In a few minutes the Serbian preselection for the 2008 Eurovision song Contest kicks off in the Sava Centar in Belgrade. Twenty acts will attempt to succeed last year's winner Marija Serifovic and half of them will proceed in the final tomorrow.
Where to watch
You can watch the showvia RTS1, RTS Sat, webcast is available here . The webcast seems to be down from time to time as server has reached its maximum capacity.
If esctoday.com crashes due to server capacity, you can visit the eurovision.tv livelog here until the site comes back.
Live coverage by Zlatko Iker
Beovizija kicks off with two host couples singing "Beograde", a song dedicated to this year's Eurovision Song Contest host city. This is the final test for the two couples as one of them will have the honour to be the green room hosts for the following Eurovision Song Contest. The hosts announced the jury for tonight's show: Djuro Maricic, Katarina Gojkovic, Aleksandar Perovic.
The first four songs are about to be performed. First on the stage are…
Cveta Majtanovic and studio Alektik- Iznad Nas
Cveta and four female members of studio Alektik are all dressed in purple which is also the dominant colour of the stage. Cveta, the first Serbian Idol winner, gives a decent vocal performance of this uptempo pop song.
Drum n' zez-Dunav (The Danube)
Dunav je moje more or The Danube is my sea is the theme for this funny act. All six members are dressed in a sort of a beach wear and they act as they are on one. Bright green and orange in this daring stylistic approach and a happy performance, with a lot of jumping around.The audience awards them with a decent applause.
Negativ- S tobom bih ostala
The winners of the 2nd Beovizija, Negative are on stage now. The song is much calmer than we expected. Ivana, the lead singer is standing on the standing and tries to focus on the singing while the male members are doing a typical rock band things on the stage.
Mogul – Mozda bas
And we're off to Spain! Even though neither the music not the lyrics would suggest so.The lead singer performs in typical red flamenco attire and hairdo in what looks like an unispired ensemble.
One of the female hosts in now performing Ana Stanic's hit "Moj Grad" wearing a sexy silver dress. Four male dancers are joining her on stage and we hear the loudest appaluse of the evening.
Last minutes changes in voting., The number is 4344 + the running order number of the song.
Nenad Ceranic – Slepa ulica (Oneway street)
A static performance of this ballad. Nenad is standing in front of the mic while a female dancer in a long red dress is dancing around him. The atmosphere fits the sad lyrics of the song, but the stage looks very messy. Vocals a bit shaky towards the end still the audience welcomes the newcomer with a kind applause.
Betty Boop – Kvar
A teenage girlie rock band, Betty Boop, are on stage giving a decent performance of this lively number. The biggest applause so far!
Sloba Bajic – Precica do dna
Another ballad performed by a male singer. Sloba is joined on the stage by two female dancers that jumping around him. The choreography doesn't suit the song. A trumpet solo gets immediate applause from the audience as the song slowly finishes.
Aleksa and Ana – Beli Jablane
And it seems like we heard our first definite finalist. An interesting performance of this uptempo pop duet is rewarded by the biggest applause so far. Ana and Aleksa are joined on the stange by two male and two female dancers. Both choreography and vocals were decent butperhaps Aleksa danced a bit too much.
Another interval act with a female host singing another song dedicated to Belgrade….
Beauty Queens- Zavet
One by one memebrs of Beuty Queens take the central part of the stage. A typical balkan power balad performed almost flawlessly. All of the ladies are dressed in simple white dresses with red accessories. The ethnic part added to the song gets a terrific reaction by the crowd. A definite qualifier and a hot favourite.
Andrej Ilic – Tijana
Another male ballad, vocally wasn't as strong as the two previously performed)
Lejla Hot – Da si tu
A rising star, young Lejla Hot gives a nice performance of this pop ballad. Dressed in black she's focused on the vocals with no apparent choreography. Warmly welcomed by the audience
Ivana Cosic – Kao da Hodam
Yet another ballad. Ivana wearing a blck gown is joined by three female dancers who look pretty much like Serebro, last year's Russian trio. Three male dancers appear suddenly to complete the ensemble.
And now it's time for a male host to show his love for Belgrade singing, as you may have guessed, another song dedicated to the host city. After this interval act we will hear the final four songs which will wrap up the Beovizija semifinal show.
Tamara Nikezic – Nisi Prvi
Tamara performs her ballad alone on the stage. Vocally on target, a very elegant and modest presence on stage but still it would take a much stronger song to succeed Molitva, a mild applause from the audience.
Dejan Vozlic – Ako me cujes
Dejan Vozlic performs third male ballad of this evening. Vocally decent and the audeince awards it as such.
Zana – U zivot kockam se
Duet Zana, one of the most famous bands in Serbia are next on stage. Jelena, the female vocalist, is on stage with one male dancer while Zika is on the back playing the piano. Probably the most confident and dramatic performance so far when vocals are concerned. Staging and styling fit the athosphere of the song perfectly. Warm applause again.
Marko Vulinovic – Sada ili Nikada
And yet another ballad follows in the floodgates opened by Molitva's success. Once a member of a boyband, Marko performs the best male ballad of the evening. This both looked and sounded very nice! A confident finish and one of the biggest rounds of applause of the evening.
After another Belgrade interval act performed by all four hosts we are bout to listen the final four songs of the evening
Zoe Kida u Zemlji Gruva – Cudesni Svetovi
If you liked Bebi Dol, the Yugoslav 1990 representative, you will adore this entry as well. It's a reggae groovie tune performed by a band and a female soloist, Zoe, who's wearing a crazier outfit than Bebi Dol in Rome. Enthusiastic applause as expected.
Ognjen and Prijatelji – Cucemo, Cucete
This song is what you need to listen to carefully if you want to learn how to make Future Simple in Serbian. The jazzy intrumental part of the song is quite nice however the lyrics are quite strange…Not that strange is a stranger to this year's contest.
Denis i Obule – Bezimena
Pa – ra – pa – pa and La – la – la, if that is your thing you would like this tune…. Three cheer leaders dancing behind the bulky singers so most of the choreography is lost at least on camera. The song brings Save your kisses for me to mind slightly.
Jelena Tomasevic – Oro
Impossible to say whether Jelena received louder applause before or after the song! This indeed had a winner written all over it even though Jelena was slightly off key during most of the song. Still, it's everything you would expect from a Balkan ballad by Joksimovic. Jelena looks regal in her bordeaux, velvet gown and sheis accompanied on stage by fake instruments.
There was a mistake with Cveta and Alektik'svoting numberand that's why they performed again. Recap of the songs and the lines are open for 10 minutes.
Stefan Filipovic, this year's representative of Montenegro will now perform his entry Zauvjek volim te. Beautiful and sexy Rebeka of Slovenia is next on stage performing her entry Heavy Weather! Fantastically received bu the Belgrade audience! Next on stage are the Croatian representatives Kraljevi Ulice and 75 cents with their song Romanca. Polish representative Isis Gee follows with For life. And now it is Bosnian Laka with Pokusaj. And finally some good use of the huge stage… they're all over the place and the crowd just loves their performance. And the show ends with FYR Macedonia's Tamara, Vrcak and Adrian Gaxha with Vo ime na ljubovta.
After a touching tribute to the late FYR Macedonian singer Tose Proeski it is time for the results.
To the Beovizija final go, in the final running order:
6. Betty Boop
9. Beauty Queens
2. Drum and Zez
16. Marko Vulinovic
8. Aleksa and Ana
1. Studio Alektik and Cveta Majtanovic
20. Jelena Tomasevic
18. Ognjen and prijatelji
17. Zoe Kida u zemlji gruva and
11. Lejla Hot
.
