As the 2012 selection season ups a gear, many Balkan states have been markedly quick off the blocks to select their artists for Baku. At the time of writing five of the six ex-Yugoslavian republics have chosen their artist internally, the Slovenes being odd ones out with a televised multi-artist national final. Four of them have gone for seasoned performers, for whom the vast audience in Baku and beyond will hold few fears.
Serbia set the trend by unveiling the return of one Zeljko Joksimovic, who co-hosted the 2008 contest in Belgrade. He also composed the home entry that year but did not appear on stage. Four years earlier, in the brief period when Serbia & Montenegro entered as a nation, he was runner-up in the contest with a ditty so popular with fans that it recently topped ESC Radio's Top 250 all time Eurosongs!. He thus follows Israel's Yardena Arazi and Greece's Sakis Rouvas in returning to the contest as an artist after being a compere. Here's the fan favourite.
After four consecutive DNQs, FYR Macedonia have resorted for services of their very first entrant. Kaliopi (billed back then as Kaliopi Gril) were chosen as the republics entrant for the 1996 Oslo contest. Uniquely that year's way of whittling down the entries for the contest final involved national juries voting on studio versions of the songs on tape, and Macedonia were one of the seven to miss out.
Croatia are giving a go to Nina Badric, who has tried four times to represent her land in the multi-artist "Dora" festival, the last time in 2003 when she was runner-up with this.
Our fourth evergreen is the curveball of the quartet. Montenegro has yet to make a contest final as an independent nation, and after appearing to give up the ghost they return to Baku after missing the last two events. Rambo Amadeus is a renaissance man: musician, composer, social commentator and former award-winning yachtsman. Here a sample of his work.
So there we have it, four performers with a combined age of a hundred and seventy-two.. While our favourite pan-continental annual event remains a "song" contest, there is ample evidence from both televoters and juries that a solid performance on the big night can make all the difference. Chances are at least one of our vets will be in contention come May.
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Here's an account of what happened as Malta chose it's Eurovision representative: http://malta-howtoguide.blogspot.com/2012/02/malta-and-eurovision-song-contest.html
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