Bosnia and Herzegovina at Eurovision 2009

Bosnia and Herzegovina Radio and Television (BHRT) announced in late 2008 a closed internal selection. Applications were accepted until December 20 from performers and authors. On January 12, 2009, the jury made the final choice by presenting the winning song on March 1 at the special television show BH Eurosong 2009 ^{[4] [5] [6]} . At least 50 candidates sent their applications to the selection committee of BHRT to participate in Eurovision 2009, but only 79 songs were offered, as composers sometimes included several songs in the applications. The jury included: Dejan Kukrich (BHT), Yasmin Ferovich (BH Radio), Adnan Musanovich (BHRT), Goran Kovacic, Miroslav Maraus, Damir Imamovich, Mahir Sarikhodzhich. The chairman of the jury and director of BH Eurosong Dejan Kukrich said that in connection with the New Year holidays, the jury will not announce its decision until January 12, 2009. He also substantiated the choice in favor of closed selection by the lack of finance for the national final ^[7] .

Among those who applied, was Khayrudin Vareshanovich , who performed with the group Hari Mata Hari in 2006 at the Eurovision Song Contest in Greece: Vareshanovich wrote music for his song, and poems were written by Dino Merlin (participant of Eurovision-1999) and Fakhruddin Pechikoza (author lyrics of 1993 and 2006). Vareshanovich said that since the rules do not prohibit performers from returning to the competition, he decided to take this opportunity. But until the announcement of the results, the Bosnian yellow press spread rumors about the inability of the country to participate in the competition due to financial problems and the purchase of rights to display the competition. However, Dejan Kukrich denied all the rumors. On March 1, 2009, the Saraina rock group Regina was presented as a contestant from Bosnia and Herzegovina with the song “ Bistra voda ” (“ Clear Water ”), which was recorded in Russian, English and Bosnian. The musician Aleksandar Chovich from the group became the author of both music and text ^{[1] [2] [3] [8]} .

The “Regina” group appeared in 1990, when in Sarajevo friends Aleksandar “Acho” Chovich, Boyan Milichevich and Denis Chabrich created a garage rock group. Davor Ebner became the vocalist of the group, and in the same year the group released its first album, achieving great popularity. Aleksandar Čović, who was the author of Regina songs, was inspired by U2 music. The group spent its rehearsals in the garage at the Marine Dvor in Sarajevo. The first hits were songs "Spavaj", "Ne pitaj me" and "Kao nekada ona", which became classics of Yugoslav rock.

In 1992, Regina released the album Ljubav nije za nas, which made the band real stars in Yugoslavia. After the collapse of the country and the outbreak of the civil war, Davor Ebner left the group, and Aleksandar Chovich continued his tour with the same line-up, releasing the albums Regina, Oteto od zaborava, Godine lete, Ja nisam kao drugi, Kad zatvorim oci "And" Devedesete. " In 2004, Ebner returned to the group after meeting in Belgrade, and 10 months later the album “Sve mogu ja” was released with Ebner's vocals. In July 2007, the group was honored to perform at the opening act of the Rolling Stones in Budva.

On March 1, 2009 at the BH Eurosong show, in addition to the Regina group, a number of Eurovision participants also performed - Quartissimo and Martina Maerle (Slovenia), Hadise (Turkey), Next Time (Macedonia), Jade Ewan (Great Britain), Sakis Rouvas (Greece) ), Chiara (Malta), Andrea Demirovich (Montenegro) ^[9] . The invited guest was the representative of the SFRY from 1964 Sabahudin Kurt ^{[10] [11]} .

Regina continued her tour by performing at the Serbian national selection of Beovizija 2009 on March 7 ^[12] and at a promotional concert in the Netherlands on April 18 ^[13] , giving concerts in Albania and Montenegro, performing on the Croatian television channel HRT 1 on April 4 as part of the TV Bingo Show and performing a song for viewers in the Spet Doma music program on Slovenian television RTV SLO . The final single for Eurovision included versions in English and Russian, as well as a remix ^[14] .

After presenting the song, the Bosnian and Serbian press accused Regina of plagiarizing the refrain from another song, “Oltar,” by Mljan Dinkic , performed by Zoran “Kiki” Lesendrich . Experts counted 12 borrowed measures out of 17, despite the fact that the legislation allowed to borrow no more than 5 measures without the permission of the songwriter, otherwise it was considered a copyright violation. The fact of plagiarism was confirmed by Kiki Lesendrich himself, and the situation was aggravated by the fact that the song “Regina” was recorded in the studio of Vlada Negovanovich, the guitarist of the band Kiki Lesendrich.

However, representatives of the group denied the fact of plagiarism, saying that the songs are just too similar. Mladjan Dinkic, who was also the Minister of Economy of Serbia in 2009, asked to be included in the list of songwriters so that there would be no scandals. However, the Bosnian delegation stated that the only songwriter is овović and the fact that the chorus coincided is not a reason for accusation of plagiarism. The head of the delegation, Dejan Kukrich, noted that in Serbia, interest in the Bosnian song turned out to be even higher than in the Serbian song “Cipela”, with which Marco Cohn was going to represent Serbia. Soon, Dinkicz refused claims, wishing the group to compete successfully, and the discussion of possible plagiarism did not go to trial.

The author of the Eurovision-Kazakhstan Internet project, Andrei Mikheev, put the group among the favorites, noting the similarity of the Regina song with the Lejla song, with which Bosnia represented Hari Mata Hari in 2006 ^[15] :

• Music: All in the best style of Leila . And nothing that for this rock band had to reincarnate in Hari . The result requires sacrifice, and similar songs from the Balkans have always been the most successful. 9/10
• Text: Typical Balkan love lyrics. 9/10
• Vocals: Good. 8/10
• Total: Will fight for the highest places. Moreover, there is a great idea of ​​a number for the Russian scene. 8/10

The chairman of the Russian OGAE fan club, Anton Kulakov, remained unhappy with the choice, calling the song another “clone” of Lejla, which, however, had very high chances of success ^[15] :

• Music: Lightly paid Leila. When will their cloning end? Bosnia seems to be becoming a country of the same song. 7/10
• Text: Yeah - here, too, Leila begs us. 7/10
• Vocals: Yeah, and the vocals give a fateful origin. 8/10
• Total: Honestly - the Balkans are tired. Alas, this will go to the finals and can collect Balkan points there. 6/10

The 2009 rules provided for automatic qualification for the finals only for the hosts of the competition and the Big Four (Great Britain, France, Germany and Spain). On January 30, 2009, Bosnia and Herzegovina went to the first semi-final on the draw, which took place on May 12, 2009. Regina performed in full force with two backing vocalists and drummers on stage ^{[16] [17] [18]} . Having reached the finals from 3rd place, the group took 9th place in the final.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Points

Bosnia and Herzegovina Points

• Official Eurovision website
• Bosnia and Herzegovina at Eurovision 2009 (Russian)