Anyway in less pressing news, a couple of months back Serbia decided to send Zeljko Joksimovic to the Eurovison Song Contest on the basis that he is a very well known singer in the Balkans he also represented Serbia and Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 coming a very respectable second, an impressive start for a debuting country. There was much discussion about the sort of songthe Zeljko would bring to the contest. Would it be one which was a mirror image of the 2004 entry [which was really good back then].
There can be little doubt that Nije Ljubav Stvar is a great Balkan ballad. It builds slowly but rather well and finishes with a fairly large cresendo. The song no doubt is definitely going to get some extra coverage because it is Zeljko. The trouble is that this song is far to formulaic in comparison to the 2004 Lane Moje. There is a management concept that sometimes crops up that strikes me as I write this. Never do the same thing again. In 2004 Balkan ballads were a new pure and fresh addition to the contest. Zeljko's really stood out too. This year the same cannot quite be said again. Balkan ballads are now fairly normal in the contest, we would normally expect 2 or 3 of them per year. Zeljko has even brought the Luke Ming Flanagan look a like to the contest (as he did in 2004).
This year Zeljko is in with about 4 other songs from the Balkans in a ballad heavy year. Given the Serbian starting position (first in semi 2), this is far from ideal. I'm not convinced that Serbia are going to do well enough in semi 2 in order to gain the momentum to do well enough in the final. While I don't think that getting to the semi-final will be a problem for Zeljko (he'll most likely do it on the back of massive Balkan support). But really this is not going make a Top 3 appearances.
Verdict: I think this is a reasonable Balkan ballad. However I do think that Serbia is not the best Balkan ballad is that amazing this year. That honour would fall to Slovenia.
Grade: B-
No comments:
Post a Comment