10/03/12 SERBIA

Earlier in the year it was announced that former entrant and host of Eurovision, Željko Joksimović, would be representing Serbia with an internal selection an on the 10^th February they unveiled the song. However, it was presented twice, once in Serbian and once in English. It is thought a final decision on the language presented for Eurovision will be made soon.

There was much anticipation for this entry because of his pedigree as a performer and writer for the contest. Not surprising then that I feel disappointed by the entry. Like many of his songs there is a long intro. This one doesn’t seem to give off enough atmosphere to set up for the singing. The song dawdles along but only starts winding up the power until about 2 minutes in - which is about a minute too late. The tune is not memorable although it has a very Željko chord sequence in the middle.

The performance was a little strange. Željko was backed by an orchestra which seemed to help. He had a man on piano, another man with a long flute and 3 ladies on backing vocals. I feel being dressed in quite plain modern clothes did not fit with the song and this will need addressing. He looked a bit odd on stage, especially when moving about. I feel that a lot needs to be done about the production of the song and its staging.

As for language, I feel that the English version is interesting but it loses a certain something that the Serbian version has. I don’t know what but it just sounds less powerful in English.

This will get obvious from the Balkan countries and will qualify, but this is no winner

Below are both perfomances in Serbian and English

SONG – Nije Ljubav Stvar (Love isn’t a thing)/ Synonym

ARTIST – Željko Joksimović

COMPOSERS – Željko Joksimović, Marina Tucaković, Miloš Roganović

LANGUAGE – English or Serbian