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Comment: The Uncrowned Queen of Serbia

16 05 2007  

Ex-Yugoslav block and flash of Lesbian chic key factors in securing Eurovision glory for Serb artist.


By Tim Judah in Belgrade and Podgorica

When Marija Serifovic returned to Serbia after her victory at the Eurovision Song Contest she was greeted by thousands of adoring fans as she appeared on the balcony of Belgrade’s town hall. It was a fitting location as Serifovic is now the uncrowned Queen of Serbia and the town hall is the country’s former royal palace.

It is not surprising that Serifovic should be so popular. After all, for many in Europe, the Serbian name has for a very long time been associated with words like “Srebrenica”. Thus, if “Serifovic”, not to mention Serbia’s now world beating tennis players, means that that era is passing, then Serbs have good reason to feel happy.

What was the secret of Serifovic’s success? A careful analysis of how to win at Eurovision reveals that several ingredients are necessary.

The first and most obvious of these is the need for a block vote. The main ones are the ex-Yugoslav block, the ex-Soviet block and the Scandinavians.

There are also some sub-blocks. These include the Orthodox countries and then there is the two member Iberian block and the Hellenic block of Greece and Cyprus.

This year, true to form, the ex-Yugoslav block acted in absolute perfect harmony, in stark contrast to the way these countries, then republics, acted when they lived together in one state. Notwithstanding the bloody history of the 1990s, every single former Yugoslav republic delivered a full 12 points to Serbia.

Without a block, as Britain and France have found to their cost in recent years, victory is almost impossible, now that all of Europe is included, as was not the case in earlier Cold War decades.

The second ingredient is a diaspora vote. In years past, this has delivered, say, Turkish votes for Turkey from Germany or Jewish votes around the continent for Israel.

Thanks to the large and motivated ex-Yugoslav diaspora, the current telephone voting system now guarantees large numbers of votes for any ex-Yugoslav song and this year was no exception, as full points for Serifovic from Switzerland and Austria showed.

This has led to calls of a reform of the voting system. In the wake of Britain coming 23^rd out of 24 countries in this year’s final, Tim Moore, who has written a book on the contest, suggested, in a BBC interview, a return, “to a jury system and not to have telephone voting because it's not a poll on the songs any more - it's very political, and more like a poll on how many aunties you happen to have in Montenegro”.

The third ingredient for success is the song. A block vote and a diaspora alone are simply not enough. Serifovic’s ballad was powerful and catchy.

But, even those three ingredients are not enough. Last year, Hari Mata Hari from Bosnia only managed to come third despite having all of these elements and despite the fact that Serbia and Montenegro, then one country, did not participate, thus automatically shifting large numbers of ex-Yugoslav votes to Bosnia by default.

What is needed to clinch victory is one other element, which can secure votes from across Europe. This was shown very clearly last year when Lordi, the Finnish group, won by appealing to Heavy Metal fans, (and maybe Satanists,) from Lisbon to Vladivostok.

This year Serifovic’s clinch factor appears obvious. Her particular styling, which appeared to borrow from Lesbian-chic iconography - her masculine dress and hair-style, and being surrounded by super-feminine backing singers, is certain to have guaranteed Gay and Lesbian votes across Europe.

This is being little discussed in any serious way in usually homophobic Serbia, which is simply grateful for success, however it came.

Serifovic herself has repeatedly declined to discuss her private life and her sexuality.

In the meantime, a Balkan Eurovision War has now broken out on the internet, with Albanians claiming that Serifovic’s song was plagiarised from an Albanian singer called Soni Malaj. In 2004, there were also accusations that the entry from Serbia and Montenegro was plagiarised, although then from an Azeri song.

While there are some similarities between the Serifovic song and that of Soni Malaj, which is normal for a region which shares musical tastes, the charge seems far-fetched. Nevertheless, it has, unsurprisingly, been picked up gratefully by the Albanian media in Kosovo, whose Albanian population, do not, for obvious reasons, fit into the ex-Yugoslav block voting pattern.

Now, vicious attacks are being traded by Serbs and Albanians over the song on YouTube, while the more interesting angle to the Serifovic’s victory seems to have been largely, but not entirely ignored.

Another relevant factor which has been noted in the Balkans but not discussed in any scientific fashion, because there is no way to do that, is the award of 12 points to Serifovic from Finland, which seems out of character. Watching the show in Podgorica, Montenegro’s capital, commentator Igor Milosevic, joked “the biggest loser is Ahtisaari since the Finns are helping Serbia win while he is helping it lose”.

He was referring to former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, the author of the current UN plan to give Kosovo, technically part of Serbia, its independence.

Meanwhile, Serbia will soon have to begin planning the 2008 contest. If, by that stage Kosovo is indeed independent, some here have already begun speculating on the impact of votes coming from Pristina - “Hello, Belgrade, congratulations on a great show! Here are the results of the Kosovar vote…..”

Whether Kosovo votes next year or not remains to be seen but one thing is certain. For the foreseeable future, Kosovo will not vote as part of the ex-Yugoslav block but will create its own new sub-block with Albania. As it is Kosovo Albanian bands have, ever since the Kosovo war in 1999, had to trek down to Tirana to try and represent Albania. However, much to their disgust, they have always found that, when push came to shove, Albanian Albanians have always preferred a homegrown group. “Yet another reason why we need independence,” grumble disconsolate Kosovars.

Tim Judah, a leading Balkan commentator, is the author of The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia, and Kosovo: War and Revenge. Balkan Insight is BIRN's online publication.