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We caught up with Teodora
Bojović. She was one of the favourites on Evropesma – Evropjesma, but
finished 6th in the end. ESCG: You used to be a very good journalist and now you're very successful singer. What made you change your mind? Teodora: I always wanted to be a singer. And I grabbed my first chance to do something I'm best at. ESCG: How come you made a song with a hard rock band 'Nightshift'? Teodora: We were seeing a lot of each other in the studio while they were recording their album last year. I always liked their music, and the way they do it. And after my song was accepted for Evropesma, i asked them if they were willing to record the song with me. Of course, our styles are quite different, and we had to adapt music styles one to another, but I think we met each other half way, and that it turned out OK. ESCG: Are you going to continue working with Nightshift in the future. Can we expect more songs like this? Teodora: Yes, we are going to work together. But more in a composing way. They already wrote a song for me, and I'm writing a couple of songs for them. As for singing together, we have nothing planned in the near future, as our styles are quite different. Of course, in the future, I might record another song or two with them, for some special occasions. ESCG: This song sounds great and it looks like it was meant to be sang in English, are there any such plans for recording? Teodora: Thanks. We do plan to record this in English. The song really does sound like it was meant to be sung in English, and we will do it very soon. ESCG: Have you been thinking of launching a career outside Serbia? Teodora: I have been thinking, of course, but it's still too early. On the other hand, Nightshift have been in talks with several foreign record companies, and I think they will launch their new material in English soon. And 'Daj mi snage' in English can be a good start. ESCG: Thank you, and we wish you all the best. |
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Ivana talked to Boris
Režak, who was very kind and open to interviews. Boris has released an album
for City records three months ago, and had a big success. He had success on
several festivals in Belarus and Ukraine, and participated on several
Bosnian finals as well. He was second this year in Beovizija and therefore
got into Evropesma. The song he performed got an award for the best
arrangement. ESCG: You were second on Beovizija. Are you satisfied with the result and the organization of the festival? Boris: I am very satisfied with the result. Organization was very good. The whole team did their best, and have done a really god job. There were some minor things, but it was great overall. The stage was great, and it looked better than on any other festival I ever participated. ESCG: Considering the success on this festival and of your recent album, what do you plan to do next? Boris: At the moment I'm promoting my album. I have moved to Belgrade from Banja Luka a month and a half ago. I'm still trying to get used to Belgrade, and I'm still always somewhere beteween Belgrade and Banja Luka. ESCG: Can you support yourself only with music? Boris: It is really difficult, especially when you're starting a career. I don't usually sing in clubs. I would like to create my own program show, and then perform in a club with the crowd that would come to see that show, and not to come just because they usually go to that club. ESCG: Can we expect to see you in Evropesma – Evropjesma or Bosnian final next year? Boris: I'm not interested to be in the final for any country at the moment. Though I would like to be on festivals like Beovizija, so you can expect me here again next year. We have to thank Boris once again for this interview. |
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In the crowd in the
backstage, we saw Negre. The promising trio from Montenegro, who came third
on Evropesma – Evropjesma, was willing to answer some of our questions: ESCG: Are you satisfied with your result on the festival? Negre: We are very happy. This is more than we expected. The best thing for us is that we were ahead of some big names that were here. ESCG: What about the festival itself, are you satisfied with organization? Negre: No, we're not. We came from Montenegro at six o'clock, and had the recording straight away. After that we had to wait a lot for the reharsal, as we were last. But it's OK, we did a good job. ESCG: What are your plans for the future? Negre: We are very happy with all this. It's our first performance together, and now we'll try to find a record deal, and make a few hits as well. |
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Johnny Logan was the
special guest at Evropesma – Evropjesma this year. He performed in the
interval act during the voting. He was present at the press conference
before the festival. ESCG: You wrote a song for a Dutch national final, are you coming back to ESC scene? Johnny: I actually wrote that song a couple of years ago, and when I gave it to the singers, I didn't know it would be on the dutch final. Unfortunately it didn't go through to the final, and it should have. ESCG: Ireland didn't have much success recently. Will you write a song for Ireland? Johnny: No. Ireland has a different type of selecting. They choose the singer first and then they give him or her the song. It should be done the other way around. It is the song contest, and you can't have success if you just choose the singer. Until they change the style of selecting, there is nothing for me to do there. We met up with Johnny after EP again, and continued our conversation. ESCG: Did you hear the songs, and what do you think about them? Johnny: Unfortunately I haven't. I was in the changing room preparing for my performance. But I hope I will get to hear them as soon as possible. ESCG: It's your first time in Belgrade. How do you like it here? Johnny: I didn't have the chance to walk on the streets, but what I saw from the car, I have to say that I really like it. You've been through a lot of things, and Belgrade looks like a modern European city. It's up to young people of Belgrade to make it beautiful once again. I hope they will let me to see it more closely tomorrow. I've been to a couple of restaurants. They're making me eat so much. I really like Serbian food. ESCG: Have you any plans of coming back here? Johnny: I hope I will come back. But it's up to organizers. If they invite me again, I will come for sure. I'm not getting younger. I'll be 50 this year. But when I sing, I feel like I'm 20 or 30 years younger. |
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Just before the reading
of the results of Beovizija, we talked to Ivana Pavlović, singer of
Negative. ESCG: Congratulations on a fantastic performance. How come a rock band such as Negative is on a festival like this? Ivana: Thank you. We believe that this isn't just a pop festival, that there should be all types of music represented on it. It will be the best festival if you have the best people from all types of music on it, and not just pop or ethno-pop. ESCG: What are your expectations from this festival? Ivana: We have no expectations. We wanted to be different, and we accomplished that. We're sastisfied with our performance and we're also having a lot of fun, and that is the main thing. ESCG: What about the jury? Do you think it will be objective? Ivana: I'm sure it will. I was in the jury last year, and no one even tried to influence my opinion at all. ESCG: Have you any plans of launching a career outside of Serbia? Ivana: We have plans. But it's not that easy. We're trying to make contacts with several record companies abroad, and I'm always walking with english lyrics in my pockets... so we are ready. I think, I hope it's just a matter of time. ESCG: Thank you, and good luck Some 20 minutes later Negative won Beovizija with the huge margin. They got maximum ten points from the first six members of the jury and ended up with 79 out of possible 90 points. They also got the award for the best interpretation. |
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After Beovizija, when
almost everyone had gone, I talked to Ceca Slavković, who is also one of my
favourite singers in Serbia & Montenegro. I have to thank her once again for
sparing so much time on the interview, and for being so kind. ESCG: Your song didn't go that well tonight. But, when can we expect your new songs? Ceca: I'm not expecting them. At the moment I'm working more as a producer and a song writer. Currently I'm working on Maja Nikolic's new album, and I might record an album after that. She'll get married in two months time, and I will be her maid of honour at the wedding. After her album is out and we send her to USA for good, then I'll consider writing something for myself. Anyway, there are festivals, so I might be on some. ESCG: So Maja is going to USA for good? Ceca: Oh, we won't get rid of her that easily (laughing). Knowing her, she'll come back again sooner or later. ESCG: Can we hear you live somewhere these days? Ceca: Depending what you would like to hear. You know, I have to support myself, and I have to sing what people want to hear, wheather I like it or not. Two weeks ago I sang in a club in Berane (in Montenegro), and I mostly sang folk music. Close to the end of the show, I was fed up with everything. I told my band to play 'Georgia On My Mind'. I knew that I was risking that glasses might be flying in my direction, what did happen before to some other singers, but I couldn't take it any more. The strange thing happened. The people just jumped on the tables and started dancing. So I sang another jazz song 'Shadows Of Your Smile', but it had to stop there. So if you'd like to hear me singing jazz, I'd have to disappoint you. There are just not enough places to sing jazz in. And I can't sing in little clubs where I'd get 15 euros for the evening. ESCG:Apart from the project for Maja Nikolic, is there anything else you're working on right now? Ceca: There is. Marko Kon, Aleksandar Kobac and myself are working in the studio all the time. We have several famous names that we work for, and a couple of very promising singers as well. But you'll hear about it soon. ESCG: Who were your favourites on this festival? Ceca: I'm so glad Negative won. Finally things are changing here. When someone with a good song and such a great voice comes, it's normal that it is the winner. It didn't used to be. Ivana is a symbol for a powerful female voice in Serbia. I also liked Boris Režak very much. He was on the 'Slavic festival' in Belarus a couple of years ago, where he came 3rd. He sang Zdravko Colić's song 'Emili' and the whole crowd was in standing ovations, even though they didn't understand the lyrics. I came to him afterwards and told him 'Bori se, Borise! (Fight, Boris!), you're very good'. I also liked Leontina's song. And all of the three songs are in the final, so I didn't make a mistake. I have to say that Jelena Karleuša was also good. Conisdering her vocal capabilities, she did very well, and I'm very sorry she didn't do better. She has the best production. ESCG: You sang a duet with Maja here. Can we expect more duets? Ceca: Yes, Maja is my best friend and we were planning that for a long time. As I don't have any plans for the moments, there are no plans for duets as well. ESCG: You've been on a lot of festivals in Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. What's next? Ceca: I love those festivals. I even got a chair in 'Voice of Asia' in Kazakhstan. I'm trying to take some of our best singers there, because we always had success there. And for Western Europe, we have a lot of good musicians. I think if we invested a little in Madame Piano we could sell her music there big time. She is very talented, and she does everything herself. ESCG: Can you see yourslef working with her? Ceca: I would like that, and that would be the my biggest challenge. She's really great. But, she usually does everything herself. As her fan I had a lot more questions for her that would be of no interest for other people, and so I left it out. |
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In the end, Željko
Joksimović won the Evropesma – Evropjesma festival by a huge margin, and
will represent Serbia & Montenegro in Istanbul. We talked to him after the
press conference that took place in 'Sava Centar' on Monday. At the
conference he said that the whole festival was a huge success. He also
thanked the organizers for all the great job they have done, Leontina for
beautiful lyrics and the support, Verica Rakocevic (the most famous serbian
fashion designer) for the outfits... Verica has also created the whole stage
performance. ESCG: Congratulations on your victory. You won by a very big margin. Did you expect that? Željko: No, no I didn't. There were a lot of good songs there, and I'm very happy it turned out that way. ESCG: What was your other favourite song? Željko: Definitely the song by Peti element. The guys really sing great. ESCG: You said that there will be some changes in the song. What is going to be changed? Željko: We still haven't started thinking about it officially. I will try to make it perfect with the help from the big big crew from RTS. We have to adapt the stage perfomance as well. There were six of us on the stage, plus three backing vocals. We need to cut that down to six, but we'll manage. We will change the outfits as well. The theme will stay the same, but they will be richer and we'll have shiny necklaces and everything. It will look even better. Verica will be working on that as well. She wanted to go, but I'm not letting her (laughing). ESCG: It was said on Saturday that you'll sing in Serbian in Istanbul. Has anything changed? Željko: Well, we still haven't made a final decision. There will be an English, French, Spanish and maybe some other version of the song. As for Istanbul, there are lot of ideas. I wrote a few lines in English and tried singing them, and it sounded really nice. I don't know. Maybe I'll sing it in English and just leave 'lane moje'... Anyway there is a poll on RTS Evropesma site, so people can vote. I actually read what people are saying there, and I'm listening to everything that people say. ESCG: Have you made any plans for promotion of the song? Željko: We have Tuesday as a day off. And on Wednesday, the whole team is starting a campaign, which will include performing wherever we can. We have a couple of festivals in plan, but I won't talk about it before we know for sure. ESCG: Have you heard any of the songs that were chosen by other countries? Željko: I heard some of the songs. I already know a lot of performers. I met them at some festivals in Russia and Belarus where I was performing (and getting rewards). So I think we could even win... fingers crossed. ESCG: Do you have your favourite among them? Željko: Belarus is my favourite so far. Aliaksandra is my good friend. But really, I can't really talk about it. We're like a big national team now, and we have to think about our strategy. ESCG: We wish you the best of luck in Istanbul. Željko has promissed us that he'll keep us informed about the progress the team has made. So be sure to come here again to find the latest news on how Serbia & Montenegro are preparing their song for Europe. |
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These interviews have been conducted originally for eurobosnia.com, who has also help us a lot in starting this website. We would like to thank the organizers of Beovizija and Evropesma – Evropjesma 2004 for allowing us to report from this festival. Most of all we thank ms. Svetlana Paroški for accreditation and the advices and support she gave us all the time, and Mr. Dragan Ilic, who was always willing to talk about everything and share his thoughts. |
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First website from Serbia and Montenegro about Eurovision Song Contest. All the exclusive material (photos, reports and interviews) cannot be put on another webiste without permission from ESCG. Write to us at escg2004@yahoo.com
