ESC History Chat – 20 years ago, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia began its breakup culminating in the eventual independence of all its former member republics, most of which have joined Eurovision as independent countries. Within Eurovision, Yugoslavia, as a Communist country that looked West while many of its neighbours looked East, provided a glimpse that we would all eventually live in harmony regardless of politics.
Starting out with Lola Novakovic’s sophisticated 1962 ballad, going through the subtly shocking 1974 progressive rock entry by the Korni group, and culminating in 1991′s possibly defiant, but undeniably distinct, Brasil. Andrew Bell & Hikaru Freeman see the humour and the poignancy of the Yugoslav story at the Eurovision Song Contest.
You can hear more from Andrew Bell on JOY 94.9‘s The Full Catastrophe (Saturdays, 10am GMT)
More from Hikaru Freeman on JOY 94.9‘s WorldWideWave (Wednesdays, 12n GMT.)
So Yugoslavia provided a glimpse that we would all eventually live in harmony regardless of politics? Probably the worst example ever!
But they sent some good songs – my favorite one being “I wanna dance” in 1987. Also, I’m one of the few people who thinks they deserved their victory.
I liked their “Fellini” comment regarding YU62! Yugoslavia is definately one of my fav ESC countries; they simply were rocking during 60′s and 70′s. I can recall only a few entries of them that I didn’t like at all (1969 and 1989- so sad that they won with probably their worst entry). An almost endless list of Yugoslavian entries that I love. Most of all “Tvoj Djecak Je Tuzan” 1971 and of course the absolute gem of 1976 “Ne Mogu Skriti Svoju Bol”; for me the best song ever in the 57 years of the ESC. Btw I consider it an “upbeat ballad” (if such thing exists) to answer the guys’ question
I don’t listen to the shows but I also loved Yugoslavia in esc all the way until the 80s opened: I really hate their 87, 88, 89, 90 and 91 entries (yug 90 being my all time last)… 92 I like but it’s not really “Yugoslavia” anymore… anyway I do love many of their old entries and have them my esc winner in 73 (ps: I have them second in 76 behind Greece)
Morgan, but it was Yugoslavia, it doesn’t matter if Croatia and Slovenia were out, the name of country was Yugoslavia and it consisted if Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina, later when Macedonia and B&H also claimed independence, we still had name Yugoslavia, which consisted of Serbia and Montenegro, until they decided to change name of a country into Serbia & Montenegro!
true it was the name “Yugoslavia” but it wasnt the same “country” participating, not really
In 1992 it was Yugoslavia which consisted of Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro. Full stop.
Of course! I don’t see any problem there: i also rank it as a yugoslavian entry… all Im saying is that I hate all the last yugoslav esc entries from 1987 on, except for 92 and we know that things had changed for Yugoslavia at the time, thus maybe explaning why the change : Slovenia and Croatia are the former yugoslav countries that I like the least in esc, while Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina are both amazing to me, and Montenegro I liked their NF, so… but that’s all speculation
@ Morgan
You can check Jugovizija (festival which decided on Yugoslavian representative for ESC) from 1992 if you want, there are plenty off singers from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia one singer from Macedonia and one from Kosovo & Metohija, so it’s clear that in 1992 Extra nena represented Yugoslavia which consisted of previous mentioned states and Montenegro!
Gosh! Please reread, that’s EXACTLY what I said… the ones that I usualy don’t like, Croatia and Slovenia were out, while the ones that I DO like were in, thus explaning why I might like 92 while I disliked 87-91, but that’s just a possible explanation
I did say that yes it represented Yugoslavia, but not the same Yugoslavia than in 87-91 when Slovenia and Croatia were also participating. Period.
I loved Jugovizija because it had many schlagers and classic ballads, there wasn’t ethnic entries from any nation in it! Because earlier in ESC all countries didn’t have ethnic elements! i wish ESC is like that now!
@ Morgan
My previous comment was made before you made your previous comment, so please sorry Morgan! I didn’t read it because I was writing!:)
I think that “Ljubim te pesmama” by Extra Nena was schlager ballad!
My aunt and father were at the same airplane with Extra Nena in 1992, when she was flying to Copenhagen ESC!
I think that Morgan doesn’t talk about georgaphy only here but about the dramatic changes of identity the crumbling Yugoslavia was going too. Since the middle 80s, Yugoslavia had sent bubbly to over the top uptempo numbers every year, but then we got that very melancholic ballad in 1992 all of a sudden. Looking back, “Ljubim te pesmama” sounds like Yugoslavia’s perfect swan song to me.
*going though*
But this was a favorite to win Jugovizija in 1992:
From Sarajevo.
Beautiful melody.
Now I missed the ‘r’. I should really stop multitasking.
it was, it feels like 86 and 92 can connect, while 87 through 91 have nothing to do with the usual yugoslav entries… then it’s just personal taste really
Yugoslavia is my favourite ESC country ever. 6 of their 27 songs have a 12/12 on my list. Many of their early entries were very sophisticated and they ruled in the male ballad section. No other country with more than 20 participations has such a high average, not even France or Portugal. The ones I absolutely love are 1962, 1963, 1965, 1967, 1971 and 1976. There are 10 more songs I really like and the only ones I really don’t like are 1969 and 1991. I think that Riva did not deserve to win in 1989 but we have had much worse winners over the years imo.
The most participants of Yugoslavia were Croats!
From Macedonia for all those years there wasn’t any representative of Yugoslavia!
From Montenegro only one – Danijel – “Dzuli”!
My favorite representative of Yugoslavia from Slovenia was Pepel in Kri, from Serbia – Bebi Dol, from B&H – Ambasadori and from Montenegro – the only one Danijel!
Have you listened to the podcast, Marko? I really find their argument that YU 1990 was defiant and 1991 desperate quite interesting in the political contest. I like 1990 btw, one of the rare occasions on which I absolutely disagree with Morgan.
No Toggie, they were just very angry because Croatia wanted 1991 to win as well, Croatia wanted to represent Yugoslavia every SINGLE year, I don’t care if you don’t believe, I know what was true!
I was only asking a straightforwrd question. Why do I get “I don’t care if you don’t believe” now?
Btw, I don’t want to believe, I want to understand …
Yes Serbian and Montenegrin jury skipped voting for favorites from Croatia that year, because they were frustrated Croatian jury did that every year before, in late 80s, to songs from Belgrade studio! Satisfied?
I didn’t understand your question!
@ Morgan and Toggie
Do you know this entry from 1987 Jugovizija?
I think you will like it!
It was bigger hit than winner from that year, many songs which didn’t win Jugovizija were bigger its than representative sin ESC!
I like ‘Ja sam za ples’ but like this one even more. That thing she is wearing on her head looks pretty dangerous though …
Josipa is legend, she was and still is extravaganza of Yugoslavia!
it’s great and i do love her look… anything would have been better than “Ja sam za ples” though
Morgan that year (1987) also Hari Mata Hari took part in Jugovizija, but ended only 14th, with this song:
that’s excellent ; in 2006 I downloaded a lot of Hari Mata Hari’s older music and loved it and I hoped they would have entered esc again but without a song by Zeljko and more along the lines of their older stuff
Now they make ethno songs even when Zeljko Joksimovic don’t compose for them…
yes, and they’re good, i love ethno songs, but i do think the old Hari Mata Hari can be great too and wish they’d give it a try; I thought they would for that was the rumor for a while, but I’m glad with what Bosnia & Herzegovina chose and am waiting for the song
They really need to visit this page
http://www.diggiloo.net/
And they should stop making fun of non-English titles. If they sound funny to them, it is their narrow-minded deficit and not other languages’ fault. I guess that English sounded quite funny to many people too before it became the global lingua franca.
Luis, I consult that one too when it comes to esc entries’ lyrics
@ Toggie
Do you know how happened that Tereza Kesovija represented Monaco in 1966?
I’m from Yugoslavia but I have never heard anything about that, and my parents don’t know as well!
No idea. Did you check if she had some sort of success in France before?
You are right:
I”n 1965 Tereza, not knowing French language, moved to France. She became there a famous star. At the beginning she was singing in cabarets. Mostly in cabaret Carević. She said: “Six tough months. I used to remain in smoke until early in the morning. Waiting for my performances I didn’t know what to do. I was sitting all alone smoking cigarette after cigarette.” In 1967 Tereza, first in the world, recorderd La chanson de Lara (Lara’s theme) from the popular film Docteur Zhivago. It was Tereza’s first big French success sold out in more than 50 000 copies. After album La chanson de Lara she recorded her second French album C’est ma chanson with song Je l’aime, je l’aime. It was sold out in more than 160 000 copies. With the song Bien plus fort, Tereza was chosen by Grace Kelly to represent Monaco on Eurovision. She was frequently called as La bête de scène or Super-Dalida by French press. In 1968 Tereza performed with Enrico Macias at famous Olympia Concert Hall in Paris. It was her second Olympia after 1966. She had tours all over France. Tereza conquered France.”
She was very successful early on and did a few festivals in Italy and Switzerland and started in France in 65. Monaco is not far from both Italy and France when it comes to selecting. Princess Grace who was the head of the jury had to pick between Tereza and Isabelle Aubret as both were drawn after the juries voted and Grace Kelly said that both songs were equally good to her but that it was better to give a chance to Tereza as a new comer whereas Isabelle had already won the contest. Monaco finished last with 0pt. That same year, France had the exact same problem in the internal selection between “Chez nous” and Mireille Matthieu’s “Ton nom”. Turned out the head of the jury was Walter’s mother and she went for her son. It’s to date France’s worst result, ending 16th out of 18 with 1pt… that came from Monaco! Ah… esc history…
Thanks Morgan!!
I never found out for sure which was Isabelle’s song though (maybe she did not even release it) so we never will know which we would have liked but considering Isabelle’s esc result, I’d say better than Tereza did. Same for France, Mireille Matthieu became a huge hit in Japan and around and she probably would have done better than 1pt but with Luxembourg only 10th and Monaco and France down to the bottom 3, it was quite nice and interesting to see esc for once finally dropping its unfair good results to everything in French, though “Merci chérie” won (which I really dislike), Sweden, Norway and Spain were amazing!
Mireille Mathieu became HUUUUUUGE in Germany too. She is on every best of year XY album from the 70s I own. I am not a fan of “Mercie chérie” either but there 2 aspects I find interesting nevertheless:
1. it was the first winning song in ESC that was performed in a melodramatic way
2. as I have said before, the musical orgasm on “Kein Meer is so wild wie die Liebe” is a compositional stroke of genius.
I like Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia, Norway and Portugal best that year. Sweden was great too but a bit too intellectual for my taste.
yes Mireille was cute huge world wide ; very weird we didn’t pick her to represent us but then again the 70s we had a few issues with esc 71-72-73 were totally misunderstood, 74 was missed and then we sent the mainstream stuff that worked very well for us, so no need to pull out a Mireille
I really don’t see the “too intellectual”, Sweden 66 is extremely fun and entertaining along its extreme smartness… Spain is my winner, just above Sweden and Norway. I also very much like Portugal but Yugoslavia 66 is not my favorite from them (to stay on topic, while I love Yugoslavia 62, 63, 64, 65 and 67)
Too intellectual for YOU?
Yeah it’s really strange, what can be too intellectual for our Toggie?
A lot of things can be. Most of contemporary opera f. e. …
Thanks, Marko and Morgan.
On “Chez nous”: The song is in last place on my France in ESC list (1/12). Oh my, those corrupted mothers who are totally blind when it comes to their only mildly talented beloved ones. If I remember correctly, a powerful mother was responsible for that ‘masterpiece’ from Macedonia in 2005 too.
it’s our biggest esc crap lol… yes bad mothers, strange though, I know mine would never pick me if I wasn’t the best choice…
Same here … that’s probably why I always have been the best one. Gosh! that Oedipus thing. LOL … only kidding.
to be fair, Tereza might have been a phenomenon back in the 60s (back then, doing the Olympia was a very big symbol) but she’s totally forgotten nowadays by French people, who remember more Françoise Hardy (Monaco 63), France Gall (Luxembourg 65), Isabelle Aubret (France 62 and 68), Nina Mouskouri (Luxembourg 63), Hugues Aufray (Luxembourg 64), Alain Barrière (France 63), Guy Mardel (France 65) and of course Frida Boccara (France 69): they’re all famous by people who don’t even follow esc… Tereza is only known by people who follow esc now ;(
She was in Olympia again few years ago… she also was in Belgrade few years ago, after many years, she had an argue because of war with Serbia, but now, in her older days she forgot everything and started to praise Yugoslavia again..
Tereza is known in France, dear friends, her songs are very best and between top-3 on the top-lists at the most popular internet-radio strems, like Radio-Fill or Radio-Atlantis, by songs of famous writer and journalist Maryse Duilhe, en example.. Yes, Tereza had full Olympia hall at great back-concert in 2007. and said that French people not forgot her.. as Super-Dalida again in France..
Real name of Hari Mata Hari is Hajrudin Varešanović and of Dino Merlin is Edin Dervišhalidović! LOL Is it difficult for you to pronounce that?
We have so many people from the Balkans here in Germany that we are sort of used to pronouncing those names.
Macedonia was closest to represent Yugoslavia in 1982 with Maja Odaklijevska – “Julija”
But they really played fair, because Macedonian jury could skip voting for Aska who won that year in Jugovizija and vote more for Maja and she will be winner, but they didn’t do it!
The problems in Jugovizija actually began in 1985, when Croatian and Serbian jury couldn’t agree on a duet Sladjana Milosevic & dado Topic “Princeza”, Because Sladjana is Serbian singer and Dado Topic (as you know, he represented Croatia in 2006) is Croatian rock singer. They represented studio Belgrade in Jugovizija so I think Croatian jury didn’t like that fact! It was huge favorite back then and it is probably the most popular song from Jugovizija EVER, but they came only 6th in Skopje that year! Another duet – Vlado Kalember & Izolda Baruzija won with “Ciao amore” instead!
I’m so sorry if I’m boring, but I love to talk about Jugovizja so much!
I don’t think that it is boring at all because I really like to learn about all ESC related stuff. And I am pretty sure that most regulars of this site agree with me.
Jugovizija is really interesting preselection because it was like mini Eurovision, with juries from all states voting from their studios! And sometimes tension was high!
That’s what I like about FdC too, the district juries.
I wish we had that in Germany too but then we have the Bundesvision Song Contest at least. 
the swedish MF used to have district juries, each year you could tell how Stockholm would be more daring in their votings, while the north was way more conservative (and into schlager)… but it doesnt mean anything anymore… France doesn’t do NF
and Marko it’s all very interesting dont worry
@Marko
I love those nostalgic Yugoslavian songs so much, but I am not that into Jugovizija unfortunately. I’m kinda slow on organizing and checking old ESC stuff, but do you know of a good site with Jugovizija info? In cyrillic is also fine. And are most songs from those contests available on YouTube?
Unfortunately there isn’t any good site with it!
The best thing you can find is wikipedia page in Serbian language where they wrote some songs from some years in brackets..this one:
http://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugovizija
In some occasions they don’t mention titles of song, but only singer, you can tipe that singer, year and Jugovizija in YT and sometimes find song!
The best thing that ever happened to Eurovision was that Yugoslavia entered! lol, I loved so many entries from them, but probably all the opposite of the ones you seem to like here because I think they were best in the 80s. Though my favourite of all is probably Dubrovacki trubaduri – jedan dan.
Hmmmm but you like Zdravko Colic and Danijel – “Dzuli” which are VERY popular here and very appreciated!
Laila, I saw Gee oh wrote to you on esctoday that those u mentioned don’t have chance in Moldova, but hasn’t he noticed that Paralela 47 has the most likes (via FB) on Moldovan site…it has more likes than Sunstroke project & Olia Tira and Nelly Ciobanu which are 2nd and 3rd..so I think they actually have chance!
Don’t you like the only song in Russian language – Tatevik – “Sweet poizon”, it has some ethno elements, but not Moldovan, more like Muslim and Crimea Tatar elements!
Thanks for link, I will bookmark it. Yes, I like them very much and a lot of popular singers there, but mostly from the past, lol. The modern ones aren’t always so good for me.
“Sweet poizon” is one of the best songs in Moldovan selection! I should have mentioned that as a favourite too! The beginning of it does sound very Arabic. 
BTW, Did you hear “open your eyes” in new version? I think I saw somewhere that you liked it. You and many others, lol. Actually there were 3 different versions of that song, but the first one was the popular one it seems.
I don’t believe Gee oh so I said “we’ll see”. He seems very convinced and I am sure he’s right about the big names – they will surely be in the final, but not necessarily win IMO. Valentin Uzun also has many likes on that FB button and I know that Doinita must be somewhat popular among people of Moldova since she performs in weddings and/or other social situations, right? So it stands to reason that she will get points from many people too. Maybe not jury though. I think she got a lot of points in one of the finals in the previous years, but I don’t remember the exact results anymore.
Yes have heard new version of Nicoleta Dara’s song!
It disappointed me at first, but now it’s OK, I like more original version and this one is way too acoustic for me! 
But still it’s OK!
Atm European handball championships is taking place here in Serbia, Norway played in group in town Vrsac, but today lost to Croatia, and Slovenia beat Iceland, so Norway stayed in the group!
We won the group in Belgrade! Now group number 1 will play in Belgrade Arena where ESC took place in 2008!! 
Men’s handball? It’s not very good. I think the female team is better, but then I am not interested in handball at all so I don’t know!
Tennis is the only sport I can bare to watch
Yes tennis! I watch Australian open…tonight Serena, Ana and Novak will play! But very late, so I can’t follow it!
Please tell me why more ppl on YT dislike Yaseen & Julie Maria – “Sammen” than like? What actually it is about?
They dislike it more than like?
I’m glad. It’s not bad lyrics – it’s about the Utøya tragedy and “sammen” means “together”. I think the dislikes stem from it being a crappy song, the crappy teenage singers and her smurfy voice. At least that’s what I can imagine because that’s what I think of it, lol.
I have watched a little tennis so far, but I only watch the most fun matches since it’s so late at night here. Tonight though I will have to watch Clijsters and Federer. Novak isn’t fun to watch yet because we know he will win.
I hope this year Andy Murray can beat him, lol. Unlikely, I know. His superiority is just so irritating! And Clijsters has to beat Serena! 
She has some tough matches ahead of her though – Na Li and possibly Wozniacki. I wish Norway had some tennis players, but they don’t go for tennis here, it’s not popular enough.
[...] talking of Eurovision here is Hikaru Freeman and yours truly chirping about Yugoslavia and the [...]
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