Serbian “Prayer” Wins Eurovision Song Contest · Global Voices
Ljubisa Bojic

Serbian singer Marija Serifovic performingMolitva (“Prayer”), the winning entry of the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest (photo by Indrek Galetin)
Just a few days ago, major news outlets reported that the main course of discussion at the Serbian Assembly session was to determine which political party is supported by the 2007 Eurovision winner, Marija Serifovic. Milutin Mrkonjic, who presided at the meeting, invited the singer to visit the parliament. When she came in, Mrkonjic said, “Fellow deputies, please turn around and greet Marija Serifovic. We will be having a short break. Let all of us go to the lobby to have a juice with our Marija.”
At B92 blog, Maja writes (SRP):
She was persistent to succeed in the world she created; she managed to show me again how it feels good to be a Serb!
Dusan is somewhat less emotional:
I can’t believe how much euphoria was provoked by the victory of Serbian [representative] at Eurovision contest. All of a sudden, everybody is proud to be Serbian!?! And all of that about one not so important thing for the country and its citizens. I consider this win a simple political fix-up, in the moment when Serbia turns its back to the EU, as the great fuss was produced by nominating [Tomislav Nikolic] as the chairman of the parliament??? So, the western courtiers had to show us how much they love us, at the time when they plan to take away Kosovo, and to blackmail us on our road to the EU. It is like: we took Kosovo from you, but we still like you. […]
Kredibilitet writes:
[…] People with such capital as the first place at the Eurovision Song Contest (with all the drawbacks of the voting system) have a credibility to say what they think and invest the credibility in what they believe. Marija believes this is the beginning of a new Serbia, and that gesture when she raised three fingers, and her parliament visit, are all good for Serbia. She placed her face in front of us, and we started spitting at her. Luckily, our comments disturb her as a horse is disturbed by a fly on his butt. […]
At another B92 discussion corner, Jeca writes(SRP):
I am glad Marija from Serbia won. That means, we will be organizing the next contest, which enables us to promote our country. […] Those who decide to visit Belgrade, no matter how many of them, will obtain, I hope so, a more positive picture of Serbia, about Belgrade, because they have a lot of prejudices about us, when taken into account all the [terrible] events of the nineties. […]
Vlad man states:
It is not all about politics, nor is everything related to Serbs negative. […] The Eurovision win is really positive, and everybody should salute the […] girl from Kragujevac, who achieved the top recognition of her profession, by using her own voice. She set a good example for everyone. […]
Gorana Secibovic:
[…] I consider this a great chance for positive PR of our country. In Norwegian media, Serbia is mentioned only in relation to [Ratko] Mladic [suspected war criminal], [Tomislav] Nikolic [ultra-radical politician who was leading the assembly for a few days], Kosovo [a painful issue as the Albanian minority wants to separate], and the mass graves around the region [consequences of civil wars that occurred during the last decade of turmoil]. Just a few days ago, a Norwegian lady asked me if the army preserves peace on Serbian streets, if military vehicles are patrolling around, and etc. […]
Neven Andjelic says:
Eurovision is the last shelter of romantic people who are against globalization. […] First, the economy collapsed, and then ideology of the East. It happened around 1989, together with privatization process, mass unemployment, when young generation lost driving force, and the older got totally disappointed. The hardships resulted in widespread emigration to the West, where engineers from [some Russian city] became plumbers in Birmingham, teachers from Belgrade went to improve their skills as painters in Amsterdam, journalists from Sarajevo went to wash cars in Paris, etc. […] But now, the poor European states from the east win, and they feel well. […] [Because of the voting system, which enables similar small countries to give more points to each other] at once, Bosnia Herzegovina, Serbia, Ukraine, Latvia turned out to be the superpowers of European singing. […] They can make some changes in the voting system, but the final say is with the people. The true democracy and the east always win. The poor, the lowest caste of untouchables prevails, like in Indian province, during the last election. […] Eurovision Song Contest is the victory of democracy. When French, Italians, and Luxemburg people won, the West was ok with it. When the East became dominating factor, at least in singing, people started talking about fixes, scam, and labeling the competition as stupid one. […] They wanted to make numerous Diasporas from the east societies, now the expatriates vote for their home countries. The east is on the roof of Europe. It deserved the recognition. Remember that you read it here. I am posting this a minute before the voting, as a proof, my expectations turned out to be true.
Trotter says:
Thank you Marija for promoting my Serbia this way! Thank you very much!
Srdan Kusovac responds to this post:
[…] There has always been politics in the Eurovision contest, or even more politics than music, because that is why the manifestation was initially established, because of the politics. The contest is, in this new time, I guess, the only opportunity when the “new Europe” manages to show it is “equal” or “important”. […]
At his blog, Dragan Vargic states:
[…] I think Marija Serifovic is a very good thing for the [country and its people]. Her talent, hard work, and the will to participate produced great effect. This is a pretty important event for all those defeatists [so called retrograde persons spreading negative energy] which I know and have to listen to all these years.
JustMe comments:
I have read remarks made by forum dwellers coming from former Yugoslav republics. I don’t know should I laugh or cry… I thought I wasn’t reading comments about Marija Serifovic Eurovision victory, but the latest X Files – a conspiracy theory edition about how Serbia stopped the win of the Croatian representative in Finland!
According to the “theories,” Serbia:
1. ‘Got’ traded the trophy for Kosovo (?!)…
2. Led an anti-Croatian campaign in Finland, this stopping the victory of Dada Topic (?!)…
3. Won because only Serbs voted in the whole of Europe (?!). I suppose, the rest didn’t have the money for mobile phone…
4. Received 12 points from Croatia, because, again, only Serbs voted (neither Croatians had money for mobile phone bills)…
5. Won because the country selected a person of unidentified gender, so they received votes of the gay population…
6. Won because the singer pleads Europe by naming her song “The Prayer” […] (?!)…
The “theory” list is long enough, but because of their stupidity, there is no reason to list them all. […]
Acca posts the Molitva song in English:
Prayer (Destiny) – English
I'm wide awake
An empty bed drives my dreams away
Life melts like ice
Disappears in the twinkling of an eye
I'm losing my mind,
Pushing reality out of sight
Our lips are touching softly
You're the one I believe blindly
I walk around like crazy
Falling in love frightens me
Days are like wounds
Countless and hard to get through
Prayer…
It burns my sore lips like a fire
Prayer…
Thy name is something I admire
Heaven knows just as well as I do
So many times I have cried over you
Heaven knows just as well as I do
I pray and live only for you
I can't lie to God
as I kneel down and pray
You're the love of my life
That's the only thing I can say
The English version of “The Prayer” can be downloaded here.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | RSS