http://music.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329883729-122427,00.html Comment _____ Watch Eurovision? Only when the triumph of a lesbian Gypsy sweeps away the dross Germaine Greer Monday May 21, 2007 Guardian The Eurovision contest is over, some are hoping, forever. Yet no one but me in my dotage seems to have registered that something wonderful has happened, and that Eurovision may never be the same again. It was wonderful enough that a solid plain girl in glasses won it for Serbia with an old-fashioned torch-song; that she should have sung it in passionate earnest as a lover of her own sex is what made this viewer switch off the iron and start praying that the gods might let her win. When Marija Serifovic was asked in interviews why the presentation was so subdued, no high kicks, no pelvic thrusts, she was puzzled by the inappropriateness of the questions. While all around her were writhing and mugging, she sang Molitva as her ostracised self. Now they want to say that the voting was crooked. But Serbia got points from all but five of the 23 countries entitled to vote; this was not a matter of voting for one's cabal, or even tactical voting. The quality of Serbia's offering was certainly recognised by the country's Balkan neighbours, but it was rewarded also by Austria, Finland, Hungary and Switzerland, who came through with 12 points each. Usually I don't care who wins Eurovision; this time I cheered every time Serbia increased its lead. For once winning was important. When 23-year-old Serifovic walked on to the glittering stage in her white plimsolls and unbuttoned black Dolce & Gabbana suit, the ends of her bow-tie hanging loose, kitsch was suddenly extinguished. When she stood four-square, lifted her head and sang, shrieking camp was silenced. Serifovic's big, supple voice, apparently effortlessly produced from her deep chest, is imbued with a special kind of feeling which comes from one of the wellsprings of the European song tradition. Marija Serifovic is not just an out lesbian, she is Romany. If ever a voice deserved to reign over Eurovision it is the voice of the Gypsy, who is made to live everywhere in Europe as if it was nowhere. >From the slopes of the Caucasus to the shores of the Atlantic, the Roma people >can be found struggling with poverty and ill-health, unemployed, often >undocumented, threatened with assimilation and the loss of what little culture >they have left - and nowhere more so than in Serbia. Every Serbian knows that >Serifovic is the daughter of the famous Romany singer, Verica Serifovic. The >bookies gave Verica 10/1 against a victory for her daughter and she bet her >life savings, £3,000, all or nothing. Average wages in Serbia are about £150 >per month and only about 20% of Serbia's 200,000 Roma are in work. Verica knew >that her daughter's song should have been a certainty. And so did I, but I >would never have trusted the Eurovision lottery to come up with the right >result. Marija had sung the song, Molitva, or "Prayer", with lyrics by Sasa Milosevic Mare and music by Vladimir Graic, many times before. Usually she sang it as a straight torch song, dressed in frilly jackets, shiny skirts, beads, makeup and frouffed-up hair. That was how she sang it in the national heats; the jury of experts preferred a different singer and a different song, but the phone and text votes decided the issue in Molitva's favour. In the weeks between winning in Serbia and singing in Helsinki, Molitva was stripped down to be presented as an uncompromisingly lesbian love-lament. Serifovic has been out since 2004, but until the night of the Eurovision final she had never performed as a lesbian. In the midst of all the synthetic shimmy-shimmy-shake, she stood like a schoolboy, and sang her heart out. She was every big, clumsy plain girl who has ever yearned for a smile of encouragement from the school beauty, every loser who has had to look on while males took for granted an intimacy she could never aspire to. Her shyness, her anguish, and the fat fake ruby heart pinned to her jacket, all told the same story of the love that nobody wants to hear about. The chorus of highly decorative straight women at first ignored her, then comforted her, and then, singing with her, recognised her as a lover. The half a heart drawn on the hand of one joined with the half a heart drawn on Serifovic's hand, to become a whole heart, still bleeding, but acknowledged. It was simple. It was obvious, too obvious for the BBC's Mark Savage, who decided in his knee-jerk revulsion that what he was watching was some kind of "slow-motion, lesbian porn flick". Shame on him. Go, Marija! ~~~~~~~~~~ http://www.esctoday.com/news/read/8752 Eurovision Song Contest 20/May at 22:13 "Great chance for positive PR" Eurovision victory through the eyes of Serbian bloggers Richard West-Soley A week has been plenty of time for Serbs to reflect on the feelings of national pride awoken and affirmed by Marija Serifovic�s sensational win in Helsinki. For years the pariah state in the shadow of the Yugoslav wars, Serbs have found it difficult to reconcile themselves to a damaged reputation at home and abroad; winning the Eurovision Song Contest might just be the balm that millions of ordinary Serb citizens were in need of. This hope is reflected in the words of countless Serb bloggers this week. Bloggers across the Internet have reflected the sense of reborn pride, and are brimming with new hope for a brighter international future for the country, where the people need no longer feel ashamed to call themselves Serbs and be proud. Organising the contest, for a start, will give the country a chance to promote itself in a completely different light from the news reports of the 1990s that still colour the country for many TV viewers and newspaper readers in the West. “I consider this a great chance for positive PR of our country” writes Gorana Secibovic, continuing “in the Norwegian media, Serbia is mentioned only in relation to Mladic, Nikolic, Kosovo and the mass graves around the region. Just a few days ago, a Norwegian lady asked me if the army preserves the peace on Serbian streets, if military vehicles are patrolling around.” Belgrade 2008 will give the nation a fighting chance, at least, to right some of the wrongs committed against it in wider European attitudes. It feels good to be a Serb Milosrdni Andrjeo reflects the hopeful mood: “here’s a chance for Serbia to show itself off in a bright light next year” whilst blogger Trotter sums up the people’s joy similarly, with thanks to the woman who brought the opportunity home: “thank you Marija for promoting my Serbia this way!” Maja is more explicit in just what the singer has allowed for her personally: “she managed to show me again how it feels good to be a Serb” writes the blogger. Next May, thousands of foreign journalists and fans will flood the capital for two weeks, creating a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reaffirm everything which is good about Serbian culture to the World. Neven Andjelic sums this up: “those who decide to visit Belgrade will obtain, I hope, a more positive picture of Serbia, about Belgrade, because they have a lot of prejudices against us, taking into account all the events of the 1990s.” The East is on the rooftop of Europe But what of the cries from the West of diaspora voting and neighbourly exchanges? Andjelic gives his own take on the phenomena, turning the tables and placing the blame squarely on the West for creating volumes of people traffic across the continent, with the East simply biting back. “The West wanted to create vast diasporas out of the East Europeans, so now the diasporas are voting for their own. The East is on the rooftop of Europe. Deservedly” he claims. This year’s contest is a “success for democracy”. Surely, there could be fewer countries more in need of a regeneration of reputation and confidence than Serbia in the contest, and the benefits are all there for the taking. “Let’s take this opportunity to improve our reputation in the World” are the words of Glavna Strana, echoing fellow bloggers, although with the more practical – and perhaps slightly cynical – observation that “now, big money will pour into Serbia because Eurovision is a commercial festival – our government should plan how to cash in on this ‘kitsch parade’ as best as it can and invest the money in renewing the culture and alternative music scene in Serbia.” Cynicism or not, this view cements the contest as one of the most important cultural events in the European calendar, and one whose benefits should not be so easily overlooked. All the opinions expressed by these Serb bloggers from all over Europe confirm that the impact of the contest is a force to be reckoned with - and potentially, a hugely positive one for all concerned. This article was written thanks to sources from Zeljana Grubisic (Southeast European Times) and Ljubis Bojic (Global Voices).
