Zdravo Srbija! The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — has touched down in Belgrade, the host city of Eurovision 2008. After partying late into the night at an abandoned warehouse-turned-club, we gathered ourselves to evaluate Tijana Bogicevic and her Eurovision 2017 song “In Too Deep”. Are we falling deeply in love with Serbia’s contestant? Read on to find out!
Tijana Bogicevic – “In Too Deep”
About Tijana Bogicevic
Tijana Bogicevic is a Serbian-born, America-based singer. She was internally selected by the Serbian broadcaster, perhaps owing to her long history with the contest. Tijana has previous Eurovision experience as one of the backing vocalists for Serbia’s 2011 act, Nina, and she also competed at Serbia’s national selection Beovizija in 2009, but failed to qualify to the final. Her song for Kyiv was written by a team including Borislav Milanov and Joacim Bo Persson — who were part of the team behind Bulgaria’s “If Love Was A Crime” in 2016. They’ve also worked on Macedonia’s song for Kyiv, “Dance Alone”, and Bulgaria’s entry “Beautiful Mess”.
“In Too Deep” reviews
William: The dreamy xylophone opening draws me in and the pre-chorus promises something spectacular. Then the dated drum ‘n’ bass chorus hits and it’s more of a whimper than a bang. Even the ethnic instrumental leading into the bridge — one of the most consistently effective Eurovision tropes — fails to get the blood flowing. Tijana isn’t in too deep. She’s treading very shallow musical waters.
Score: 5.5/10
Anthony: Even though the overall production of the song all adds up to the point where we’ve heard it all before, Borislav and Joacim continue to werk their songwriting magic…although repeating Poli’s fourth place is a big ask. Serbia might be aiming to bounce back from last year’s result, but anything can happen on the night with Tijana’s live performance.
Score: 8/10
Sinan: Serbia is back in the game! Last year Sanja Vucic was so good, even if her song didn’t scream radio-friendly. But this year Serbia’s song has the sound of a massive international hit. Tijana is solid vocally and easy on the eyes. I hope the live performance is going to be even bigger! Let’s do this, Serbia!
Score: 8.5/10
Chris: An obvious example of a song of two halves. The chorus is the real star — a soaring banger that is right up there with the best of the year. Unfortunately, it’s oddly paired with a “good at best” verse, which sounds childishly amateur in its composition. The song (and Tijana, likely) can’t be expected to go 100% all the time — you need those peaks at the right time — but it feels like they went a step too far with this. As a result, the whole thing is dragged down.
Score: 7/10
Deban: This Katy Perry-esque club banger isn’t bad. Tijana’s clear diction is an asset here. Her delivery of “In Too Deep” doesn’t tie her to Serbia, making this one of the more polished attempts from her country. However, “In Too Deep” isn’t teaching me anything. Neither is it pushing any musical boundaries. It is simply nothing more than a safe product delivered safely.
Score: 5.5/10
Robyn: Like FYR Macedonia’s song, “In Too Deep” is an uplifting modern pop song, but it’s generic to the point of being interchangeable. It sounds great in the studio version, but fast pop songs are harder to reproduce live. How will the heavily produced studio version sound when translated to the live Kyiv stage?
Score: 6/10
Jovana: When the teaser was released I had really high expectations for “In Too Deep”. Sadly the full version was disappointing. Serbia’s team haved played it too safe. There is literally nothing original about this. The dance beats, the drum and bass, the breakbeat, the vocals, the overall production – it’s all done by the book and that’s exactly why it sounds so generic. And I can’t make up my mind on that ethno element — sometimes it appears to have been forced in, at other points it seems to work. For all these reasons “In Too Deep” is a qualifier, but not a winner.
Score: 7.5/10
Sami: The first time I heard the song, I was really excited. Now I’m just bored. There is nothing here that we haven’t heard before. Tijana is a professional with a very rich voice, but the live performance really needs to lift this up for Serbia to have a shot at qualifying.
Score: 7/10
In our Wiwi Jury, we have 38 jurors but only room for eight reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
Anastas: 5/10
Andy: 7/10
Angus: 8/10
Antony: 8/10
Antranig: 8/10
Bernardo: 7.5/10
Bogdan: 7/10
Dayana: 6.5/10
Edd: 6.5/10
Erdi: 8/10
Forrest: 8/10
George: 5.5/10
Jacob: 4/10
Jason: 6/10
Jordi: 8.5/10
Josh: 7.5/10
Kristin: 6/10
Luis: 6/10
Marek: 8/10
Matt: 6.5/10
Mikhail: 6/10
Natalie: 7.5/10
Padraig: 8/10
Patrick: 9/10
Renske: 7.5/10
Rezo: 7/10
Stanislav: 8/10
Steinunn: 6/10
Tobias: 4/10
Zakaria: 7/10
Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 4 and a high of 9.
Wiwi Jury verdict: 6.93/10
What do you think of this song? Share your own score and review below!
See our current Eurovision 2017 reviews and rankings
I actually like this entry a lot, but after seeing her live performances… I don’t think she will be able to elevate the song. I think this track needs an epic performance. If she could translate her video into a live performance, that would be perfect. However, I have to admit that the song sounds a bit repetitive and monotonous, althogh it has a lot of power in it.
7.5/10
The instrumental teaser sounded like it had top 3 potential, this is a good song but a let down from the teaser.
If the rumors of Serbia buying this song out of FYROM are true, I feel they shot themselves in the foot somewhat. The weakest out of the Three Milanov/Persson songs this year. In Too Deep it’s a fairly decent offering that doesn’t have anything others don’t have. Strong pop sound, enjoyable structure and nice vocals. But it falls somewhat short of wowing. I guess we’ve been spoiled by the amazing instrumental snippet, which was insanely bold and strong, and having it softened up for the final product is holding the entire song back. There are barely any instrumental highlights and… Read more »
I like it. It is simple, radio-friendly and has potential for good staging. A lot of other countries seem to be struggling with the basics of pop yet Serbia is doing them well. I worry about her live vocal though.
I want to meet Patrick! The only real judgment.
I have mixted emotions about this one!
I loved Serbia for its traditional sound In its entries and the beautiful instrumentation since 2004,before the division with Montenegro.
At first listen, I was disappointed, as I expected sth better than this. Now it has grown on me. It’s modern, contemporary, well produced. Serbia seems to follow a more modern path In its entries. I prefer the chorus rather than the verses And the bridge adds sth traditional to the Song. However, I think it still lacks the traditional identity I loved In Serbia.
I’ll give “In too deep” a 6.5!
Falling so deep into shallow musical waters. This is well-produced and well sung, but the actual music is so generic that it becomes forgettable. The verses are almost musically identical to a Chorus from the Sugababes (“About you now,”) which doesn’t help matters. To be honest I would rather listen to the Sugababes; but I have to give this entry some credit for a great video and classy production. 5/10.
Deban should be honest one time at least…When he talked to Tijana he was so ” Let’s do this” screaming and so…And than,there is his review…. Honesty,let’s learn it !!!!
Why does this get a higher score than Latvia? This song is the definition of forgetable. Even the video with the two contemporary dancers is something we’ve seen before.
This song is so bland and sounds like something to heard loads of times before. Borderline qualifier
I kinda like Serbia’s song. Its a descent song.
My score: 6/10 – My rank: 32nd/42
———————-
{*My ranking scoreboard so far*}
~ 8,5 : Israel (4th)
~ 8,0 : Latvia (7th)
~ 7,5 : Poland (10th) – Iceland (11th) – UK (12nd)
~ 7,0 : Malta (13th) – Denmark (16th)
~ 6,5 : Netherlands (21st)
~ 6,0 : Montenegro (27th) – *Serbia* (32nd)
~ 5,5 : Germany (33rd)
I think this is really modern, I agree it’s nothing super original or something, but come on are Italy, Norway or Sweden original?! No.. but still a lot of the people like them.. I love the etho sounds and the instrumentals overrall. For me it’s a 8/10
Personal rating: Overall, to me this song is just above mediocre. The melody is rather strong and memorable, but the arrangement is rather weak. If they had given the song more sonic depth through musical instrumentation this could have been an AMAZING entry. However, the song would also need more variation in the second half as it gets rather repetitive towards the end. The lyrics are OK (rather characterless to be honest), but they would have worked better if the music had been reflective of the idea of “falling”. 6.5/10 Prediction: If they put Tijana in her ring and make… Read more »
5,5/10.
She will make Top 10 though.
the song is such a let-down. when they released the instrumental snippet i was super excited but turns out it was the best part of the song (bridge). everything else is pop song 101.
‘In too deep’ has been growing on me since the first time I listened to it, but it’s a bit generic and worse than ‘Skeletons’ or ‘Dance Alone’. The chorus is somehow catchy to me, but that’s all. I hope Tijana can sing it live like in the studio version or Serbia will struggle to qualify.
Serbia is currently my 10th. 7/10
Has to be one of the most unoriginal entries of the year, if not THE most. We’ve heard it all before.
It’s not a bad song, but it’s not good enough to vote for it, either. Plus, I expect this to be disappointing live.
I wouldn’t mind if “In Too Deep” stayed in the semis.
This is just avegare and forgettable. I kind of like her.
This is jury’s fault (also Ebu) for voting for mediocre generic songs every year.
Nobody remember that flop called “Walk on water”. Also “Sound of silence” didn’t any success after the contest.
And Serbia wanted to follow the same way.. I hope it won’t work and juries will start making their job better and vote for real music.
What is good about this track is that song progresses from shallow start to a banger. The break is amazing, but after it ends, she has to recreate her vocals in same way as in studio version to bring soar into drum erruption. I rarely include serbian entries in top, but when it happens, they hit me to become one of favourites. Here, however, she needs to strike hard all the time to keep interest, because there’s nothing stand-out in rest of this breakbit track, to be honest.
My winner of this year <3
Tijana's voice is amazing, the track is modern and fast paced and the instrumentation is absolutely outstanding.
10/10 for me
This song is much better than the one from Italy, I SAY IT.
It’s not bad its just a heard it all before song. To me it sounds totally like a combination of Katy Perry’s Firework with last year’s Walk On Water(by no means do I mean that its a copy) ending up to be worse than both.
It’s not a bad song – but it is quite something to rip off the Naughty Boy/Beyonce/Benjamin Arrow song “Running”. It follows that similar drum and bass/UK garage sound that brought them success, but “In Too Deep” is a blatant attempt at sponging off success. 5/10 (lukewarm)
@Polegend – Yeah, you are right. For example, I detested ‘Marry Me’ (was my semi-last for awhile), but it finished as my 12th. It grew on me so much. On the other hand, some songs can decline so much after a weak performance. For example, ‘Mia Citta’ was in my top 10 for awhile and ended-up 28th after that performance.
I really like this. It’s very well produced. Tijana is beautiful but sadly, I wasn’t impressed by her live performances in the pre-parties. Serbia is certainly in my top 15 for now, but I’m worried about the live show.
7.5/10
The instrumentation of the choruses are amazing, as is the instrumental break. Everything else is good at best. Combined with the running order, Serbia could easily do a Norway 2016 and be a shock non qualifier.
Whilst I realistically don’t see this doing too well, I love the combination of drum and bass and ethnopop. It works well and she carries herself amazingly.
@ Colin – I think not feeling anything for a song is worse than hating it. Sometimes I go from totally loathing a song to completely loving it (it happened with I Feed You My Love, for example), but a song that makes me feel nothing will always stay in that state for me.
Deban is right comparing this with Katy Perry’s new sound. It totally sounds like it could be a track on KP4… one of those that never gets the single treatment, though. It’s very basic and not deep at all, but it’s very enjoyable. I’m worried about the live rendition as well since it’s very uptempo, but it’s not vocally challenging so Tijana will be fine 🙂
That’s no bad song. Kinda like it but it doesn’t make me feel to listen this again and again. So so. Score is a little too high. Still song’s better than Jana Burceska’s from F.Y.R. Macedonia which is too much hyped.
This song is a rare example of an entry that makes me feel nothing. I don’t like it, I don’t hate it. It doesn’t make me happy, upset, sad or thrilled. It’s just a complete void of emotion. But since it’s uptempo, I knew Wiwi-score would be high.
9 – UK, POL
8 – MAL, LAT
7 – DEN, NET, ICE
5 – ISR, SER
4 – GER
2 – MON
The studio version sounds great. However the live version is quite disappointing. Nothing groundbreaking but it is one of the most well produced songs this year. 6.5/10
04 UK | *11 SRB* | 14 DEN | 16 POL | 19 LAT | 20 ICE
26 NLD | 33 MNE | 34 ISR | 36 GER | 37 MLT
6,93 and Polish entry 5,74? lol, I’m done
this is so funny
Overrated….
Dated,cheap and her voice is meh…