SERBIA

The Serbian entry was released on March 11th in the form of the official video. Last month it was announced that Tijana Bogićević had been internally selected and that her song would be unveiled at a later date. Her song is called “In too deep”.

The video centres on dancing and movement – in the air, on the floor and even underwater. Tijana is joined by a number of dancers whose parts are shown in slow motion. Most of this centres on one male and female pairing who dance a lot ‘together’ although mainly with and against each other.. On all parts of the action there are lots of flowing scarves flashes of colour or strings of beads, which again all look better underwater. Tijana herself is found either singing into the camera lens or seated on a ring suspended from the ceiling, although not too high.

The song starts off with minimal backing which beefs up during the chorus. The tune of the verse is very much like the chorus of “About you now” by the Sugababes, whilst the chorus is more like “Running” by Naughty Boy. Not only do the two parts feel different, Tijana vocally sounds different. The change of atmosphere between the two carts is really jarring, especially coming down from the chorus into the verse again. It leaves you feeling quite cold and disrupts the flow of the song somewhat. The ending is not so sudden at is ends on the final line of the chorus so feels expected.

I feel quite let down by this entry. The structure of this song just doesn’t work for me. Tunes of the verses seems too nice whilst the chorus is too busy and frantic. The instrumental around the 2 in mark is very nice and fits in well and sounds really great sandwiched between the choruses. I am slightly intrigued so wee how this is staged as I feel that if she moves about too much she will sound too breathy but she will look very odd if stood still.

The other issue is that the second semi is full of very varied songs and, although quite radio friendly and modern, doesn’t really have the instant feel and catchiness of some of the other songs that will come before and after it. However Serbia is lucky to have quite a few neighbours in the same semi so will possibly get more votes than it might deserve. Either way, I personally would not be to bothered if it doesn’t qualify.

ARTIST - Tijana Bogićević

SONG - In too deep

MUSIC - Borislav Milanov, Joacim Bo Persson, Johan Alkenas, Lisa Ann-Mari Linder

LYRICS - Borislav Milanov, Joacim Bo Persson, Johan Alkenas, Lisa Ann-Mari Linder