Beovision is Under Re-vision

Belgrade, Dec.4, 2009 (Serbia Today) - According to announcements of RTS, the selection of Serbian representative at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest in Norway will be altered and the new concept of the festival will be soon announced. The fact is that the current model should be changed.
In an interview for “Blic”, Kornelije Kovac and Marko Kon agree with this position. According to a poll carried out on the Blic website, two thirds of readers think that the current model of Beovision Festival should be replaced by another one.
Due to the current economic crisis, the selection of Serbian representative at the Eurovision will be changed and Sandra Susa, the head editor of the RTS entertainment program, has recently said that the festival will be much more modest than in the previous years.
“In a few days the public will be informed about the new model of selection of our representative at the Eurovision Song Contest. Although there have been some misinformation that Beovision will be called off - that is not correct. The festival will still exist, but with a changed concept,” says Duska Vucinic-Lucic, PR manager of RTS.
If the festival must be held, the logical solution would be to have only one competition evening with at most ten performers and probably the best and the cheapest solution would be if RTS chose one performer who would represent Serbia in the best possible way and then to advertise bids for a song. The current selection process is not working.
This year’s Beovision had a semi-final with 20 performers and a final with 11 performers, while the winner was selected by votes of the audience and a three-member expert jury. The selection process in other countries differ. Apart from classic festivals which usually include one or two semi-finals and a final, there are also less complicated ways of selections. For example, a national television selects a performer and later decides which song will be performed.
“Whichever system of selection is applied, there will always be those who are dissatisfied. As long as SMS voting exists, there will be problems. One of the solutions might be that the decision is made by an expert jury. Of course, the new system of voting should be conceived in collaboration with music experts and then suggested to RTS,” says the renowned composer Kornelije Kovac who was a member of the jury in the Beovision final this year.
According to Marko Kon who represented Serbia at this year’s Eurovision in Moscow, the best solution might be to enforce a system in which at least half of compositions would be ordered and composed by famous composers.
“This way of selection has been enforced in numerous countries, such as Croatia, Macedonia, Great Britain, etc. The problem of Beovision is that numerous songs are composed by anonymous authors. I am sure that RTS will choose the right solution since they are experienced with organizing this kind of event,” says Marko Kon.
Whichever model RTS selects, it is certain that there is no solution which would appeal to everyone and there will surely be a lot of questioning of the new system of selection.