Winning The Eurovision

Q: One of the keys to an Eurovision victory would be a complete madness on the stage.
A: Of course, get a bunch of people to dance, put some chick in a cage, get someone to jump out of a piano, change clothes (if that’s actually possible within three minutes)…do stuff. And all that shit.

Q: Would you ever think a non-English-speaking song could win at the Eurovision when EVERYBODY is speaking English these days?
A: Well, what do you know, ever since 1999 when the language rules changed, all the winning songs were in English.

Q: When did a ballad last won at the ESC?
A: Ages ago, in 1996.

Q: Would you ever say that looks really, really don’t matter in the times when the most of the female singers are more undressed than dressed?
A: Well, what do you know, Marie N. was a pretty girl, Sertab Erener was barely dressed, Ruslana wasn’t wearing underpants, Helena Paparizou’s dress was shorter than some tops. Come to think, bless Lordi, they were guys with scary masks and costumes. And their song wasn’t about getting it on.

ripped from TV by yours truly

Well, whatdyaknow, we broke the rules!!!
On Saturday, 12th May, Marija Šerifović, a girl in a suit won the Eurovision Song Contest, without a flashy performance, singing a ballad in Serbian. This was our first time at the Eurovision as an independent country, we’re pissing everyone off by not being able to form a government 4 months after the elections and, well, the mood towards us was really not good last week. And then this girl and her five backing vocals, backed by a wonderful songwriter, an amazing composer and a hard-working team went to Helsinki and won the contest! Also, should I even try to explain what kind of a welcome home party they had?

Neighbour votes, you say? Well, let me tell you two things:
1) We would’ve won even without them. Marija was that good, yeah. The difference between first and second place was huge.
2) We used to live in the same country with those five countries. Hello, this is like a painful divorce that finally ended on friendly terms. Should we hate each other? Urgh, no. There was so much hate going on for 16 years, this is beautiful. By the way, my father said that it would be better to live like in the 80s and be the last on a contest like this than to be torn to pieces and win it.
3) Greece always votes for Cyprus and Cyprus always votes for Greece. Norway always votes for Sweden.

The voting was set up/it’s a gift for the most-loser country in Europe, you say?
The semifinal scoreboard speaks a lot. Look at the difference. I also wonder what happened to the UK votes in the finals as people couldn’t change their minds that much within 2 days.
…and it’s kinda cute that two of three -ia Baltic countries and Andorra didn’t like us at all as one sent the most disgusting weird-faced “look, I have breasts!” chick ever to compete for them, the other sent the band whose song could only make me fall asleep and the third send a carbon copy of Blink 182. Shame, because I really like Catalan language.

Ugly fat shemale/dike/lesbian with glasses? You people are mad! ,you say?
1) It’s no one’s business if Marija is a heterosexual, bisexual or homosexual. How does that affect her singing?
2) Also, how do her looks affect her singing? Would she be a better singer if she looked like Beyonce or J.Lo? Ummm, no. She has quite a career here, she’s been winning contests since she was 12 years old and it’s all because of what it should be the reason for it: MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC.

Nationalists, nationalists, nationalists. They don’t want to sing in English. Either that or they don’t know languages at all., you say?
1) Ha, ha, haaaaaa! In this city, which is, well, about 50% of the population of the whole country, the most of the population speaks at least two foreign languages. Kids overuse English, even when it’s not neccesary, I am one of those people who bitch about it, because I am all for using of one language at time, thank you very much.
2) There IS an English version of the song. There’s also a Serbian/English/Finnish/Russian version of the song. How’s that for being multilingual? The Finnish bit was sang a capella at the press conference and the English version was played at the welcome back party. BTW, if you need the song lyrics, they have it all here.

Speaking of that, how about returning to the old language rule? Wasn’t the point to embrace our little differences and accept the fact that we’re a bunch of different nations crowding one little continent which is geographically actually just a huuuuuge peninsula? It was so wonderful to hear Bulgarian, Macedonian, Slovenian, Catalan, German (twice!), apart from the standard occasional Spanish, French, Portugese and this mishmash we speak here that’s supposedly three different languages. It was also wonderful to, just like last year, hear some Italian, another proof that ESC is truly missing Italy.

So, with these words, see you here in Beograd next year! Keep a diet, because we have great food and, just to let you know, the heat is horrible in May. Desert days and tropical nights the most of the time and the nearest sea is 600 km away.

P.S. I will update this sometime soon and post my reviews of all the songs and contestants. Either way, I voted for Georgia and I also really loved Hungarian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Swedish, Slovenian and Russian songs (the last one only if I close my eyes at the lyrics, that was just…tasteless). Also sad Denmark and Cyprus didn’t make it to the finals, but that’s life.

Twenty Four And Twenty Six!

It’s my birthday today! I am 24 years old!
I usually hate my birthday because unexpected weird things tend to happen on 03rd March, almost like in novels…but this year I’m somehow happy. The last year started as the worst ever and it ended up being amazingly good in some spheres of life (while it remained disappointing in others… e.g. studying and university and one other thing I don’t like mentioning). In July, everything I was doing and planning went downhill, one of my biggest holiday plans failed, I lost one of my best friends and I don’t think I’ll ever get her back. After that, almost everything changed for the better but the damage has been done.

The highlights would definitely be getting two amazing jobs: the web design one for a rather famous company and the one for Lush (that one is web design too and Lush is famous, but you get the idea) and my trip to Vienna in December and seeing…OK, the true highlight was the moment when John Frusciante himself smiled to me and actually stayed there and waited to smile to me again when I took my head out of my hands and stopped giggling like a cat chick from a Tom and Jerry cartoon. And you know me, you know I don’t appreciate it because he’s a rock star, I appreciate it simply because it’s him and I adore him!

The other most beautiful moment of the year was the hug a couple of hours later when one of my best friends literally jumped on me after the same concert. I think the band members actually saw her get out of the sidestage area to the first row and hug me so tightly that she almost cracked my bones…and I thought I hugged her tightly the first time we saw each other in real life, two days before that. I want to make her a tribute entry, the same way I did to the certain collegue and a pretendent to the friend qualification a couple of weeks ago, but I will do that on 17th March, as it will have been 3 years from the day we bumped into each other on that day. 3 long years.

Oh yes, people? I met so many cool people during the time I was 23. So many cool people and a couple of INCREDIBLE IDIOTS who don’t even deserve a mention. Those idiots tore me apart, turned me upside down but the cool people of the past, present of future were always there to help me and put a smile on my face. I cannot recall a moment when I was completely alone and helpless because there wasn’t such a moment.

Special thanks to Jovana and Milica for being the people who turned into close friends whom I trust a lot and one year ago, to me they were just random passerbys in the sea of internet.

Plans for today? Do some work as birthdays are definitely not non-working holidays. Go to one of the Lush stores because a couple of veeery mysterious smiling co-workers insisted that I should come. And my mom is making a very special lunch…I asked for musaka, I will get roasted chicken and potatoes because it’s, as she says, more special, but I do not complain, I love both. And on Monday, I am inviting some people out.

Following Danube To Its Best
Red Hot Chili Peppers are coming to Serbia in June!
Red Hot Chili Peppers are coming to Serbia in June!
Red Hot Chili Peppers are coming to Serbia in June!

I just had to say it three times. It sounds so good that I have to repeat it and maybe I am also repeating it because it’s like a dream come true out of the blue. I’m getting my ticket tomorrow and I will post a pic of it. The event is called Green Fest and it will be held near the town called Inđija on 26th June, hence this entry’s title. Some friends told me there are huge billboards in some parts of Beograd already, but I haven’t seen one here in the centre yet…as soon as I do, I am aiming my Canon S2IS at it.

Screw-up
The computer is still screwed-up. I will have to reformat, before I actually lose my data. Lucky that I got a laptop although I’m not a big fan of them. I hope some people will understand what was happening to both my computer and my back (I’m due to a specialist check next week, it could be more from a sprained nerve and I am worried…

Chan Chan

Some promotion: Natalija has a new blog. So does Inge and she also turned 25 on Saturday:)

So…yesterday I saw Buena Vista Social Club. The band, not the movie. They were amazing! I’ve always liked Cuban music and I loved the movie which described the life of the band members (some of whom died in the meantime, unfortunately…but their replacements are amazing musicians as well), so when I saw that they’re touring, I bought tickets for my mother, father and me and presented it to them over a dinner, as described in one of the previous entries. Mom caught the virus that caused my last week’s horrible cold, so she decided not to go, but dad and I found a friend to accompany us. And damn, it was GREAT. Do you people know who Teresa García Caturla is? No??? Damn, you should google that woman. Here is a wonderful interview with her. Her voice is great and, even though she’s elderly, she’s an entertainer I have not seen before. Unlike the rest of the band, she was dancing with the audience, she dragged one young man to the centre of the stage to dance with her and two small children were dancing with them. It was so beautiful, so sincere, so different…as the friend who accompanied dad and me said, it makes one feel like they’d get on the first plane to Cuba and stay there forever.

I have a video of Buena Vista Social Club (or Havana Lounge, depends on how you want to call them) performing Chan Chan and I’ll upload it…but later. Remind me if I forget it.

Oh, Vienna…

So, where I was last week? Well, I spent four days/three nights in one of the most beautiful cities in the world, Vienna. For those whose knowledge of geography is so bad that it’s almost unbelievable: it’s the capital of Austria;) The 640km long trip by train was worth every single second of it. It was not my first time there, but as I have not been to Vienna since 1991; now, being much older than back then, I had a chance to go sightseeing with a dear friend whom I often call an illegal older sister, and in the evenings we were doing some different kind of sightseeing with a bunch of others :p Actually, thousands of others, come to think of that. I am currently writing a whole story about it (the one on my LJ will be slightly different than the one here) and, until then, here are some of the sights I have seen:

the mechanics of the Wiener Riesenrad

Victory square, I suppose? Budapest has one too…

Karlskirche…we actually climbed the highest tower from the inside!

Upper Belvedere

Maestro himself, the wonderful John Frusciante, RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!

As soon as I’m done with work obligations (which will include a bit of showing off, as I made a BEAUTIFUL website for my “main” job!), I will tell you guys more….;)