SERBIA 2023

The Serbian final "Pesma za Evroviziju '23" was held on March 4th at the RTS TV Studios in Belgrade presented by Dragana Kosjerina and Milan Maric. On the two nights before the final there were two semis, 8 songs qualifying from each. The final result equally combined SMS voting and a jury score. Going to Liverpool is Luke Black with song "Samo mi se spava" (I'm just sleepy).

Luka Ivanović started his interest in music at the age of 12 when he started writing his own lyrics and later began creating and producing music. He then moved to Belgrade to study but also to learn more about the music business. In 2014, Black released his first single "Nebula Lullaby" and an EP followed this up the next year. One of his next songs "Demons" was also nominated to the internal selection process to represent Serbia in 2016. He has also embarked on a solo tour of China and performed as part of Berlin Alternative Fashion week. 

The stage show for this is very different. At the start Luke is reclining on what looks like a decayed white leaf podium and in front to him are four dancers that by thick tubing to the back of the stage. The choreography is very jerky and robotic. The backdrop has lines from the song as well as a rather strange crustacean-cum-swiss army knife computerised character. Luke himself is wearing a floaty white shirt with black trousers. He starts singing verse one from on the white plinth., which has a prominent piano backing. On sitting up the song moves into a short instrumental which has a very tinny over synthesised feel, almost to point where it feels distorted and dizzy. From here the chorus kicks in which has a great beat emphasised by the dancers. The next verse is in Serbian and leads once more into the distorted instrumental, which this time almost feels off key, and back into the chorus. From here there is a small refrain where Luke unhooks the cords from the dancers and they dance freely during the final chorus. We finish with the title of the song and the words ENEMY DEFEATED on the backdrop.

On the plus side this has a visual and aural identity like nothing else we've seen this year. The subject matter of the song is menacing and dark and the setting is stark and interesting. One might say the lighting in particular is too dark and I personally would like to see more of his face because he is very expressive. His vocal is quite whispery, which is a nice juxtaposition with the harsh synthesised sounds on the backing track, but I would like to hear more of his tone. I think the mixture of Serbian and English works well but again, it is sometimes unclear what he is saying because of the mix. The dancers are great and add a lot of the mix. Luke is a little bit less precise in his moves but is extremely enthusiastic.

However, I wonder if this is a little bit too odd and weird. For example the chorus part is extremely catchy and has a great beat but it doesn't last anywhere near long enough and I almost feel a little let down once it's over. The aural distortion is also a little disconcerting and would imagine some people finding this very uncomfortable to listen to, especially if you don't know it is coming. The staging is eye-catching but you don't quite get sucked into the story as much as I feel one probably should. This could be a "Rhythm Inside" artistic moment but needs more fine tuning in terms of stage direction, camera angles and vocal precision.

ARTIST - Luke Black

SONG - Samo mi se spava

WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Luke Black, Milovan Bošković, COMANAVAGO, Majed Kfoury