobat who climbs up and down the sheets. The piece looks good, if not a little over the top, and they whole thing looks quite fun.
It is a slight surprise that the song is not in Bosnian. Dino’s English is not exactly perfect and does deter slightly from the song and the tune. Many of Bosnia’s most successful songs have been in the local tongue, including Dino’s previous two entries. My main concern is that the song was mimed to. I don’t think the song is that hard to sing but I would be very interested to know how bad his accent is live and also how good (or bad) his backing singers are, and they do have a very active presence on the song.


SINGER – Dino Merlin
SONG – Love in Rewind
MUSIC – Dino Merlin
WORDS – Dino Merlin