Partypooper

Back in the early 1980s, when I decided to be born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, the country’s airwaves were filled with Novi val, the Yugoslav New Wave movement. Prolific young musicians with good ideas dominated the scene. From Pankrti, to Paraf, to Zabranjeno Pušenje and Leb i sol. It was the time when state run media had bands capable of playing A Night in Tunisia or other jazz standards as well as any band in North America. It was the time when “artists” producing kitsch music had to pay tax on it.

But then, the Serbian Music Department won and their victory culminated in Eurovision 2007 when Marija Šerifović, judged by the reaction of the population, landed on Moon or recieved a Nobel Prize, or sang a sentimental song which was composed entirely by mechanical means on a special kind of kaleidoscope known as a versificator.

The tune had been haunting Belgrade for weeks past. It was one of countless similar songs published for the benefit of the proles by a sub-section of the Music Department. The words of these songs were composed without any human intervention whatever on an instrument known as a versificator.

Everybody kneel down, pray and forget what a shitty and kitschy song contest Eurovision really is. Forget all the ugly things that happened in your life and be fulfilled by Marija’s victory — because you accomplished something too by watching her on TV!