Two days ago, online news portals across former Yugoslavia went viral with the news that Bosnia & Herzegovina would ditch Eurovision for the newly announced ‘Turkeyvision’ Song Contest. Numbers of other articles have come out and there have been varied reactions to this news. Many are supporting Bosnia venturing into Turkeyvision, but there is across the board criticism of the possibility of missing out on another year of ESC.
One of Bosnia’s largest dailies, Nezavisne Novine (Independent Newspapers) has published an article today clarifying the situation. BHT, Bosnia’s national broadcaster, is NOT representing Bosnia & Herzegovina on Turkeyvision. Hayat, a private Bosnian television station, is the broadcaster representing the country on the new competition. Therefore, no funds should be transferred from BHT’s entertainment budget from Eurovision to its Turkish counterpart. That is, if any budget is allocated for Eurovision at all.
Sabina Bacvic-Zecevic, the spokesperson for BHT has been reported as saying that she did not even know that Bosnia & Herzegovina was contemplating participation in Turkeyvision, and that the Executive Committee of BHT has not yet discussed Bosnia’s participation in Eurovision 2014 . At the same time, the director of the music production company Hayat Records, which closely works with Hayat Television, has confirmed that the television is the official representative of the country at Turkeyvision, and that there is absolutely no requirement that it should be the national broadcaster’s role.
A few of Bosnia’s past Eurovision representatives have voiced their discontent or dislike for the Bosnian participation in Turkeyvision, from which most notabe is Maja Tatic, Bosnia’s 2002 representative. She has said that while she was not familiar with all the information, participating in Turkeyvision “sounds ridiculous”. She added: “I don’t know what they are trying to accomplish with this. Eurovision is Eurovision. What is the point in separating a part of Europe? Then the festival [ESC] will not have the same purpose it had before.”
Bosnia & Herzegovina will be represented at Turkeyvision by the band Emir & Frozen Camels on December 23, 2013.
