What is your name and where are you from? Hey everyone! My name is Đorđe (George/Jorge), I'm 23 and I come from Republika Srpska/Bosnia and Herzegovina! Tell us something interesting about yourself? Well, I'm a citizen of both Bosnia and Serbia so if you see me writing 'we' or 'us' it can sometimes refer to one, and sometimes to the other country, and I'm sorry if it confused you if you saw some of the tweets like that! I have a BA degree in English Language and Literature and I'm currently at the Masters Studies in the same field, in my hometown. Also, if you believe in horoscope - I'm the most typical Cancer you can come across! I'm also a songwriter (hopefully you'll hear from me soon!) and (even though I uploaded 5-6 videos only) a YouTuber (if I can call myself like that...) :)
Ok we means Bosnia or Serbia - got you! ~ Aussievision When did you first get into Eurovision? It's a long story to be honest as my whole family loves Eurovision, and it all started with my mom who's been watching it ever since she can remember, so she brought the whole ESC passion to all of us and so it became a family holiday. The first things I remember come from 2002, when our local singer Maja Tatić represented Bosnia and everyone talked about her song which was a massive hit over here. Sadly, I don't remember watching the actual contest. Then, I wanted to watch it in 2003 as I had a crush on the Croatian singer Claudia and I loved t.A.T.u, but I missed half of the songs and fell asleep before the end of the show... Finally, when Serbia&Montenegro returned in 2004, I got very excited for the contest and wrote down all the countries and the artists, the songs, and was absolutely amazed by the competition. A lot of kids from my generation and older started loving the contest and we talked about it in school all the time. The official CD was the one I listened to the most in my entire life, I believe. So yeah, I have to say that Eurovision 2004 really changed and influenced my life!
So fantastic that your family got you into the contest! What is your favourite Eurovision year and why? Hmmm... a few, starting with the above mentioned 2004, then to 2008 as I got to attend the Eurovision for the first time (and only time so far), the songs were great and are still very popular here, plus it was obviously beautiful to see Serbia as the host and people from all over the world coming to Belgrade for the contest. Having said that, none of that would've happened without Marija's victory in 2007, which is my top favorite year. I cannot even describe the euphoria over that edition weeks before it started, as many believed 'Molitva' could do well plus we supported our hometown singer Marija Šestić too... I got messages from friends saying '20 minutes till Eurovision', '10 minutes till Eurovision' before the final. Eventually Marija won with a song that became like a 2nd Serbian anthem and brought joy to all of us! We celebrated until 4 AM after the victory... Well I could go on forever about this but I better stop :D
Which Eurovision song: Is your favourite? To avoid sounding biased with choices like these, I'm gonna choose the songs outside the borders of Bosnia/Serbia. My number one favorite song is 'Qele Qele' by Sirusho - it was my favorite in 2008 and also my overall Eurovision favorite. A funny story about it is that I set that song as my ringtone in 2008, then got a new phone a month later, gave that old phone to my mom and she kept the ringtone all until that phone died - LAST YEAR. So, Qele Qele was a ringtone of our home for 9 long years! :)
Ha great choice of song but think we'd get sick of any song as a ringtone for that long, wowsers! Is overrated? Whoa, I don't know. I thought this question through so many times but failed to find a proper example. Let's say We Are The Winners, as I think there were better songs in 2006 for the result they had. Was robbed? From the non-qualifiers, I could think of a few - Icebreaker, Comme ci, comme ca. and Love Unlimited - sooo close to qualifying yet so far away, when I found out about the result I was so sad for her and even now when I remember it, I feel bad, haha. From the finalists - I believe Grande Amore should've won. it's a masterpiece imo, and winning the televote by a landslide should've led them to the throne, but what can we do now... Similar goes for Sergey's You're The Only One.
Agree on Sergey - he should have received more points from the jury. Had the best live performance? In the sea of great performances, the one that stands out the most for me was Iveta's LoveWave. It was my favorite in 2016 from the first listen and not many people shared the enthusiasm for the song with me, so I was just waiting for the performance to show how brilliant the whole package was. It was only her on the stage (plus a few other 'hers') and she took me to heaven and back in those 3 minutes. No props, no dancers - just her and brilliant camera cuts + the holograms... mamma mia.
That first minute of LoveWave is utterly brilliant. Did you last play? Valentine Lost by Eirikur Hauksson. Such an incredible, underrated entry. Is your guilty pleasure? As my playlist includes all types of songs, from the Serbian 'hard folk' to the Hungarian hard rock (viszlaaaaaaaaaaat), I don't really think of some songs as guilty pleasures as I like all of 'em. Maybe the French 2007 and 2008 songs. Especially the 2007 one deserves much more love than it gets, it might come across as a crazy, joke song but it's actually really beautiful! We turn it up loud in my brother's car and sing along while driving - I don't know what we look like to the passers-by, but we least we have fun.
Love France 2008 - Divine was a classic Is the favourite from your own country? Bosnia - Bistra voda; Serbia - Oro.
Bistra voda is a masterpiece, one of my favourites of all time ~ Dale Any other interesting honourable mentions? Eres Tu by Mocedades, as it's one of the most beautiful songs ever written, with a nostalgic note and the beautiful Spanish language. Other mentions (the first i thought of) go to the incredible Hold Me Now, Hasheket Shenishar, Goodbye To Yesterday, A Monster Like Me and A Million Voices, as well as to the song that I believe was ahead of its time as it would've placed much much better today than 10 years ago - Complice by Miodio. They deserved better.
All such great choices! Do you have a favourite Eurovision country? It's both my favorite Eurovision country and country in general - Greece. I love almost all of their entries I know, especially Die For You, My Number One, Everything and Oniro Mou. Also, one of my favorite countries is Spain - I think it's the most underrated country in the contest, as they have sent so many great songs which didn't get the good result they, in my opinion, deserved. Hope Almaia do the justice for all the underrated Spanish entries from the past! What are you favourite songs so far in the 2018 contests? There's not a single song this year that I dislike and honestly I wouldn't mind anyone winning, but my top favorites are Oniro Mou, Forever, Tu Cancion, Bones, Nova deca, Fuego, Lie To Me, Qami, Viszlat Nyar, Non mi avete fatto niente... quite a few, eh. What do you think of Australia being in Eurovision? I expected it as I knew how loved the contest is in Australia and I was happy you got the chance. The fans are great and the team behind the entries takes the contest seriously and I absolutely love that. What do you think of our song 'We Got Love' and Jessica Mauboy? At first I thought it was just an ordinary mainstream pop song. With every new listen, I liked it more and now I love it. It's uplifting and we need to hear songs like that after all the bad news we hear every day. And finally favourite Australian song – Sea of Flags, Tonight Again, Sound of Silence or Don’t Come Easy? I'll put aside the weak live performance and choose Don't Come Easy. I really love the lyrics and I can relate to them, as 'my love runs deep, but it don't come easy, it don't come cheap'. It doesn't, though, but it works. :D
Nice choice! Anything else you’d like to share? Some personal things, yes - I hope to be at the ESC one day, as a participant of any kind, and I'm working on it, so maybe I'll meet some of you next year already. Also, a crazy thought - I thought the EBU should think of organizing a special, Second Chance contest, where all the countries would send a song that didn't get them to the final since 2004 and then the jury + the fans would vote for them and choose the best one. Because, we really did lose some epic entries in the semis! P.S. I wanna apologize for the essays I wrote as some answers, hope I didn't bore all of you reading them!
Your answers were fantastic and not too long at all, thank you! Thank you for this, Aussievision and good luck to Australia in Lisbon! To all the other Eurovision family, enjoy the show, the music, respect each other's favorites and countries and don't let anyone tell you that loving the ESC is bad! :)
Our pleasure! Thank you for your time!