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"Great chance for positive PR"
Eurovision victory through the eyes of Serbian bloggers
Bloggers across the Internet have reflected the sense of reborn pride, and are brimming with new hope for a brighter international future for the country, where the people need no longer feel ashamed to call themselves Serbs and be proud. Organising the contest, for a start, will give the country a chance to promote itself in a completely different light from the news reports of the 1990s that still colour the country for many TV viewers and newspaper readers in the West. “I consider this a great chance for positive PR of our country” writes Gorana Secibovic, continuing “in the Norwegian media, Serbia is mentioned only in relation to Mladic, Nikolic, Kosovo and the mass graves around the region. Just a few days ago, a Norwegian lady asked me if the army preserves the peace on Serbian streets, if military vehicles are patrolling around.” Belgrade 2008 will give the nation a fighting chance, at least, to right some of the wrongs committed against it in wider European attitudes.
It feels good to be a Serb
Milosrdni Andrjeo reflects the hopeful mood: “here’s a chance for Serbia to show itself off in a bright light next year” whilst blogger Trotter sums up the people’s joy similarly, with thanks to the woman who brought the opportunity home: “thank you Marija for promoting my Serbia this way!” Maja is more explicit in just what the singer has allowed for her personally: “she managed to show me again how it feels good to be a Serb” writes the blogger.
Next May, thousands of foreign journalists and fans will flood the capital for two weeks, creating a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reaffirm everything which is good about Serbian culture to the World. Neven Andjelic sums this up: “those who decide to visit Belgrade will obtain, I hope, a more positive picture of Serbia, about Belgrade, because they have a lot of prejudices against us, taking into account all the events of the 1990s.”
The East is on the rooftop of Europe
But what of the cries from the West of diaspora voting and neighbourly exchanges? Andjelic gives his own take on the phenomena, turning the tables and placing the blame squarely on the West for creating volumes of people traffic across the continent, with the East simply biting back. “The West wanted to create vast diasporas out of the East Europeans, so now the diasporas are voting for their own. The East is on the rooftop of Europe. Deservedly” he claims. This year’s contest is a “success for democracy”.
Surely, there could be fewer countries more in need of a regeneration of reputation and confidence than Serbia in the contest, and the benefits are all there for the taking. “Let’s take this opportunity to improve our reputation in the World” are the words of Glavna Strana, echoing fellow bloggers, although with the more practical – and perhaps slightly cynical – observation that “now, big money will pour into Serbia because Eurovision is a commercial festival – our government should plan how to cash in on this ‘kitsch parade’ as best as it can and invest the money in renewing the culture and alternative music scene in Serbia.” Cynicism or not, this view cements the contest as one of the most important cultural events in the European calendar, and one whose benefits should not be so easily overlooked. All the opinions expressed by these Serb bloggers from all over Europe confirm that the impact of the contest is a force to be reckoned with - and potentially, a hugely positive one for all concerned.
This article was written thanks to sources from Zeljana Grubisic (Southeast European Times) and Ljubis Bojic (Global Voices).
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bravo maria i voted for her great song !!!!!
greetings from slo to serbia 
Hajde Kroci was a better song.
Hajde Kroci was a better song.
i liked hajde kroci better, molitva didnt deserve to win
Ooh...have you seen this. Its hilarious!
The Ultimate Guide to Winning the Eurovision Song Contest:
http://www.youtube.c(...)/watch?v=Z9p9axbBfns
I would ask the administrators to delete the "poem" written by "mile bobo". It's disgusting!!! Anyone who can understand Serbian would surely join my objection.
To Nikola Jovic (and others)
Serbia's song was my favourite song this year so I am glad Marija won. Just been reading your posts about UK and its constituent countries not being free to go their own way. Why do you keep mentioning only Scotland and Northern Ireland? I'm from Wales and we've waited the longest time to regain our independence! SInce 1282. And we'll get it before Northern Ireland!!
Anyway, don't quite understand all these racist and bad-tempered remarks you and others make. Let's learn to get on with each other.
Also, I can't see how anyone can justify voting for the same country every year because they have 'similar musical tastes'. Music is international. I always vote for which song I like best, not which country, and I wish the rest of Europe would do the same. This year I voted for Serbia. Next year it could be Iceland or Austria or Georgia. Come on, Scandinavians and East Europeans - start voting truly for the best song!
hi
at first i was dissapointed that Serbia has one the ESC 2007 with the song MOLITVA. But one I heard the enlish version under the title DESTINY i changed my mind and deserved to win. congratulations SERBIA and Marija.
joseph (MALTA)
i wish serbia good luck. hope u will give a great show in belgrade.hope to be there too. i remember also the basketball team partisan belgrade that were playing maccabi tel aviv in the seventees and the eightees.
there r many things that r in common among the two countries
moshe melman
Ni kurac da sklopim,
samoca mi opet tera san,
a picka se topi
i to brzo, dlanom o dlan.
K'o guzu da gubim,
a kurac i ne primecujem,
jos uvek se gusim,
jos uvek mi brke ne rezes.
K'o lezba, ne znam kuda,
jebati se da ne boli,
od vibre zive rane,
više ne brojim.
Varjaca, kao zar na mojim kuckama je,
varjaca, mesto sisa jedno vime tvoje.
(I)Sony zna, kao ja,
koliko puta sam ugurnula to,
sony zna, bas kao ja,
da za guzu najbolja je metalna
varjaca.
Al Bogu ne mogu
lagati sve dok se gojim,
a lazem ako kazem
da se ne tovim.
I CANNOT wait to go bumpin' to Danny Tenaglia's grooves @ Exit. He's just the best.
@ Edin: I`m really happy about your last posts, no hard feelings but i just didn`t know what happened. I was sure that you had some totally oposit posts when I was here, week ago. I didn`t know actually did I made mistake about you. Now i see, that is the same person but with different point of view. Glad to see that.
Cheers!
M.
sorry for spam
@Michael UK
"once again u rant about british history of which u clearly have no knowledge"
U C ??? Now u know how it is when u read something about ur country written by someone who do not know much about ur homeland. U DON'T KNOW NOTHING ABOUT SERBIA AND ABOUT THAT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED HERE IN 1990's. But u stll think that u can judge me! That's what I'm tryin' to say here...
So STOP all this and let's talk about music.
@Michael UK
"once again u rant about british history of which u clearly have no knowledge"
U C ? That's what people from Serbia feel when someone like u or anyone else talk about 1990's in Serbia and Ex-Yugoslavia. U DON'T KNOW NOTHING ABOUT US!!! U don't know what really happend here but u still think u can judge to us and hate me just because I'm Serb. So let's talk about music, okay?
@Molly
OK, you got me there, but when I said "landslide", I meant that if you subtracted the diaspora and neighbour effect, the result would be likely not to change, because Russia and Ukraine profited from neighbourly voting at least as well (more neighbours). And once more, of course there is such a thing as diaspora and neighbourly voting, saying there wasn't would be plain stupid.
Btw, if you want to dance and enjoy with some very good music, come and visit Serbia during the exit festival in Novi Sad, 12-15 july 2007.
Line up is not definitive but for now confirmed are :
Main stage:
BASEMENT JAXX
BEASTIE BOYS
CSS
GROOVE ARMADA
MS. LAURYN HILL
LTJ BUKEM & MC CONRAD
ROBERT PLANT
SNOOP DOGG
WU-TANG CLAN
Dance arena :
DANNY TENAGLIA
ROGER SANCHEZ
JOHN DIGWEED
RICHIE HAWTIN
ERIC PRYDZ
TRENTEMOLLER LIVE
BLACK STROBE LIVE
COLLABS 3000 LIVE
NIC FANCIULLI
PAUL WOOLFORD
MAGDA
SEBASTIEN LEGER
JUSTIN MARTIN
And 25 stages more...
160 000 people, 4 days, over 100 performers.
In UK tickets are sold out (4000 tickets) but I guess they will put 1000 more next week
Cheers!
@Edin : Did I missed something? You promote serbian traditional songs after all those posts about Serbs like potentialy dangerous people for tourists? If i make some mistake, pls correct me, but I was sure that you had oposite opinion about Serbs week ago?
@Nikola Jovic: Stop please, you making me tired as well as other people.
@Molly : I agree with you that the best song won by accident.
But.... who the hell is Gordana Sebifovic?
@Edin : Did I missed something? You promote serbian traditional songs after all those posts about Serbs like potentialy dangerous people for tourists? If i make some mistake, pls correct me, but I was sure that you had oposite opinion about Serbs week ago?
@Nikola Jovic: Stop please, you making me tired as well as other people.
@Molly : I agree with you that the best song won by accident.
But.... who the hell is Gordana Sebifovic?
Nikola - I wantr to remain calm but you are making absurd accusations. Scotland and Northern Ireland are perfectly free to go. Bermuda, for example, had a referndum on independence just 9 years ago and voted no. Hong Kong returned to China 10 years ago this year. The UK is a democracy and Scotland and Northern ireland are perfectly free to go. As for Gibraltar - agin the UK government was negotiating with the Spanish over joint soveignty and it was the people of Gibraltar that put an end to the negotiations. The idea that the UK (or England within it) is somehwo keeping Scotland, Northrn Ireland or Gibraltar against the will of their peoples is simply absurd and completely contrary to all the facts.
@ nikola jovic
once again u rant about british history of which u clearly have no knowledge.
and as for an independent scotland , well maybe the uk should split into 4 and then perhaps , like serbia , we will benefit from this neighbourly voting
@Bepo Patinic
Thank U Bepo I hope that Croatia is next winner!
@Molly Parton
If U have big as Dolly please come to serbia we could have some fun 
And don't lie urself. U know that N.Ireland and Scotland want to go but they can't. And why don't u back Gibralrtar to Spain first and then tell us that we aren't nice. UK is one of the bloodiest countries in the world. Just don't lie urself ...u r miles away of modern world...
Need to say i was in Finland ...and Im happy Maria won Eurovision .She was great on stage and good voice I belive Serbia 2008 will give to all of us one great show and lookin forword eaven now ...
When we calabrate passin Macedonia Serbia and Slovenia in final people started yellin Yugoslavia Yugoslavia i felt good couse we all know Yugoslavia not egsist any more but we felt some energy there i was so emotional ... hope we will all have strangh to put history behind and learn from it and finally start to live like good naiberhood .
With all respect dear friends from Serbia from Croatia .
Nicola Jovic
Don't make me laugh about Sean Connery. He lives in the Bahamas and is about as Scottish as Desmond Tutu,
nikola jovic
northern ireland and scotland can shove off any time they want and none of them will have to be shot first.
milan s
i am afraid that 30 odd votes is not a landslide - unless you are margaret thatcher, of course.
THANK U ZRINKO TUTIC
for sayin in news on Croatian TV that Molitva IS NOT PLAGIAT AT ALL
THANK U TONCI HULJIC
for sayin on Croatian TV that SERBIAN VICTORY IS WELL DESERVED, that Molitva is a great song, Marija is fantastic singer and that she had fantastic performance.
Thank U brothers from Croatia.
Hope Croatia will be the winner next year u deseved that with Danijela in 1998. and Doris in 1999. but west didn't want to see Croatia as a winner!
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