.........................................
The following few
comments are from Mariana.
The song I liked
the most from Bosnia was "Sva bol
svijeta." It was one of my favourites from
that year and had a message (as did the Croatian
song that year: "Don't Ever Cry").
This, along with the music, made the song stand
out from the others for me. It's a good song and
I think definitely deserved a top 5 position. I'm
not surprised that Bosnia sent in a great song
that year under the circumstances as it was an
extreme situation and Eurovision a link to the
outside world then. And it stands the test of
time as I still like it now.
As for the song
for this year "Starac i more" I'm not
overly impressed. It has grown on me and I think
it's not too bad but it does sound old-fashioned
to me. I was expecting something more modern or
dynamic from Bosnia this year when I heard some
of the people who were entering in the
selections. But it is an OK ballad and I
therefore hope it does OK on the night. I haven't
seen the performance and don't know if this would
add to the song or not.
Croatian Entry
comments: I've liked all the Croatian entries
thus far (1993-98). My favourites are "Neka
mi ne svane" and "Sveta ljubavi."
Danijela's performance '98 was a knockout on the
night - very confident with a strong voice. This
is my favourite ESC ballad. Likewise I really
loved "Sveta ljubavi." A very polished,
proffessional performance and a fantastic song. I
liked the slight Celtic influence on the music.
From Mariana,
Thanks Mariana!
The following few
opinions are from regular posters are Chris
Melville's EuroNet Messageboard:
1993. The
Best entry of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Added was the
tension of the War, when it wasn't clear they
were even going to make it to Millstreet and if
the jury would get through. Except for maybe too
much lailalalala's, it's a good song with a
wonderful beginning and a good political message.
I was very hopeful for Bosnia as an ESC country,
but they have never fulfilled that hope
Entry-wise until now (1999?)
From Jan
1993. I
love it! Sva bol svijeta is a totally fab song
that haunts me every so
often ! :) When it happens, I have to watch the
preview video time and
time again... I don't know exactly why, but I
love it and in my opinion, it was the best song
of the whole 1993 and is even in my top ten of
all time ESC favourites !
From Jari
1993. Fazla
was by far the best Bosnian entry in the ESC
since "Gori vatra". I loved it, and it
should have been in the top 10. It outshines the
other Bosnian entries by far (well, 1994 was good
too) but many of the others (1996 especially)
were quite mediocre.
From Marina
Vitromanovic
Huge thanks to Jan, Jari and Marina!
The following is a
review of the Bosnian national final 1999.
Unfortunately, our
Cable TV company has very strict rules about
treating former Yugoslav republics in TV matters,
so they put on the same channel from 7 to 9 pm TV
Montenegro and from 9 to 11 BHT Sat. That means
that by 9 o'clock when I could begin watching it,
I already missed the first 5 songs. As far as I
can tell from the short 15 sec clips shown at the
end:
1. song 1 was more like a folk song
(novokompovana)
2. song 2 sounded as a ballad
3. songs 3 and 4 were up-tempo.
4. As far as I could see in Seven Up only
one guy sang, the others were
mostly jumping and dancing.
5. Song 5 was a ballad by Drazen Zeric,
ex-singer of Crvena jabuka.
6. Song 6 was a pretty amateurish duet
(rewarded by 0 points).
7. Sasa Losic gathered together a few old
friends and formed a band
Sarajevo Old Stars. The song "Sampion"
was one of the better ones of the
evening - very much in the style of Plavi
orkestar.
8-12. Songs 8, 9, 10 and 12 were
slow ballads sung by female singers. By far the
classiest one was song 9 "Bog mi je
svjedok."
11. Vajta remained faithful to his clown
image but with a very poor song.
13. I was a bit dissapointed by Hari Mata
Hari. It sounds not so much as his previous work,
but frighteningly similar to Kemal Monteno's song
from the 70s (or early Zdravko Colic, if you
prefer).
14. Amina didn't come to Sarajevo after
all, she was replaced by another black beauty
Beatrice in duet with Dino Merlin. This would be
something different and probably more attractive
in Jerusalem. The song starts with a long
orchestral intro in oriental style, develops into
a rap (by Dino) and ends in a catchy chorus (in
French by both singers).
15-17 were mostly forgettable.
Interval act:
all 6 previous Bosnian entries in combination of
live singing
and video. Even Fazla returned to Sarajevo after
6 years.
Voting: 9 regional juries (Banja Luka,
Bihac, Bonn, Germany, Gorazde, Livno, Mostar,
Sarajevo, Tuzla, Zenica) voting in Eurovision
style.
Scrutineer: Mirza Delibasic, as cool as
ever on the playground, chewing his gum all the
time.
The winner: Hari Mata Hari got no top
mark, but was 5 times second (10 pts) with
Sarajevo being the only jury not to vote for him.
2nd were Dino and Beatrice, 3rd Seven-up. There
were some whistles during the reprise by fans of
the boy band, I suppose.
From Samo,Slovenia
Thanks again Samo!
1983:
"Dzuli," I feel is one of the ESC
evergreens. I was only three years old when this
ESC had occured, but I have heard this song again
probably around 1990 and I adored it. Croatians
just simply know how to make a great song. Even
though it is 16 years old, the song is very
alive. I don't think there is a person in Bosnia
(other than the youth) who doesn't know the
melody of this song.
1986: "Zeljo moja" is a
beautiful ballad, a very fitting song to Doris
Dragovic. I've always loved her, as she has a
great personality and all of her songs are
superb. The lyrics were too short, as they
contain only 2 short stanzas and a refrain.
Adding two more stanzas would have been much
better.
1987: This is the first ex-Yugoslav entry
that I can really remember without anyone having
to describe it to me. Also, I remember when
"Srebrna krila" were shooting the video
for this song that they had to redo some scenes
where the lead singer was dancing, because she
was too jumpy. She acted like a mad horse. That
was the joke of the time. I think the melody of
the song is good, but lyrics are a bit primitive.
Moreover, the refrain did not really fit in with
the rest of the song.
1988: Hick up! Another joke of the time.
It was said that Sanja, during the recording of
the song had accidentally started to hick up and
the team behind the song liked it so much, they
decided to include it in the song itself. A very
lively, up-tempo, happy, singable song! The
English lyrics had thrown me off at the time, as
I obviously did not speak any English and all the
time I believed that Sanja was singing some
inaudible lines in Croatian.
1989: Rive ruled that year. When this song
won the "Jugovizija" (Yugoslav national
final), it became an instant hit. I remember
going to a field trip with my school to Belgrade
and our singing this lovely song in unison. It is
a very nice memory of the old days, when we all
were innocent kids. Lyrics of the song are a
bit... cheezy, senseless, but all I cared about
was the rhythm Isn't that what all of us care
about when we hear a song for the first
time.
1990: Tajci continued the superb success
of ex-Yugoslav entries of late 80's, with her
coming 7th in Zagreb. She was really an unknown
singer, but the song ruled. I remember (here I go
again...) my class making our own lyrics of the
song for some strange reason. It was a very
popular song and it skyrocketted Tajci's domestic
carrier. She went on having a very succesfull
album. The lyrics of the song are again a bit
weak, but hey, rhythm rules!
1991: And the tradition was broken. How
disappointed we were all "Brazil" had
won. We were even more disappointed with the fact
that Bebi Dol (Baby Doll) was singing this awful
song. The song, the performer, the performance
were all awful. The only reason
"Brazil" had won
"Jugovizija'" was because JRT (Yugoslav
RadioTV Union) had changed the voting rules in
such a way that every TV station (that is
republic) could vote for its own entry. Also,
earlier Kosovo and Vojvodina (Serbian provinces)
were not allowed to vote for a Serbian song, but
as of 1991, it was to be allowed. There were many
other better entries than this one. Proving my
point is the fact that "Brazil" came
21st (out of 22 songs) in 1991 with a miserable 1
point.
1992: I didn't actually see this contest,
as I had become a refugee and lived in Pula,
Croatia at that time. In 1992
"Jugovizija," there were no Slovenian
or Croatian entries, so we were destined to have
a less-than-good entry. However, when I first
heard "Ljubim te pesmama" a few weeks
ago, I actually liked the overall feel of the
song. The other surprise was the fact that it was
sung by Extra Nena, an upto--that-day singer of
Folk music, a musical style that did not see too
much of "Jugovizija" at all.
1993: Finally, a genuine Bosnian entry in
ESC in over a decade. I loved the song very much,
as it captured the lives of people in Bosnia
during that time, including mine. A very powerful
song with a very powerful message. I feel it was
chosen only to show Europe what was happening in
Bosnia. The composer is Dino Merlin
(Dervishalidovic), one of my all-time favorite
Bosnian artists. It was such an obvious Dino
song. The lyrics were also very potent, as well
as the video.
1994: Another message-carrying song
directed to the ignorant Europe. I loved their
performance at the ESC. The introductory applause
from the audience touched me so much, that I
began to cry, literally. Tears were pouring. It
was so nice to see a happy moment for Bosnia, as
otherwise all of our lives were miserable at that
time. Very, very good lyrics, melody too! I was a
little diappointed with 39 points. I expected so
much more. We even speculated what would happen
if Bosnia had won--would we have actually hosted
an ESC in the middle of a war?
1995: BORING! I was furious with the
"expert" panel that chose this song! I
watched the Bosnian final that year and this song
was definitely the worst of the eight. "Ti
si ruza" and "Opila me jedna
jesen" were much, much better songs.
Especially "Ti si ruza," which was a
ballad, but with a strong beat and rhythm. Did
not expect anything more than we got--the bottom
half of the list!
1996: I never got to watch this contest
and I only heard the song a few weeks ago, when
Chris Melville (thanks much Chris!) was nice
enough to encode it for me in RealAudio format.
It's a nice song, but it needed some major
arrangement improvement. With the arrangement
that it had, it sounded too boring. And who the
heck chose Amila to represent Bosnia. I cannot
stand her voice--she sounded like a man with flu!
If we had chosen a better performer and added a
bit life to this song, it would have done much
better.
1997: A very unusual song. There isn't a
hint of Bosnian music in it. It sounded too
repetitive, especially that beat. They tried to
trick Europeans by giving the song an English
title--"Goodbye"--but it made no sense
to me. Why would someone name a slow ballad with
an English title. It is usually done with fast,
up-tempo songs, not boring melodies! The lyrics
were very weak, too!
Noah Bajric
1964: First
time (un)lucky. TV Sarajevo's first participation
at the former Yugoslavia's pre-selection brought
their first victory but also the last place with
the dreaded nul-points. The song deserved better,
but was ruined by too dreamy arrangement in
Copenhagen. A point of special interest:
surrealist lyrics were taken from the latest
poetry book of Stevan Raickovic--without him
knowing.
1965: TV Sarajevo played it safe and chose
the Croatian superstar of the time Vice Vukov but
the song was boring without any clear
development. Still, 12th place in Naples is the
best for any entry from Bosnia-Herzegovina by
now.
1973: Zdravko Colic gave a very fiery
performance but he and the song burnt themselves
down to ashes. Maybe the Eurovision came too
early for him.
1976: This is just awful.
1981: A very nice ballad by a
rock'n'roll-turned-pop singer. Deserved better
than 15th in Dublin.
1993: Bosnia only made it to Milstreet due
to extremely clumsy voting of the Slovakian juror
in Ljubljana. The good-loking model-turned-singer
attracted many sympathy votes but the whole
effort was poor.
1994: My all-time favourite Bosnian entry.
Simply - a good song, well performed.
1995: As lead singer of Indeksi Davorin
Popovi+AQc- appeared at the former Yugoslavia's
finals as early as 1967. XXI. vijek didn't suit
him too well, there were songs at the
pre-selection which would suit him better.
1996: Another very good singer and not a
bad song at all. This song would do much better
with a different (classier) arrangement - Mr.
Alimanovic, take notice.
1997: Nice, but also very forgettable.
From Samo,
Slovenia
Hvala puno, Samo!
1993: Fazla
looked good, had a great sound and an important
message, but it just didn't live up to
expectations. The dark, moody intro and ethnic
elements were the high points for me, but when it
came down to the "Sva bol svijeta"
chorus it just fell a bit flat.
1994: Alma and Dejan didn't look
particularly comfortable on stage, didn't look
very 'chic' (certainly so compared to Fazla) and
missed the cue to start the song (thanks to the
enormously sympathetic audience). Good job! They
had such a good song! My favourite entry from
Bosnia and Herzegovina, deserving of BiH's
highest score to date (and deserving of more than
they got).
1995: I'm afraid Davorin's song about a
jumper knitted for him shouldn't have been sung
by a man in a dinner jacket. I didn't like his
voice, found the song rather drab and placed it
last in 1995. Sorry, but I know BiH can do
better!
1996: Now Amila knows how to handle a
scarf - no wonder people are confusing Amina with
Amila... A very pleasant melody and Amila has a
strong voice - shame she had to sing right after
Poland, which was just that bit classier.
1997: Welcome back Alma and at last a
happy sound from BiH! A catchy song, which would
have scored far better with full televoting.
Taking Turkey out of the equation (as they
regularly score BiH highly) multiplying up the
scores of televoting countries and adding on
Turkey's 8 points "Goodbye" could have
scored 68! Sadly, it wasn't to be and we all said
"Goodbye" to Bosnia for a couple of
years.
From Dale Langford
in Cheltenham, United Kingdom
Thanks Dale!
|
page.one
page.two
page.three
page.four
noah.90
noah.95
noah.97
noah.98
noah.99
noah.00
vanja.90
vanja.93
vanja.95
vanja.97
vanja.99
goran.90
goran.93
goran.95
goran.97
goran.98
goran.00
darren.98
|
