#INTERNAL SELECTIONS

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2006 - Number 9 - Hari Mata Hari - "Lejla"

Perhaps the Platonic ideal of a Balkan ballad with so much pedigree it hurts.

Hari Mata Mari are old timers both in the Bosnian music scene but also at Eurovision. They entered songs in both the 1986 and 1987 Jugovizija contests to find Yugoslavia's Eurovision representatives. There have been many changes to the group since then though.

They were formed in 1985 around Hari Varešanović. He, together with the group Baobab won the Nove nade, nove snage festival and announced the formation of a new band, Hari Mata Hari. That original incarnation also included Edo Mulahalilović who was one of the participants in the fabled and first ever Bosnian national final, as well as the writer of Bosnia's 1994 Eurovision entry

The writers on Lejla are no less stellar. There's Željko Joksimović perhaps the King of the Balkan ballad and former Eurovision representative for Serbia & Montenegro. He's also one of the Eurovision stars the fans know just by their first name.

Finally there's the lyricists Fahrudin Pecikoza-Peca and Dejan Ivanović. The latter will go on to write two more of the most famous Balkan ballads in Eurovision history, Oro for Serbia in 2008 and also Adio for Montenegro in 2015. Fahurdin is Hari Mata Hari's regular song-writer but also wrote the lyrics for Bosnia's first ever, hugely emotional Eurovision entry in 1993 - Sva bol svijeta

On top of this, other Hari Mata Hari members have Eurovision connections. Also present in 1993 and making the dangerous journey out of Sarajevo in 1993 was Izo Kolečić, and the backing singers here, Ivana Čabraja and Ksenija Milošević will go on to have nine Eurovision appearances as backing singers in total. Ksenija is one of the backing singers for Eurovision winner and all-timer Molitva for Serbia in 2007

By saying that Lejla has pedigree, I'm severely undersell it. It's possibly one of the largest assemblages of Balkan and Eurovision talent ever put together on one stage.

It's a song about longing. Well it's a Balkan ballad, of course it is. Lejla is elusive, missing, leaving only trace. A trace that Hari is clinging to, following where ever it may lead, but Lejla remains an aching absence in his life.

It's a simple thing, but the drama of the instrumentation, emphasised by the simple starry staging, and the reactions of the band to Hari's words saying everything they need to. It may be simple, but it's one of my favourite uses of the 2006 stage, surrounded by the night, ghostly and haunting. It's a mood like no other.

The song was an internal selection by BHRT and they truly knew what they were doing here. It sailed through the semi-final in second place, gaining the most twelve point scores while it was doing so. It came third overall in the final behind two other acts that had televoting momentum of different kinds behind them. Lejla and Hari Mata Hari were definitely the classic Eurovision choice.

Eurovision 2006 was the climax of Hari Mata Hari's long and illustrious career in the music industry. There were tours, performances and other releases as well as more line-up changes. But this is their pinnacle - how could it not be? Their various members ploughed their own musical furrow although even now Hari Mata Hari come together to put on a reunion performance after nearly forty years in the business.

[ibblescribbles]

TRASH 🚮 Speedpaint | Alt under cut:

[sharkneto]

Fanfic authors, I have a question!

I've been thinking about how fanfic has become more mainstream in the last few years, and if that's affected how open us authors are about our fanfic hobby.

[starleska]

right, y'all need to stop this now. there can only be a certain amount of this kinda man in media, surely? 🙈🙈🙈

[xofeno]

FBI: International / 4.04, "The Unwinnable War" (2024)

[lylethewaterguy]

the league joined the corps(s)

[potatoesarecheese]

We need more mute characters in fiction

More mute characters in fiction that aren't infantilized or belittled or, god forbid, fixed. Characters that, instead of learning how to talk "normally" learn to stop hating themselves for being different.

Sure, we have the mute characters that physically can't speak, their throat was damaged, their vocal cords were ripped out, they're deaf. All those reasons are great.

But we need more mute characters that can speak, but actually can't in every way that matters. Characters that should be fine but they're not and they don't know what's wrong with them and they're just stuck feeling horrible all the time.

Characters that are trapped inside of their own heads, wanting to scream and speak and be heard, but also unable to because they are terrified of being perceived. because they shouldn't speak. because they won't speak.

Because they dug themselves into a hole but they have no idea what happened how to get back out of it or even call out for someone else to throw them a rope.

Because their whole society is built around this idea of perfection and how your body is supposed to work and so of course they're struggling. everyone else has baked it into their heads that they're “broken” and “useless” when they're really actually not.

Instead of getting fixed and learning to talk, they find a group of people that are normal about it. That treat them as an entire human being and help them unravel all of those ideas about the "normal" and "correct" way to do things.

We need more mute characters in fiction, because how can you ever even begin to communicate with someone if they don't know how to listen to you?

We need more mute characters in fictions, because it will help us unravel all those ideas about the "normal" and "correct" way to do things

[kaistarus]

Isagi: what the hell? Bachira just decided we're partners? A little annoying but if I have to

Isagi 5 seconds later: I'm paired with Bachira and I would never ditch him for anyone, literally fuck off

[fidjiefidjie]

La belle affiche tirée du film japonais « Rhapsodie en août » d'Akira Kurosawa

Ouverture du 77 ème Festival international du film 🎬 de Cannes

Cannes 2024 -Official Selection

Source: International Film Festival

👋 Bel après-midi

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2002 - Number 22 - Sarit Hadad - "Mr. DJ Superman"

Following Cyprus in bring out the big guns at Eurovision, Israel weren't going to be left out. In 2002 the IBA selected Sarit Hadad and held an internal competition to select the song she would sing. Sarit was and is still one of the most famous singers in Israel. Starting by sneaking out of the family home to perform in night clubs at the age of 12(!) she's had a lifetime in the music industry with her first contract being signed before she was legally able to do so.

Prior to 2002, she had 10 albums out, and been voted Israeli female singer of the year in 1999 and 2001, and would again win that award in 2002. Sarit is a big name. She'd already tried to enter Eurovision once before - in 1999, but had been voted third in a field of four by the IBA's selection committee. In 2002, the broadcaster wasn't going to make the same mistake again.

There were four songs in this competition all submitted by Sarit herself, including one on which she had a co-writing credit. The eventual winning song and this song, Mr. DJ Superman, had the same two writers, Yoav Ginai and Svika Pick, the song-writing partnership who had created Diva for Dana International in 1998. Unlike the winning song, Mr. DJ Superman is full-on disco-pop with middle eastern flavours running through it. It's still a plea for peace of sorts, but in this case one brokered by a DJ and lots of dancing.

This was Sarit's favoured song of the four and although it wasn't ultimately the selection of the IBA, it did come a close second in the published scoring. The video above is not from a selection competition broadcast - I don't think that one was ever shown. It's from a concert given by Sarit later.

She went on to finish 12th at Eurovision this year with the selected entry, is up to her 23rd album release, won female singer of the year again in 2009 and singer of the decade in 2010, has had major concert tours and many single releases. She's still an all round icon of Israeli and Mizrahi music, has been a mentor on the Israeli incarnation of The Voice.

[st-just]

You read a lot of books of mostly dubious quality

Look if you (I) only read stuff that's good then you're (I'm) almost axiomatically playing it too safe and missing out on potential gems. It's a sacrifice you (I) have to be willing to make.

[aprilblossomgirl]

my favorite QL 2023 recaps: part 4 - the boys x the beach

GIF 1-3. Nueng & Palm in Never Let Me Go (2022-2023)

GIF 4-6. Gun & Cher in A Boss and A Babe (2023)

GIF 7-9. Mhok & Day in Last Twilight (2023-2024)

[whosname]

This guy again.

[Id. Hijikata in his salarymen au persona sitting at his desk resigned. He's on a skype call with Kintoki who says with a stupid grin "I have a stupid question…". Hijikata, bracing, says "Okay, tell me…" End Id.]

[trentskis]

why would u more easily believe that there is some special treatment in the premier league going on rather than one arsenal player got injured and a couple of them chose to withdraw from national team selection some very very weird things being said on this website

[pixlmonkeys]

I say this with the deepest sense of hatred imaginable, fuck this article

[bottlepiecemuses]

You are submitting me this crap while ignoring that Hamas was found to actually hurt women and you only want to condemn one side because of your bigoted. It's interesting you pro-Palestinian pos want to act and condemn Israel so hard that you grab any type of stuff and ignore Hamas's record and even say it's a resistance. You guys have no soul or morals.