SERBIA

The Serbian Final was held on February 20th at the Sava Centar in Belgrade, hosted by Dragana Kosjerina, Kristina Radenkovic, Branko Veselinovic & Aleksandar Stojanovic. The winner was chosen by televoting (50%) and  jury (50%). Going to Lisbon will be Sanja Ilić & Balkanika with the song “Nova Deca” (New Children)

The staging of the song is quite simple. Firstly, the background is filled with blue, red and white lights and as the song progresses stars appear making it more like a brightly lit up midnight sky. There are 6 members on stage - 2 women clothed is floaty dresses and four men dressed in black. Sanja is stood near the back with a synthesiser, next to him is a drummer whilst the flautist moves around the stage. The other 3 members do most of the vocals although there seems to be backing vocals or possibly use of reverb on the backing track, which may affect the staging going forward.

The song is a more ethereal style of Balkan ballad, almost to the point where one might think this was the Greek entry! The song starts off with one of the female singers warbling in that very Balkan way. The other female singer joins in and they harmonise very well. This lasts almost a whole minute before the male singer begins the main body of the song. It then, quite quickly, goes back to the warbling and you start to wonder how many words there actually are in the song. However it is also at this point in the song that the drums and the beat really kicks in and turns this into a more dancy type number, There is more trilling, some na-na-nej-ing and a bit of sidestepping choreography before going back for a short warbley ending.

At first, I found this entry very very odd. It took me quite a few listens to process what was going on - the different singing styles, changes of pace, the role of each person on stage as well as working out what the song was about. This all said and done this is a rather memorable entry. The bare bones of the whole act is promising, although many things will need looking at. The big question is whether or not more backing singers will be required. If so they will need to replace the non-singing members but this might then bring down the level of performance, unless they can find people who can do two jobs at once. This is going to be quite the balancing act. Looking at its semi, it has a good chance of qualifying as there are a number of friendly Balkan countries in semi 2. Overall I think this is a very interesting entry, with much potential, but don’t see this as a winner.

ARTIST –  Sanja Ilić & Balkanika    

SONG – Nova Deca (New Children)

MUSIC - Sanja Ilić, Tanja Ilić, Danica Krstajić

LYRICS - Sanja Ilić, Tanja Ilić, Danica Krstajić