Skip to main content

ESC 1993 SARAJEVO CALLING BECOMES A FILM

One of the most touching moments in the Eurovision song contest history happened back in 1993 when Bosnia & Herzegovina debuted and during the voting we heard for the first time "Good evening Sarajevo, can we have your points please?" by Fionnuala Sweeney in Millstreet. The public in the Green Glens Arena erupted in a spontaneus heartfelt applause when the phone connection was made, with some sound problems to war torn Sarajevo. 
Bosnia & Herzegovina's way to Millstreet wasn't a dance on roses. Fazla and his team had to escape from Bosnia on foot during the night hoping not to be shot dead by the Serbs. Sounds quite Hollywoodian as we think about it now but it was the reality back then. Their conductor was ment to floow them later but wasn't able to leave Sarajevo in time to join them due to heavy war, and house conductor Noel Kelehan stepped in.

“An army guide put me into a group with the guitarist and two girls – our back-up singers. Then he told us to run up to the mountains and not get shot. The Serbs were shooting all night long, but it was nothing different to any other time really,” he says. “We were being shot at in the town too!”

Now the whole story from the national final made with zero budget to the qualifying round in Slovenia all the way to the risky travel to the stage in Millstreet becomes a film by Jonathan Ellen. It's a good reminded how things can change and that not so long ago - some 20 years! - Europe was in war and terrible things happened. And not very far from Sarajevo we have the next host country, also torn apart by a war as we speak.... 



No, I cannot feel the stars down here from the sky
I can't find the way to rise us up the road
I can only write and send a song to you
To know I'm still alive, oh my love

When the cold and darkness sneak into my bones tonight
I will not allow the fear to push me to the lights
I still have the power to fight them all alone
If you were with me, it's easier would be

The whole world's pain in Bosnia tonight
I stay here to challenge and to fight
And I'm not afraid to stumble and fall
I'll never stop to sing, they cannot take my soul

When the cold and darkness sneak into my bones tonight
I will not allow the fear to push me to the lights
Who will then be guarding, standing all the pain
So the evil one never comes again?

The whole world's pain in Bosnia tonight
I stay here to challenge and to fight
And I'm not afraid to stumble and fall
I'll never stop to sing, they cannot take my soul

The whole world's pain in Bosnia tonight
I stay here to challenge and to fight
And I'm not afraid to stumble and fall
I'll never stop to sing, they cannot take my soul

(One of the sources for this storyElvir Pelešević)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

ESC 2016 WISH LIST: MARGARET FOR POLAND

Małgorzata Jamroży aka Margaret has also been tipped for Eurovision and apparently she did turn it down but she'd be perfect. She's got a look and persona you can't unnotice nor forget, she's got hit songs, she has been voted or nominated for everything from Trendy artist to the Hope of the Year, Fashion Icon and Glamour Woman of the year besides the usual best video, song, album, debut..... Oh she's also a fashion designer! She's very clever with social medias and would surely use it to her advantage if selected for Stockholm 2016. Her debut album is titled Add the blonde , do we need to say more? Except it includes mostly Swedish written pop tunes like Tell me how are ya , Wasted , Start a fire and Heartbeat . And of course her debut single and internationally noticed Thank you very much that you can enjoy below with all its anti-textil feel. I think she's Eurovision perfection, she's cheeky and fun, can we have her?

SONGS OF THE YEAR 2015: #5 KRISTA SIEGFRIDS - ON & OFF

Krista Siegfrids is delivering nice pop tunes one after another and this one is particularly catchy and soon you will be singing along..... Hopefully her Melodifestivalen entry will be equally good!

MALTA: THE QUEEN OF L-GHANJA TAL-POPLU - CORAZÓN MIZZI!

If The Travellers have proven recently one can do great singing in Maltese there's also someone else doing great stuff: Corazón Mizzi. While in Malta I was looking for some Maltese CDs only to find out they pretty much don't exist, and the most helpful staff in legendary D'Amato - probably the world's oldest record store today - suggested me Corazón's Hawn jien (2014 album). Having nothing else really to bring home I decided to go or it without even realizing it is the Corazón from Maltese Eurovision selections. And what a find it was! Thank you D'Amato! But let's start from the obvious: Eurovision. Corazón has been offering us songs in the Maltese Eurovision selection since 2009, actually making her best result this year with Falling glass , one of my favorites btw. I also liked last year's Secretly but that failed even the final. But Corazón's true calling is singer-songwriter in Maltese as this excellent album clearly shows. We have al

ESC 2016 BELARUS: NAKED WITH WOLVES?

Today's funniest Eurovision related story comes from Belarus. Some sources claim Ivan wants to perform on stage naked and with live wolf or wolves. It surely would be a first on Eurovision stage! We have seen some forgotten underwear over the years, and some cardbox animals though..... Is it time to take things a bit further?  No, according the rules live animals are not allowed, and Eurovision being a family show nudity won't do either. (It seems to be ok to be half naked if you are a dancer though..... )

EUROVISION 2024.... COMING UP!

 

GREECE: HELENA PAPARIZOU HITS AGAIN WITH HAIDE

Eurovision song contest 2005 winner Helena Paparizou has been enjoying Top-5 hits every year since 2003 with the exception of 2010 and 2014, this latest one being already her 27th! And Haide is charting also in Bulgaria and Finland, of all places. The catchiness of her hits has changed less over the years than her face....  Here's the English version , below the Greek version. 

EUROVISION TWEETS REVEAL DETAILS....

Brandwatch, one the world's leading providers of analytics of social medias has summed up the Twitter buzz during the Eurovision 2013 final on May 18, 2013. Over 1,8 million tweets have been analyzed and it's rather fascinating stuff. On top you can see the figure showing topics. Romania and Ireland got the tweeting go wild as did Greece, Belarus, Malta and Armenia. And you can see political tweets took over during the voting..... The figure above is for the emotions. Once again Romania and Greece got it going wild. A lot of love and joy was spread all over during the show while hate & anger increased during the voting. Is someone surprised? But have a look and analize yourself here . And here you can access to country by country details. Did Ukraine's giant get people's attention? or Moldova's outfit? Did Ireland have sex factor? Or Azerbaijan? And what about Belgium's dance routine?

FINLAND: CONGRATS HANNA PAKARINEN - BABY IS COMING!

No more leave me alones as Eurovision 2007 veteran Hanna Pakarinen has published in her Youtube channel a video unboxing the Finnish state's maternity box aka layette set thus announcing she's due to have a baby later this spring. Congratulations!

ESC 2016 ARMENIA: IT'S IVETA MUKUCHYAN!

Armenian tv has revealed tonight the name of their artist for the 2016 Eurovision song contest in Stockholm. It's 29-year-old Iveta Mukuchyan. Born in Yerevan she moved with her family to Germany when she was 6. At 23 she moved back to Armenia and continued her music studies. She has taken part in the Armenian Pop Idol finishing 5th in 2010 and she also did The Voice of Germany . In 2012 she was voted the Sexiest Armenian.  Armenian tv has made a call for songwriters all over the world to submit a song for her by November 13, 2015.  Let's see which direction the final choice will go, Freak or her latest release that you can hear below.... Whatever it is it will be an improvement from last year's fiasco.....