Credits
News
© RTS
Marija Serifovic's hero welcome
Party time in Belgrade
In our interview with Marija, we asked her what victory would mean to Serbians and the people of Belgrade if she could win (see the interview below). We now know the answer!
Marija was greeted by more than 50,000 adoring fans in the central square in Belgrade and you can judge for yourself courtesy of RTS television footage whether Marija performed the song for the crowd or the crowd performed for their new shining star.
As the esctoday.com team leaves for the airport and heads home from Helsinki, we know that there are some discussions about the health and future of the Eurovision Song Contest ahead, but we are also leaving safe in the knowledge that 2007 delivered a deserving and credible winning song and reminded the world that a good song with a great vocal performance can still win the Eurovision Song Contest.
Goodnight from Helsinki,
the esctoday.com team
Marija talks to esctoday.com before her victory:
Marija's Welcome home (courtesy of RTS)
Related polls
- POLAND: Your favourite song in the national final?
- ARMENIA: Your favourite song in the national final?
- The Netherlands decided: How much do you like Ik be verliefd (Sha la lie)?
- Cyprus decided: How much do you like Life looks better in spring?
- Iceland decided: How much do you like Je ne sais quoi?
- Denmark decided: How much do you like In a moment like this?
- Norway decided: How much do you like My heart is yours?
Go directly to the reactions
Recent news about Serbia
Three songs for the 2010 Serbian selection 70
Confirmed! Goran Bregović to compose Serbian entry 100
RTS presents new selection method on Tuesday 10
Goran Bregovic to compose for Serbia? 86
Serbia: Joksimovic and Bajaga top Blic poll 69
Reactions
When reacting to a news item, please stick to the topic. Inappropriate messages (swearing, racism, hate, etc.), messages in other languages than English and spam (which includes URL advertising) will be deleted and you risk your account being removed. Reacting on newsitems is only possible when logged in as a member. Still don't have member account?
Click here to react Click here to become a member (free!)
I W A S T H E R E !!!!!!!
and the day after I saw Maria preparing for some interwiew at the same place near the park, and I sad to her YOU ARE LEGEND, NO... A LIVE LEGEND!!!!
Eurovision Sweden,
I really hope they will prepare.
Keep party, u deserve it, but don't forget to prepare for next year's contest 
I started to cry when i saw this... i love you serbia sooo much..
First of all, I want to say thank you to Kenan for achieving such a good success for our contry, although we all think that he deserved much better. I also want to congratulate Marija for her strong performance that night and her victory which I think she deserved. But I must confess that my eyes searched for Anonymous (Andorra) at the final. They were one of my favourites and they deserved a Top 10 at least. My only dissapointment is Ukraine. I really wonder what people liked about those weirdos, sorry guys. You were great last year with Tina Karoll but Verka was a disaster this year and I can not believe you had so much votes. Congratulations anyway.
To those participating countries and especially those who are thinking of withdrawing from next year's esc, take note of the below paragraph that was extracted from this article:
"a good song with a great vocal performance can still win the Eurovision Song Contest".
To all participating countries and especially those who are thinking of withdrawing from next year's esc, read the below paragraph extracted from the above article very carefully:
"A good song with a great vocal performance can still win the Eurovision Song Contest".
WOW GUYS THIS IS BEAUTIFUL!!!
HOW MUCH DOES IT MEANS FOR SERBIANS....
AMAZING!!!
* by the way I think you need a laugh now, and so do I. Maybe these guys can represent Russia next year? I'm sure they'd get a lot of points by neighbours (hehehe NOT):
http://www.youtube.c(...)/watch?v=DCqvYaxJv24
Then I can only ask you to come to serbia this summer and see for yourself. I don't know any people who treats war criminals as heroes, I've never met anyone who does so in my entire life. I agree with you that if you accept srebrenica etc you are disqualified as a human being: I couldn't have said that better myself. but then I'd like to disqualify the ones who did those horrible things to my family as well, because they are very happy and alive in croatia today.. I don't judge people by nation or religion but by actions. I don't claim that croats are all hateful or all loving ante gotovina, because I know very well that that is not true. people are people first, and then serbs,bosnians,croatians,norwe gians. just because you are born in a country with a bad reputation because of war crimes it doesn't make you bad, and it doesn't automatically mean you have to explain yourself and excuse yourself to the world because of your nationality. that is my openioin, good night to you too.
@ioannis megapanos
At website OGAE Serbia
http://www.evropesma(...)/sve-verzije-molitve
you can find all versions of Molitva. There are nine version: in serbian (with two remixes), in english (with a remix), in russian (with a remix), in finnish (sung by backing vocals) and instrumental (performed by Ksenija Milošević).
Victory, for the best song, or maybe Verka was better!?!?
Crkli dabogda svi ljubomorni gadovi i kompleksasi!
I don't even know why I waste my time replying to your idiotic posts, just for your information : I don't claim to know anything about the situation in Bosnia because I haven't been there for 15 years, I couldn't possibly know. That's why I don't talk about it. You constantly talk about serbian nationalism IN SERBIA (when you weren't even here for 15 years or more! not to mention BELGRADE) without knowing ANYTHING at all! Don't speak when you don't know please, the last time I was in Belgrade I saw a muslim family, all the girls wearing hijabs, walking down kneza mihajlova- nobody looked at them twice. You wouldn't know this of course because you're not travelling to Belgrade. please go there and see and THEN talk. I know bosniaks who have a boat on sava and they sail down sava every summer from bosnia to serbia. this year they reached Sabac, and they did not ONCE meet hostility. Do you understand what I am trying to say? Would you please PLEASE concider us as people first and THEN as serbs? and THEN maybe get to know us before you judge us?
Then YOU Edin read my post again. ok? R&R :who do you think I was referring to? Roger and Rolf??? No Radovan and Ratko. Ok?? So I've said it NOW and I've said it before (you actually commented on me saying it a few months ago- but I can say it again- for the third time, )and the five hundredth time in my life,) YES they are a shame for Serbia YES I want them arrested (if not dead) and YES I do hate them. satisfied???? or do I have to say it another time?? in two months maybe to refresh your memory??? are you surprised? does every serbian have to excuse themselves before they say their name or else you think they are nationalist? "hey I hate R&R and my name is." is that what you expect from serbs?? We can't stop being serbs ! just because you like to think every serb is nationalist if they don't deny it, "guilty untill opposite proven" because "you need to hear it". if we don't say it, we're nationalists. BRILLIANT, Edin, very clever of you!! Now what does that make YOU then??? Anti-serbian untill opposite proved?
Thank you esctoday so much!!!!
"Marko Kosturi, why do you think that i as a serb, or any other serb on this forum, for that matter, would want your forgivingness? i absolutely dont care what you or any other think about serbs. all i know is that i love Serbia, as eanybody who loves their nation. no thanks to your forgivingness, you can keep it 
Edin: Of course Bosnia had to prevent Thompson from singing, after all- there are serbs living in Sarajevo too! It's not a pure muslim city, you know. It's nothing "big" in that, it's normal behaviour, natural - expected. Nothing to be proud of- it's comletely expected. For your information croatia DIDN't deliver war criminals- they were arrested by FOREIGN police in a FOREIGN country, not by croats in croatia. you know this of course. What makes you think that I support war crimes commited by serbs? how on earth does it seem logical to you that I support the fact that R&R aren't arrested yet? My god, there is nothing I would like more than to peel their skin off with a knife!! But why on earth does that have something to do with MARIJA winning Eurovision, showing patriotism? A bosnian MUSLIM war criminal has been arrested in Norway these day by the way, for WAR CRIMES against SERBS commited in the camp DRETELJ. Is this nice news to you? do you like hearing this on an esc forum? Is this the place to discuss this? NO!! so why do we?? why do you bring this up?? Why are you constantly bringing politics into esc, don't you know that there are political forums (millions) on the internet where you can discuss this!?? If you have something against MARIJA then contact her personally or just leave her alone!!
As far as I know there was some local controversary with regards to her participation because of her sexual orientation. Now she is salluted as a national hero !
Anyway she deserved the victory. well done Serbia, even I didnt like the song.
Im looking forward to ESC 2008. They will put on a magnificent show.
@ Marko Kosturi
Marko, if you don't like Marija's 3 fingers, dont look to 2 of @
them and you get the middle one.
Yuo must to learn history again. I suggest for you to read something about Jasenovac, for example.
Kiss
@Eurovision SRB
The song was in Serbian as they were discussing the event. I haven't even heard the Finnish version. Our commentators did mention it at every opportunity though: "This song has been recorded in Finnish as well" 
Pffff.... Dyke or not - she won the ESC. I guess that's the only thing that counts right now.
Come on serbs, what are you saying? That we should say there is nothing wrong with the threefinger sign of Marija? Maybe outside the Balkans you can fool somebody but not here in the Balkans. SERBIA caused 4 wars because of that sign. Screaming "Serbija do Tokija" serbs ravaged cities, raped women, and massacred children all over Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Kosovo. And that's the reason why all the members of former Yugoslavia didnt want to share anymore the state with serbs and that's why Serbia is desintegrating more and more every day. How can we forget that Serbia caused 300.000 victims in the last 15 years, and was the same three finger sign the "trademark" of all that madness, for which you, the serbs are guilty.
Serbia won the ESC and congratulations. But that doesnt means that this is some kind of "forgiveness" for everything serbs did in the near past and that the signs, symbols and the philosophy of hate serbs promoted that time, is now legalized. Just calm down. It was just a good song (stolen by the way) in a song contest. See you in Belgrade next year (if EBU will not decide for Kiev).
Marko, Greece
@ Dejan Mladenovic:
THANK U SO MUCH!
Nobody is jealous of that beloved dyke princess of yours.
They threw a parade-like party just because they won eurovision? LOL ok i guess the west doesn't take it THAT seriously. BTW i have a problem with her saying that composers should make good music. Listen, every composer/ song writer went into this thinking his or her song was great. She's basically undermining their efforts. What's a good song, a ballad? I hope we don't hear all kinds of ballads next year.
if marija wouldn't have shown the three finger-sign (and I'm sure she meant "VICTORY" and not ANTIBOSNIA) people would have found something else to complain about. They can't swallow it. they just can't swallow the fact that serbia won, they don't want to admit it, but they can't stand it. they can talk forever, but to me that sign has nothing to do with hate- unless hateful people use it. it can be abused like every other sign. being a patriot is not being a nationalist. serbian patriotism is not worse than other kinds of patriotism, marija surely didn't commit any war crimes- leave her alone!!!
ESC funeral: and ALL OTHER kinds of nationalism, right? or is every other kind of nationalism ok but serbian not? grow up, nationalism is nationalism- equal everywhere, and serbia is NOT the only country with such problems. croatia and bosnia also has to work against that, along with every other country.
The list of 111 reactions is divided into 5 pages. Choose a page:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
React yourself
This news article is older than one week. Reacting to articles is only possible in the first week after publication.
