| Eurovision Song Contest News - 2008 Belgrade, Serbia 

Darko S.

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Hey guys, the name is Darko and I was born and live in Belgrade, Serbia. My second home is in "Sarf" London, UK - where I stay whenever I can, sometimes for long stretches of time.

Friends describe me as the "most musical person they've ever known" and "a musical whore" too.

My mum claims she had me on her lap (at only a few months old) whilst watching ABBA on TV in Brighton in 1974. She says I boogie-woogied in her lap and then had a poo. I honestly don't remember THAT...but I have been an ESC fan ever since.

Apart obviously from "Lane Moje" (Serbia Montenegro 2004), my favourite entries in recent decades have been Poland's 1995 "Sama", by Justyna, Austria's Global Kryner (2005, "Y Asi") and the Icelandic 1997 entry by Paul Oscar, "Minn Hinsti Dans" - whose hitherto unseen visual concept is also the best stage presentation of a song ever at Eurovision. I tend to be in favour of unique, different, more demanding songs rather than mainstream rubbish and aged ballads. I love the fact that all genres are represented at ESC, from jazzy stuff, electronica and ethno to metal, dance and pop, although 70s disco is my first love. I wish there were more good oddities such as the Belgian "Eurovision" by Telex in 1980, or the Estonian "Eighties Coming Back" by Rufus in 2003. The elegant German entry from 2007 by Roger Cicero, "Frauen Regeir'n Die Welt" falls into that category too.

My favourite site members, and people I have a lot in common with are: Togravus Ceterum (Germany), Molly Parton (Monaco), vn (Greece), Cooler (Serbia Montenegro), Khalid GR (Greece), Milan S (Serbia), Telex Fan Club (UK), ws (The Netherlands) and last but not least Djamila N (Bosnia & Herzegovina).

My definitive 2008 TOP 10 (not counting Serbia - can't rate own stuff)

01 Turkey (exciting)
02 France (stylish)
03 Bulgaria (up to date)
04 UK (funky)
05 Bosnia & Herzegovina (daring)
06 Greece (reassuring)
07 Romania (competent)
08 Germany (fluffy)
09 Belgium (brave)
10 Israel (interesting)

Just missing on top 10 are

11 Moldova (touching)
12 Croatia (nostalgic)
13 Malta (manic)
14 Cyprus (raucous)
15 Poland (decent)

Rock bottom:

39 Belarus (irritating)
40 Azerbaijan (disturbing)
41 Estonia (pathetic)
42 Latvia (moronic)
43 Spain (redundant)

Excellent 2008 national finalists which were robbed:

ZUMA/Always Always (Norway)
RONDEGAL/Just A Minute (Sweden)
LA CASA AZUL/La Revolucion Sexual (Spain)
ALEKSA & ANA/Beli Jablan (Serbia)
MASSIMO BERTACCI/Credo (San Marino)



Should you wish to contact me for any reason feel free to do so at FinallyBelgrade@hotmail.com - it would be nice to hear from you.

Happy eurovisioning! And of course, welcome to Belgrade everyone. :-)

Cheers, Darko