Bojana Stamenov — Belgrade’s answer to Aretha Franklin — has today announced that she will sing in English at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. Yes, she has chosen “Beauty Never Lies” over the Serbian version “Ceo Svet Je Moj”. This marks a huge shift for state broadcaster RTS, which has always fielded Serbian-language songs at the contest, including its last winner “Molitva”.
“‘Molitva’ was performed in 2007 in the Serbian language, but since then much has changed,” Vladimir Graic, Bojana’s composer, said to N1 news. “Now it’s time for a song in the English language. The text is fantastic, and it certainly fits Bojana.”
The news site reports that Bojana is thrilled with her decision.
“Now I am left to give my best and convey the strong message about this song we will send,” she said. “It’s time to talk to myself and to others loudly: you’re beautiful, you’re different, you’re here!”
Poll results
One week ago we asked our readers whether they preferred the English-language “Beauty Never Lies” or its Serbian-language counterpart “Ceo Svet Je Moj”. After counting 989 votes, we can now reveal that 62% of our readers wanted Bojana to sing in Serbian. That said, many commenters on our post said that the switch of the tongue still works nicely, and is far better than attempts other countries have made to sing in English (such as Albania 2014).
1. Ceo Svet Je Moj (Serbian) 615 votes, 62.18%
2. Beauty Never Lies (English) 374 votes, 37.82%
Oh and YES Macedonia was so much better before he RnB’ed it up and Englishified his lovely song 🙁 Lisija Esenski might have ended high in the ranks, Autumn Leaves was doomed..
Just heard the Serbian version for the first time now and honestly I prefer it to the English version. Maybe because I understand some Serbian (nor perfectly mind you :D) but it sounds more interesting in its original version..
http://www.adal2015.hu
To think every thing become nonsense and useless, whats the purpose of singing it in a beautiful very own language and winning the selection? when at the end it will change to english just for what? to be understand by the majority? to have a chance of winning? I think its time to return the rules of singing in a national language because ESC nowadays just become an open market to sell the songs and the true essence of the contest already been forgotten.
What the fuck? Why did they choose English?! No! This is a huge mistake, I admired Serbia for always singing in Serbian, but now they have really dissapointed me.
This is indeed the worst song this year…. Did not mind it at first, now I just find it cheaply produced, dated, try hard, pushy and incredibly annoying….. The lyrics are bizarre, the point is spot on but not like this…… I am pretty sure this has almost a zero chance of qualifying…… Sorry Serbia, tho I wish they sent something better and made it through but this is just NOT GOOD.
I feel as though I’m the only person who doesn’t mind the change? I mean, Macedonia made a HUGE mistake, but Serbia…This might work out well for them.
Big mistake by Serbia
excuse me, this woman has an AMAZING voice. Yes the song does not show her full potencial, those who watched the “contest” RTS held know that she can sing and that her voice has power and that she is amazing and that her voice is. I think that the mistake was to let only one person write all the songs. The song writer didnt write songs to show any of the artists full potencial. I llove when arists sing in their own language and i honestly hope more people do so , but this song is (unfortunately) better in english.… Read more »
Wow so Serbia one of very few countries to send songs only in Serbian has decided to send one completely in English. Why? Since 31 and a half (Romania) other countries are sending songs in English and only 4 of those countries speak the language. I wish they would bring back the language restriction rule at least make it so half of the songs are performed in one of the countries national language. Most artist who are singing in English probably can’t even speak the language. Good for the UK, Ireland, Malta, Portugal, Montenegro,Italy Finland, Spain, France and Australia singing… Read more »
I love the English version. This song has a message that should be heard & understood. It has risen from the low teens to smash into my top 10. I suspect it will grow stronger & therefore move higher before May.
@Alex — thank you! The melody of this song reminds me of This Is My Life too, but like you say the production is far weaker. If someone could only rework this song in the studio, it could become a campy Eurovision classic.
Both versions are great 😉
In contrast to the homophobic allegations against Sweden’s singer Mans, I came across this regarding Australia’s Guy Sebastian which was nice:
http://thefix.ninemsn.com.au/2014/12/05/15/03/guy-sebastian-defends-his-move-away-from-organised-christianity-after-online-backlash
fix the bad intro and just make the chours english the rest is perfet
If the song is well made, this just might be the first time Montenegro surpasses Serbia into finals.
I’m from Serbia and I don’t like this at all.
I preferred the Serbian version as well. The English version is a good translation but it lacks the energy and just becomes another generic self-empowerment song. Serbia slipped a few places for me 🙁
And by switching she has guaranteed an extended stay in the semi.
I preferred the Serbian version but the English lyrics are phenomenal so I’m looking forward to it either way <3
The English lyrics are great but the instruments so badly need to be improved. Ugh, this song has so much potential too! Get the Icelandic producers of Euroband on this song!
The song wasn’t good to begin with and the switching to English was the final nail on its coffin. Can’t see this qualifying. And do think Vladimir Grai? would turn everything around for Serbia after their 2013 nightmare and 2014 withdrawal.
For me the song had it’s problems from the very beginning. I don’t like something about the music and the production. It seems a bit rubbish, but it was saved in a way by the Serbian language, which fitted to this song. I don’t enjoy it translated into English. The lyrics are really mainstream. I prefer not knowing what she sings about.
This is not qualifying to save its life. Her voice sounds even more grating in english.
The disco bit in the end when she pretends to be a black singer? Hillarious. Perhaps it can get some points as a joke entry.
I think Serbia will end up like Albania last year, turning a beautiful song into an unholy mess, all for the sake of anglocentrism, and then getting slapped in the face by what they thought was a smart decision.
Needless to say it’s dropped out of my top 15.
OH NO 🙁
What I dislike about this year is that if you listened to the songs without knowing the artist/name/country you wouldn’t be able to tell where they are from. There is less and less use of national languages (in some cases even national composers) and less display of culture and heritage. It’s very sad really…
At leat it has a nice message..
If she actually read the comments on the youtube video she would now, what the most of us want.
Dislike it even more in English…the music and lyrics don’t match…it’s an upbeat Balkan ballad, so it should be in Serbian! However, knowing Serbia, they’ll likely get to final, and place in top 20.
This is so tacky in english. Guess they won’t be qualifying this year.
I prefer the english version all the way! <3
I have *Beauty Never Lies* on my top20 & 5th on the 1st semifinal! 🙂
There is a bug with the site maybe….I try how many times to post my comment but it doesn’t work…Hmm..
…..
Their entry was rubbish since Day 1. Now, they slipped into the garbage can even more. Near bottom. I really DO HOPE that this won’t qualify from its Semi because no matter what you’ll say or think – this “song” is really awful!
And that lyrics. That is a special type of “NO!”.
I’m very happy that we don’t have lot of own language songs! Just Finland, Romania, Montenegro, Portugal, Spain, France and Italy will send songs in their language! Eurovision change to a very modern competition! Every year we have more modern songs! I think Eurovision change since 2010! The contestens from 2000-2009 was very typical and full of own language and crazy, eurodance songs! I’m very happy that this is not the Eurovision today! I also hope that the ‘Own language rule’ will never come back because this was so oldschool in the 90s! But I hope that Bosnia&Herzegowina, Bulgaria, Croatia… Read more »
people always says no no no when a singer chooses english instead of their national language. but when a singer chooses their national language everyone cheers.. then at ESC the singer choosing their national language ends up in 20th place or as a non qualifier while she singer choosing english ends up in the top10.
it is just weird that people are so fixated with language..
Good decision. English is always better at ESC than the national language.
ugh this is terrible
@@
I couldn’t care less, I don’t like it either way. Next!
No. English version is horrible.
I like both versions, it’s one of those rare cases in which I think the english version works as well as the original, so I don’t complain about the change.
WATCH: possible choreography of “Love Injected” by Aminata https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ezv9gNW37LQ&itct=CCMQpDAYACITCL2WrtDOrcQCFQ4HGAodLYMAGzIHcmVsYXRlZEj-9qa3z_vehAw%3D&hl=en&client=mv-google&gl=LV
WATCH: Aminata releases official remix lyric video of “Love Injected” https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DAl73Pbpu34&itct=CCMQpDAiEwiP_snNzq3EAhWJvxgKHaQIAb0yCWM0LWZlZWQtdVoYVUN3bTMzMFRwdEYtdEVmMjlqMi11WTBB&hl=en&gl=LV&client=mv-google
WATCH: Aminata covers Passanger’s “Let Her Go” htps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpFa8Lr3hyM&itct=CCoQpDAYBSITCIn1sODNrcQCFUdKGAodTsUAi1IQQW1pbmF0YSBzYXZhZG9nbw%3D%3D&hl=en&gl=LV&client=mv-google
Most of the countries should do what Moldova did in 2013. They sent the song in English to the NF but then they changed it to the national language. Or EBU should bring back the language rule. It would be much better. I WANT THE LANGUAGE RULE!!!
Still wish they would have gone with a Serbian/English combination, but the English version is growing on me!
At least the English version sounds coherent, unlike last year with Albania and “say say say say.”
I liked serbian version a lot better.
Similar level to Moldova last year
Just like Macedonia, they should have kept the original. Not sure if it will qualify now.