Serbia SERBIA 2023 - Luke Black - Samo mi se spava

[ESC United Mod Team]

 

[Alcatraz]

Does this guy have a voice? He was barely heard.

 

[Juliette]

Does this guy have a voice? He was barely heard.

Could it have been intentional? He'd only wanted to sleep, after all?

 

[Alcatraz]

Could it have been intentional? He'd only wanted to sleep, after all?

It makes sense!

 

[Milos-BC]

Happy he made it through. This was far from his best performance but he was under a lot of pressure, among other things, also because of everything that happened last week. I believe he will be better in the final, just like his final performance on our NF was slightly better compared to his SF performance.

I have no special expectations in the final, I am happy we are there.

 

[megzypegz]

I love this song he portrays so well how gamers are trying to get away from reality of life. It's like we are sleeping in a game most of the time. Just trying to get away from the reality of life most of the time. But also life can also be a game. This is my favourite song of this year I've watched both of the semi finals and this is by far the performance that stood with me the most.

 

[JenJen94]

It was absolutely an interesting performance on Tuesday! Very different and very interesting. Glad he's in the final!

 

[Looren]

Still really dislike the song but regardless of that I hope Luke has fun tonight, best of luck Serbia

 

[goncalovieira]

Deserved. This was really bad.
Serbia, you are one of the most talented countries in terms of music. You know how to perform. Leave these experimental things and get back the Balkan vibes into Eurovision.

 

[crashworld]

Though I really like the song, the non-existent vocals definitely tanked this even though the staging is pretty alright.

 

[blue00eyes]

Qualified only because of friendly vote from Croatia.

 

[Juliette]

I love this song and intend to keep listening to it over and over, but whatever has happened with his vocals yesterday?

 

[megzypegz]

Yeah his vocals were pretty bad I really like the song and will carry on listening to it. With better vocals and delivery it could have done better.

 

[PlasticToad]

2nd year in a row where I'm just happy to see my fave qualify. (Iceland was my favourite last year.) I adore this genre of music but it's not very accessible at all. A little sad about how lowly he scored in the GF but also not surprised about it at all. It's also not a very good genre for live performance. The whispery vocals can easily be interpreted as bad/unconfident singing.

I'm pleased I got to see it twice, though! And that I have a new artist to follow! Hopefully he does some gigs in London since he lives there, I'd be able to go to them!

 

[lolita]

Though I really like the song, the non-existent vocals definitely tanked this even though the staging is pretty alright.

True, but I don't think only vocals were problem here, I think the whole vibe of the song was just too dark for average people watching it from home to understand it or like it. It is not televote grabber, even though I really like our song this year, I think it is good and unique overall. But I DO understand problems it had to face and therefore bad result. I am sad because of it a bit, too, because this is our worst result in final ever (and we were never before in bottom 5, from our debut until now), we were even better when we were sending basic and average Balkan ballads.

 

[Veronika]

Ooh... the result definitely could've been better.
But yeah, unfortunately things like this can happen. Despite loving the song and the performance a big time, deep inside I feared that it might be too experimental and innovative for the general audience.

But I'm super proud of my favorite nonetheless. And Luke should be proud of himself, because he was amazing and he did his best.
Even my mom was impressed by his performance. xD

I really wanted to vote, but unfortunately the site didn't accept our cards. But I asked a friend, so he voted. It didn't help, but anyway I was happy that I managed to support Serbia at least this way.

And I love the song still, and will always love it no matter what. For me it will always stay super special and unique.

 

[ag89]

Well, different circumstances affected the final outcome for Serbia this year. Firstly, Serbia (completely) gave up on promoting Eurovision due to the events last weeks and everything that followed afterward with huge anti-government protests happening right now. Semi final show was moved to chanel 3 that gets very limited coverage and the final was moved back to chanel 1, but with no intention to promote it or to invite diaspora to vote. Serbia got zeros from Austria, Switzerland, Germany etc... where diaspora from Serbia is very present. So, the mood was not very Eurovisionish this year for Serbia.

And secondly, the song was obviously hard to digest. I liked it and I think Serbia had a nice stage show, but the competition was rough. Anyway, I hope Serbia will continue with experimenting, but also with sending something that is easier to understand.

 

[midnightsun]

I think the whole vibe of the song was just too dark for average people watching it from home to understand it or like it.

Well, that’s why we have juries. It was a superb staging, very artful music and the lyrics/subject was also very well put together. Unfortunately juries don’t do their job anymore.

I have to apologize to our jury. When I saw the names I thought I knew exactly what they were voting for. Boring ballads, lame pop. I wrote "what a bad jury we have".
Well, I‘m not afraid to admit when I was wrong. Our jury was one of the few who gave points to Luke. The second most of all points he got. I‘m so proud of them! They knew what real art is. Other juries just voted for the same kinds of ballads again or for simply betting odds top 3.

And I‘m happy he made it to the final. It was my #1 this year. Congratulation for sending such a bold song! We need more of this!

 

[ixic]

Well, different circumstances affected the final outcome for Serbia this year. Firstly, Serbia (completely) gave up on promoting Eurovision due to the events last weeks and everything that followed afterward with huge anti-government protests happening right now. Semi final show was moved to chanel 3 that gets very limited coverage and the final was moved back to chanel 1, but with no intention to promote it or to invite diaspora to vote. Serbia got zeros from Austria, Switzerland, Germany etc... where diaspora from Serbia is very present. So, the mood was not very Eurovisionish this year for Serbia.

And secondly, the song was obviously hard to digest. I liked it and I think Serbia had a nice stage show, but the competition was rough. Anyway, I hope Serbia will continue with experimenting, but also with sending something that is easier to understand.

Well thank God that diaspora is not having influence anymore. Tbh, this mumbling and sorrowing was just too bad, he completely got lost in performance.

 

[lolita]

Well, that’s why we have juries. It was a superb staging, very artful music and the lyrics/subject was also very well put together. Unfortunately juries don’t do their job anymore.

I have to apologize to our jury. When I saw the names I thought I knew exactly what they were voting for. Boring ballads, lame pop. I wrote "what a bad jury we have".
Well, I‘m not afraid to admit when I was wrong. Our jury was one of the few who gave points to Luke. The second most of all points he got. I‘m so proud of them! They knew what real art is. Other juries just voted for the same kinds of ballads again or for simply betting odds top 3.

And I‘m happy he made it to the final. It was my #1 this year. Congratulation for sending such a bold song! We need more of this!

Oh, yes, I was so grateful to German jury during evening , as I am always happy with every jury point we get, because they are so rare, and same situation repeats almost each year somehow, even though we really send good songs overall, we even had some very powerful vocals in past years, but they got only like 20 points by jury overall. I noticed that jury always vote for similar concepts and songs each year, for so called "safe entries", just like you said, too. It is sad, but not much we can do, unless they decide to make jury vote in smaller percent (30-40% maybe).
Thank you for kind words and all support for Luke, he is great, kind and talented guy, he really deserved better, but Eurovision is such a "game" - something works sometimes, other times it doesn't, but I am glad we took the risk with this entry, instead of sending always some power Balkan ballad.

 

[SpiritofKeiino]

Loved the song but was bored by the performance. I don't find Luke to be a very engaging performer and the vocals were not that great. Song could have made more impact with stronger vocals and less whispering.