This is Serbia's first entry (like Montenegro's) as an independant state at Eurovision.  They have enjoyed success at Eurovision previously as part of Yugoslavia and more recently, as part of Serbia & Montenegro.

 

 

Finally!! A Balkan ballad that I actually think is good!  In its independent debut, Serbia will be represented by Marija Serifovic, singing ‘Molitva’ (Prayer) – and on first listen you can tell they’re in with a chance of winning the whole thing.  The song starts off gently – sounding rather like the beginning of Ireland’s 1993 winner ‘In Your Eyes’ – and then explodes into a magnificent power ballad with that cross over appeal that isn’t so ethnic that it won’t appeal to Western countries.  I think it’s beautiful and will undoubtedly be sung well by Marija – who I should point out isn’t one of the prettier ladies in the competition this year, but nonetheless should make a good impression.  I just hope she gets a bit of a makeover – some hair extensions, a beautiful dress and some contact lenses, as unfortunately, in this superficial world we live in, looks will make a difference onstage and when it comes to the voting.  All in all I love this – it’s one of the stronger entries this year and should do really well.

 

 

With the best ballad in it, Serbia have it in the bag, and could win on their official independant debut.  This will pick up douze points from all of the Balkan countries - that's at least 8 douze points from Hungary, Romania, Macedonia, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Croatia - not to mention nearby Greece, Turkey and Austria.  So I'd imagine at least 11 douze points from nearby countries - and even after that there are another 31 countries voting which this should appeal to.

 

 

Despite having a really poor performance in the Semi, this was sung beautifully by Marija, and flawlessly by her backing singers.  I just wish somebody would give her a pair of contacts, some hair extensions, a dress and some make up.  I did like this though, and Serbia should have enough neighbourly support to mke this challenge for vitcory.

 

 

Serbia always performed well with the bookies, fan polls and in many critical reviews, so it was no surprise to see this challenge for victory and end up doing as well as it did.  It was a solid and deserved victory – I’ve always thought the song was a great one and Marija sang really well – but there were two major problems with this for me. The first of these is the obvious one – the horrifically dirty voting which plagued every song that did well in the whole contest.  It was terrible – Serbia received ‘douze points’ from 5 of its 8 neighbours – the other three also awarded fair points (Romania 6, Bulgaria 6 and Albania 1 – who were actually a jury).  Serbia did however impress elsewhere, such as in Austria, Finland and Switzerland, all awarding their maximum points – maybe making the victory seem slightly more worthwhile.  The second thing which probably irritates me the most was the fact that the song lacked a visually striking routine onstage, which I think really took away from a great song making a great statement.  It looked lazy in a time where so much has depended on the effort you put in to make your 3 minutes visually striking.  Having Marija looking beautiful standing singing her song with well behaved backing singers I can’t help feel would have made all the difference here.  Instead, I feel the statement Marija was trying to make lacked warmth.  Fair play, she was trying to tell us that music isn’t about what you see on a stage, but has the woman never seen Eurovision? From the very day Bucks Fizz whipped off the skirts, people who do well in Eurovision have tried to do the best with their three minutes onstage by creating a visual impact as well.  I believe Eurovision is as much about the performance we see (hence the name – vision) as it is about the quality of the song, and I was so disappointed with the sheer lack of enthusiasm and warmth Serbia put into their stage show.  I do however think the point they made was fair – that music is important in more ways than visual ones, but I do think they managed to miss the point of Eurovision entirely, despite winning the thing.  To finish on a more positive note, I do think Molitva is a beautiful song, deserving of victory.  Marija sang very professionally and the routine they used did strike a good few chords around Europe.  I liked the part at the end particularly when the girls all held hand to show the hearts painted on the sides of their palms – that was visually striking, as well as the contrast made between Marija and her backing models.  I think Serbia did well, their routine made a point (as much as I don’t overly appreciate how they went about it) the song was beautiful and the singer and backing vocalists did a great job.  A deserved victory no matter, even if it was a little poorly thought out.