SERBIA 2022

The Serbian Final was held on March 5th at the RTS TV Studios in Belgrade, hosted by Dragana Kosjerina and Jovan Radomir. Before the final there were two semi-finals where the long list of 36 was reduced to a final of 18. The winner was chosen through a 50/50 combination jury and text voting. The winning act was  Konstrakta singing "In corpore sano" (In a healthy body) 

Ana Đurić, whose pseudonym is Konstrakta, started out life following a career in architecture like her husband. However in her youth she was also the lead singer of several bands in Serbia which covered a very wide range of styles and genres. However, she is most famously associated with that of the band "Zemlji Gruva!" who took part in Beovizija in 2008 and 2009. She embarked on a solo career in 2019 and has made strides into heath and wellbeing campaigns in Serbia too.

The song starts with an unexpected chant before Konstrakta starts her first verse. The name check of Meghan Markle gets your interest straight away as part of you wonders if she said it or not. As the lights come up you see she is surrounded by backing singers dressed unusually with towels around their necks. She completes the rest of the verse before embarking on the clap-along chorus. There is then another verse but this looks and sounds rather different to the first. After this the music sounds more choral, almost churchy, This has a call and response between Konstrakta and the backing singers who reply in a robotic vocoder style. There is then one more version of the clapping chorus before an outro focusing on the name of the song, sung in Latin.

This is probably one of the 'odder' eurovision songs and unless you understand the background story to the song, you almost feel a bit lost and wonder how you are supposed to feel. The crux of the song relates to the fact that musical artists (as well as many other professions) in Serbia are not always covered by medical care and that artists like her sometimes feel forgotten. They bring so much happiness and joy and help people through hard times yet when they are the ones who need help, care is not freely available. The setting of the song is extremely stylised: the backing singers, the chair, the white uniform, the ritual handwashing, the sharp camera cutaways, the evading glances from the camera the ever changing back drop all makes for an impressive  and eye-catching stage show. But the song is very complex and apart from the chorus is not really very memorable and is rather freeform, made more complicated by the use of the Serbian language. I feel like this is more "a local song for local people" and its prime audience and message is very much a Serbian one. This makes a valid point about an important issue and having it played out on a global stage may make the politicians in Belgrade change tack. Unfortunately I feel people will find this too tricky and weird to vote for but it is something that probably won't be forgotten for a while.

ARTIST - Konstrakta

SONG - In corpore sano (In a healthy body)

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Milovan Boskovic, Konstrakta