Serbia

At the Meet and Greet Sanja chose, who got to ask a question. And with the energy of a stand up comedian, she told how she nearly fell into a hole next to the catwalk, when first entering the stage. Fortunately she avoided a fall and a broken neck.

Their absence in 2014 has most definitely revived Serbia's desire for Eurovision glory.

Sanja and her song couldn't be more different from Bojana last year, but my god, she sure does not let down.

Joined by four backing singers, and a dancer who's portraying the abuser in the song, Sanja's delivering power vocals. Gone are the exaggerated facial expressions, from the official video.

Really impressed by this, and think this is gonna do extremely well next Thursday AND Saturday.

I was not a huge fan of this song before I started to see it on the promo tour, and how she delivers it so well....

Now finally she is in Stockholm and there is something palpable about this that grabs you from the very first note. Amazing delivery

Tonight we attended a party organized by the Serbian delegation in a gorgeous palace which is usually used as a restaurant and a concert hall. The venue is very beautiful situated just in the middle of a mysterious park.
When we entered we were offered to fill in a quiz to win a prize from Bojana Stamenov. The interior was amazing; it looked as real 19 century palace. There was a good choice of free drinks – water, juices, proseco, wines, etc.

The party started on time – 9pm, and Bojana gave a 30 min concert. A band of a guitarist, drum person and a piano man helped her on the stage. She was very open to public, many wanted to make a picture and she never refused to do so.

We met several delegations at the party but they didn’t give a performance. These we – Moldova, Macedonia and Albania. We also had a special guest, winner of the 2007 Eurovision – Maria Sherifovic. She sang for Serbia fans for more than 40 min. Daniel Kajmakoski (Macedonia) stayed practically till the end of the party and enjoyed himself a lot. The event continued with a wind band performing national Serbian songs and people dancing. And at the very end Bojana has chosen the winner of the night. She announced the name of the winner in the Serbian language so we couldn’t understand what was the prize.

Everybody at this event was very welcoming and attentive; we loved the place a lot.
Thank you a lot for the invitation!

Bojana was very confident on the stage as usual. There was not a very big difference from the 1st rehearsal; the only thing changed is her hair style. And it definetely looks much better.
I also think that the dancer's performance was changed a bit, it became more energetic.
In terms of her vocals I have no doubts and critics to add. She’s true professional.

Bojana from Serbia has just had her new rehearsal and she's once again proving she's an absolute powerhouse with her vocals.

Not much has changed from the actual performance, since the first rehearsal. The backings still come onto the stage in long white robes and masks, albeit wearing different coloured flags now. These were previously white.

The lightning, and overall colours have stayed the same, as has Bojana's silver grey dress. Her hair is looking better than it did on the first rehearsal so it clearly was just a bad hair day.

You're being very very consistent Serbia!

What a nice evening we spent with Samira at Eurowies’n Night today at Belvedere Palace. The Belvedere is a historic building complex in Vienna, consisting of two Baroque palaces, the Orangery, and the Palace Stables. The buildings are set in a Baroque park landscape and it houses the Belvedere museum now.

How did we get to know about it? We received invitations from our press bags stating that we need to be dressed up “beautiful, colourful, traditional”. Unfortunately we were not aware of this beforehand to bring at least some traditional accessories with ourselves from our countries. We thought that everyone will follow our thoughts so there will be no one wearing national costumes. But we were surprised, people took a lot of care and attention about this night. Most of the invited were dressed up “properly”.

By the way, at the entrance we were given two vouchers for free drinks each and a flute of proseco. We realized that they were giving a lot of drinks for free until they finish with them. After that we could use our vouchers for soft drinks and spirits.

It all started with the speech of the organizers of the event and the management of the Belvedere complex. The views of the area are amazingly beautiful. After a while, we met Bojana (Serbia), she was very open to public, taking picture and explaining the meaning of her traditional dress. The dress is a fusion of the southern and northern part of Serbia, but the shoes she’s wearing are very traditional in each part of the country.

From EuroParty, May 14

All of a sudden girls and boys started serving food to everyone. They served traditional food from each country (40 different dishes – starters, mains and deserts). We had Salmon cake from Norway, Prawns with egg from Denmark, Melon yoghurt salad from Cyprus, Chocolate kiss from Slovenia, Banana cake from Australia and many many many more! I don’t have that much time to describe the variety of foods that was offered.

At the same time music started. Traditional Austrian music. No, wait! It’s the Eurovision songs of this year sang the Austrian way with an ascent. Powerkryner was very energetic, very enthusiastic and full of life. The dancers – 6 girls are just awesome, they could dance and entertain public till morning I think. We found out that this band won an award in traditional Austrian contest as the best traditional band in Vienna last year.

Later on we met with some other participants from Moldova (Eduard Romanyta) and from Romania (Voltaj). They all were wearing their national costumes, and we received a gift from Eduard (a CD with Eurovision song + remix and 6 other songs).

From EuroParty, May 14

I think we are very lucky to visit such an event. We spent the time the best way ever with even some practical use – we got to know and taste a lot of traditional dishes. And you have to! Here’s the menu of today’s evening!

From EuroParty, May 14

Thank you very much wienerwiesnfest.at for this event!

This year the host city of Vienna is providing literally hundreds of options for daily excursions to the various sights around Vienna

Last night Daniel and I were very fortunate to take one of the relaxed evening trips along the Danube river in the company of the delegations from Lithuania, Serbia, Estonia and various assembled press. All courtesy of www.ddsg-blue-danube.at

At around 7pm we all gathered on the boat with waiter service, plenty of food and some great company, and some live music from a saxophone player, mixed in with some background music, sadly not all Eurovision....

The whole trip lasted about 3 hours and at no point did the food or drink run out....always a huge plus.....

It was totally amazing to see the Danube in full for most of the journey, including going though the Danube Canal lock twice.....

Pictures and Video clip below;

Highly recommended for any visitor to Vienna, if you are here for Eurovision or not!

Bojana Stamenov from Serbia gets to kickstart our second day. And boom did she kick things off.

I'm still not entirely convinced about the song itself if I'm being honest. Yes, Bojana has a great voice and she hits her notes perfectly, but I'm not convinced about the two extremes being combined together in one song.

As for the styling: Bojana is wearing a silver and white long dress. I'm a little disappointed with the choice in fact. Who knew Bojana was supporting a healthy dose of curly hair, and in a way that's not a bad thing, but at the moment it looks a little like she's just tumbled out of bed. (sorry Bojana). I'm still hoping her hair stylist does something a little different to her hair.

I really think the strongest selling point for Bojana is how they make the presentation come across live. She's very likeable, and there's plenty of close ups. So Grab the moment Bojana! The first part of the song is very static, with the white flags, white long coats and masks of the backing vocals. But when the beat kicks in, and they take off their coats, the song really comes to life.

So vocally, top notch, but I'm hoping to see a little more fun from Bojana herself on the stage.

Serbia, Sept Points!

Wow, that is an impressive start from Serbia! She's dressed up in long off white glittery dress with a cape on top same design. She now has curly hair which I'm not sure of...

her dancers are wearing long white attire and white masks, hiding their face. They carry flags waving them all around the stage. All of a sudden when chorus begins the dancers kick of their dresses and appear in absolutely different style. Bright dresses and casual outfits. I wouldn't expect that!

Her singing is very good, I cannot comment on it. The whole press center was moving and singing together with Bojana. I totally support her performance today.