Bosnia
& Herzegovina’s entrance for the 2009 Eurovosion song contest is titled
“Bistra Voda”, sung by Regina. Bistra Voda translates to Clear Water in
English. Regina is a rock band that was formed in 1989 in Saravjevo, Bosnia &
Herzegovina. The performance was sung in Bosnian all throughout. The music and
lyrics were created by Aleksandar Covic. It is possible that this choice is
meant to separate themselves from many of the other countries who have chose to
perform in English. It is in some cases risky to perform in a native language
given most countries have been leaning towards to using English in their songs.
Bosnia & Herzegovina took that risk and placed 9th in the Grand
Final. The motive behind this decision could have been that they were confident
enough in the preparation and display of their performance to be able to
capture the hearts of the millions who are tuned in. A top 10 finish by this
group was well deserved.
The
musical tone of the performance is very much uplifting and passionate. There
are traces of rock and a bit of classical tone in the beat. All performers are
dressed in what seems to be traditional militant Bosnian clothing. This is
fully supported by the inclusion of snare like drums being used by 3 of the
performers. The lead singer, Davor Ebner was not part of the initial formation
of the rock band but was instead assimilated later. This happened because the
group was looking for a proper vocalist to go hand in hand with their music. This
proved to be an effective decision and helped to put together an enjoyable
performance. Ebner is seen throughout the performance keeping a serious yet
passionate face and does not break character. Davor Ebner can match up his
facial expressions with the musical feeling that the song puts out. Ebner notably
throws up two fists into the air at approximately a minute and 15 seconds into
the performance as the musical instruments take the floor away from him. The
last fist is thrown at the very end as a final hurrah like gesture.
A
notable picture frame moment of their performance is when the other 5
performers crowd around Ebner in a pose in which all of them are looking out
into the distance. It is like a captain and his crew huddling up at the bow of
a ship ready to take the beach. An eye striking prop used at this type is the
pure red flag. The use of the red flag is does not have an obvious meaning at
first hand, but it does correspond with the color scheme of the performance.
Colors that are prevalent in this performance include red, gold, beige and white.
All four colors are seen on stage through the performers or props like the
drums and flag. On the LED screen in the back, red and gold are seen. The
background screen switches from a full red with shapes or diagonal lines
outlined. Then, it goes to a screen with golden colored shrapnel and bullet
casings drifting about. Reasoning behind could just have been for aesthetic
reasons as it matches the outfits of the performers. But it does make sense to
include the shrapnel because that is present in the activity of battle which
the militant outfits suggest.
Bosnia
& Herzegovina’s performance in the previous year of 2008 is titled “Pokusaj”,
sung by Laka. Pokusaj translates to Try in English. The genre of this song is a
misguided love song. It is a complete to the contrast of the next year’s song
and is instead a bit comical. This performance is quite odd and eccentric. There
are four middle aged women who are background singers that are dressed wedding
gowns while the other two singers are in fun and color clothing. The main women
singer who is seen taking the bouquets from the background singers is wearing a
dress with apples. Her hair is very wacky, and the guy singer seems to have a
little too much going on in his face. A comical point of this performance to
highlight would be when the background singers traded their bouquets for knitting
equipment. The audience responds to this with jeers to show amusement. Despite
the weirdness of this, it works effectively to give the whole performance a
very fun and different vibe.
This
song is a love song because of what is referenced in the love song. The
performance gives off the affect that it is an all over the place performance
about being weird and expressing inner personalities. But the lyrics say
another thing as “love” is referenced along with “kissing” and “lying down,
eating bananas”. The lyrics also include a reference to acting “foolish” which
helps to reinforce this loose meaning to a misguided love song.
-------INCOMPLETE (Technical Difficulty)
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