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Jelena Tomasevic
Serbia: Jelena speaks to esctoday.com
In May you will represent Serbia in the Eurovision Song Contest? What does this festival, its spirit and all what this festival represent mean to you?
Jelena: It is a great honour for me to represent my country in the biggest music festival in Europe. The honour is is even greater, since the festival is going to be held in Serbia, which is the host country. I would say I am not just a singer to compete with my song, but also an ambassador of my country. That is what I'm going to be during my European promo tour. Beside promoting of the song, I will also promote Serbia and I will welcome all of those who intend to spend two weeks of May in Belgrade to attend the Eurovision Song Contest. My message to all of them is that they will have a great time in a city with a big heart.
Eurovision Song Contest is the place where European diversities and multiculturality are most visible. What do you feel, as a viewer, when you see on TV screen a sea of colourful flags waving?
Jelena: Exactly that, Europe is made from differently coloured pieces, which together are even more dynamic. It`s all about the spirit of the old continent. The diversity brings us together us to choose the best song of Europe. I think that is the moment when it doesn't matter where people are coming from or which language they speak. Eurovision days give us something positive and energy. During these days it is equally important to support your country, as well as any other participating country.
You will probably sing in the Serbian language and that is not a question. Lot of people say that your voice is divine, the voice for all times. They just don`t need translation when you sing. Are you aware how impressed people are by your voice and your personality?
Jelena: Thank you for so beautiful compliments. I am happy when I transmit the emotion I feel singing the text to the audience. I felt that both nights in Beovizija. I was singing and I saw some people crying. Then I realised my emotions and my inner energy touched them. That is how I feel that they give me their emotions back and it is for me, as a singer, the most important thing. I think it is the essence of being a singer and a listener. It doesn't matter if it is a ballad or an uptempo song. If there is no feedback of emotion, a song has not fulfilled its aim.
May is not so far anymore. Is there going to be any change in your song? Do you have any idea about that how the performance on the stage could look?
Jelena: Well, May is pretty close now, time is passing fast. For my team and me there was no time to rest and there is still a lot to do. What expects me now is translation of Oro into several languages, small changes in the arrangement, final decision about the campaign and stage performance, European promo tour... Preparations include decisions about my looks on the stage, also. We already have some ideas, but of course that will be a surprise for the people in Belgrade Arena and TV audience.
We can not avoid to mention Marija Serifovic and Zeljko Joksimovic who have represented Serbia before you, and they did it in the best possible way. Does that make you to feel more responsible now?
Jelena: I feel very honored, but also there is a duty for me to continue the way Marija and Zeljko started. They made a very good impression and are a synonym for Serbian music. People say Serbian entries are very good, so my performance in May must confirm the complimentary title we have.
At the end, the most difficult question : What is your favorite Eurovision song ever?
Jelena: Waterloo, ABBA.
Related polls
- YourOne 2008: Vote for your favourite song
- YourOne 2008 - Semi Final 2: Vote for your favourite song
- YourOne 2008 - Semi Final 1: Vote for your favourite song
- Serbia decided: do you like Oro?
- Serbian selection concluded: did you like Beovizija 2008?
- Which country has the best song so far?
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Please! But please... correct this:
Jelena Tomasevic was born in Negotin (Serbia) !!!???
Replace that with this:
Jelena Tomasevic was born in KRAGUJEVAC (Serbia)!!!
There is a big difference between this two cities!
And JELENA IS BORN IN KRAGUJEVAC AND SHE IS VERY PROUD OF HER CITY!
Correct this right away... please!
The best song in the contest by far.....and it gets better ever time hear it.....
Txx
Hmmm....at least you're not selling your entire petrol infrastructure (or thereabouts) for peanuts, as is the case across the fence. 
Well at least you're not selling your castles to Arabian developers for 5-star hotels, Darko. 
I don't know, I like it when they host parties in our old fortresses and that sort of thing. There are some that are sacred - Mile (because of our former Bosnian Church), Bobovac (because of our royal family), Prusac (because of the Muslim shrine) for example - and you couldn't have anything in those but a lot are just beautiful. A nice party in Travnik or Vranduk or Doboj or Bosanska Krupa - these castles are all nice for that.
Yep, Jinx have a couple of really nice tunes, I know them. As for Seka, she's too small to fill up some sports hall in Sarajevo hence the "cultural centre", I suppose. Her place is under a tent, really and truly. I felt similarly a few months ago when an international heavy metal festival was held in the Smederevo fortress which is a listed building. It may have provided a nice gothic ambience but I'd be a lot more considerate to the weathered walls. I feel the same about all the open air summer discos and clubs in and around Kalemegdan, or the Petrovaradin fortress. Belgrade could be kinder to its heritage and focus the discos and clubs in disused breweries, power stations, factories and similar equally atmospheric buildings.
You should have seen the hissy fit in Sarajevo when Seka Aleksic's latest concert was announced as the cultural center. "It's a place of culture of all Sarajevans, not a place for the likes of Seka Aleksic!" - there were petitions and everything going around, hehehe. I think people unfairly lump her in with Ceca even though Seka is from Bosnia, has a Muslim mother, all of that - they don't care. I don't know what happened, if she came or didn't come or even if the concert planned date has arrived yet.
Seka Aleksic would be a good choice but she has some trouble singing live like Ana Nikolic.
I'd like to see Croatia send something like Jinx - Na zapadu. I love that. Or (don't hit me) Luka Nizetic. 
I am really happy to see that people love this song!!!! Until now a lot of people was talking about Serbia in a bad way!!! They mixed politics with our song!!! That is a wrong way!!!!
I really love her and this song i great, i think!!! But one thing is certain .... we showed to Europe that we have great singers with strong voices and have good taste for music!!!!
Quite right, Seka Aleksic and her analgetics have an international fan base already. Ask Ms Zvezdana Cvetkovic. 
I only just noticed, I've been wrongly spelling Cpbija's name - I'm very sorry.
Djamila: I wasn't actually thinking of Radovic specifically (and you're right, she's become a permanent ornament of each Beovizija stage set, in addition to tacitly proclaiming it's all beneath her). I thought more along the lines of a chugging housey number which nails it four on the floor (thump, thump, thump, thump) - and a killer chorus on top such as [i]Nisi moj[/i]. Recently, [i]Romale Romali[/i] and [i]Beli jablan[/i] came very close. OR, an extatic rock number by Negativ, should they continue to contribute to BVZ. In fact, anything but another solemn ballad - even though we make 'em good.
Serbia is simply great this year.
Second victory? Why not!
@denis: hahaha il take ur word 4 that!! hvala lepa! hehe send seka aleksic, that would b hilarious lol, no im only joking bout her
p.s senhora do mar kills this song
@ T K ... natasa bekvalac or funky g ? well they are the most awful singers in serbia ... they can't sing live ! so why should we send them ? and mostly of the songs from them have crap lyrics...their songs are good for disco and dancing but nothing for ESC .. so i'm sure that we will never send something like that - and i'm sure that they will never compete in the preselection coz they cant sing!!!
im still struggling to warm to this.... i still find it unstimulating, ok stuff the euphemisms, i find it boring! i can see the hype, i suppose i agree with whoever said if molitva wasnt in last year i would probz love it... i dunno, she wails and moans too much for my liking, and the song is boring, i particularly cant handle the nunanej part... but she does sing the song with complete and utter passion, you can see the emotion exude from her when she sings, sooo even though i cant put this in my top 15 let alone top 10, i still wouldnt be disappointed if this makes the top 5!!!
please serbia send funky g, natasa bekvalac or djogani, that will shut everyone up who keeps complaining serbia only sends ballads!!!
Aleksandra - she's been on Beovizija enough Serbia might as well send her to Eurovision and be done with it. I love Nisi moj, not as much as Zagrli me but close. She changed so much since Jos danas - as my husband jokes, "She moved from Ljubljana to Tuzla".
I do love her too - Aleksandra, Natasa Beklavac, Zeljko, all the Serbian artists that make a little gesture toward us, I always notice it and remember it when I'm choosing which CD to buy.
Of course I'm partial to this girl, sure to be a legend if she gets the rights songs. When I saw her singing this Bosnian song, I was proud. I hope she gets to represent in the future.
url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=x84_AP_UU0I]http://youtube.com/watch?v=x84_AP_UU0I/url]
It's very nice, Djamila. All it needs is a lavish string arrangement behind. I particularly like the "flat", unaffected vocal style. Nice visuals too.
Personally I'd like the Serbian 2009 entry to sound something like this - I suppose it's not too unreasonable to expect ...I always thought this particular track rocks.
url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=59xkjiiLXfY]http://youtube.com/watch?v=59xkjiiLXfY/url]
Will Jelena do anything without her mate(friend) Zeljko?...
How about something like this for Eurovision, Darko. It's so western but... it's so beautiful, and so rare for us.
url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ega6uUxwM4E]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ega6uUxwM4E/url]
It could have the danger of being as boring as some of France's entries, perhaps only because its our language I like it - but I would love to see something like this from any of us at Eurovision.
HAHA, thumbs up 4 da sistah. Respect.
All considered, it's good it's still standing there, that in itself is a sign that it's not [i]all[/i] screwed up.
I agree, Crb. I'd even settle for something like this:
url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=L6K4RuaeKTY]http://youtube.com/watch?v=L6K4RuaeKTY/url]
I was watching this with my sister once and I whispered, not really realizing that I was speaking, "Such a beautiful mosque. Pity it's in Trebinje" and my sister said, "They probably say the same thing" - hehehe.
this woman is so pashionated, so great voice and a nice melody!!! i hope serbia will do well!!! she is one of the best artists of 2008 esc! email=luca_itl@hotmail.com]luca_itl@hotmail.com/email]
[i]Did he just say naprijed?[/i]
I hardly ever notice - that sense is surgically removed from me. Possibly because I've listened to such abundant volumes of YU pop-rock, when some of it was ekavan, some ijekavan, sometimes it got mixed up or inconsequent, and then came [i]other languages[/i] altogether....it was a happy mess, in a word. Resulting in permanent perception loss in my case.
@ Djamila
naprIJed was there coz Marinko is from Montenegro hehehe
About Bosnia, I really loved Lejla, but I think you also had good uptempo ones - Deen for example.
And I would like to see something oriental from Bosnia. Like Sertab Erener's song. Ah that was a good song
Crbija
Actually, now that you've mentioned [i]that[/i]....hehe....
No, I had something entirely different in mind. That being said, Gorcin (art direction) got the stage presentation spot on last year. It really worked, the lesbo undertone being put to the best possible use.
I hope we send a Latin-style song eventually. I think our language is beautiful in Latin-style music eventually. Take this one, by Romana Panic (lol knowing English makes some of our surnames funny, especially Barbaric).
url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=kioHE78MCgQ]http://youtube.com/watch?v=kioHE78MCgQ/url]
Flamingosi was bad that they didn't get to go. I even went and took a picture of myself surrounded by Flamingos for my profile photo here for a while after that. I was so excited to have some j's and ij's in a Serbian song at Eurovision, hehehe. "Did he just say naprijed? OMG... YAY!"
@ darko
and why that ? dont tell me its coz lesbo-looking performance of molitva loool
Just another great ballad for Serbia ! I love it and I think it could give another win to our hosts.
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