And, finally, our 12 points go - to Yugoslavia"
The name of the former country on the most popular music competition in Europe was last heard a little less than three decades ago, and these words from the small screen delighted every Eurovision Song lover, from the only socialist country that participated in it.
Since its debut in 1961, Yugoslavia has participated 27 times, and the greatest success was achieved in 1989, when the Zadar group Riva and their pop hit "Rock me" were declared the winners.
"It was so big, unusual and unexpected that I simply don't have a realistic and actual memory of that moment," he says Emilija Kokic, the singer of this band, for the BBC in Serbian.
Rock critic Petar Janjatović says that the entire musical Yugoslavia saw it as its own triumph.
"In general, the audience loved festivals - from San Remo (Italy), to Eurovision, which was an extremely prestigious competition in those years," he told the BBC in Serbian.
The misty glow of a red pentacle in the Eurovision sky
Yugoslavia made its debut on the Eurovision stage with the composition "Neke davne zvezda", which she sang Ljiljana Petrović, and the text was written by a famous Serbian poet Miroslav Mika Antic.
The singer went to the French Cannes, as she said, without a recording or record, and took eighth place there with nine points.
The melody for the song was composed by a Slovenian - Jože Privšek.
This performance catapulted the previously unknown vocal soloist to stardom and introduced her to the domestic audience on the international stage. Unlike her European colleagues who dressed glamorously for this occasion, Ljiljana Petrović presented herself to the audience in a modest black dress.
However, immediately before the performance of the announcer of Television Ljubljana Saša Novak she hung a silver brooch on her, which can also be seen in the video.
TV Ljubljana sent a singer from Serbia to the competition again next year, this time in Luxembourg - Lola Novaković.
Her song "Don't turn on the lights at dusk" reached a high fourth place, which would remain the best ranking in Yugoslavia until the 1980s.
After only two years - in 1964, Yugoslavia achieved its officially worst result - Sabahudin Kurt he finished the competition without scoring a point.
In those years, too, there were often popular performers among the competitors, such as the Croatian ensembles "Dubrovančki troubadours" and "4M", but in slightly changed lineups.
"Due to the rules at the time where groups were forbidden to compete - the Dubrovnik Troubadours did not perform under that name but as a duet - Hamo Hajdarhodžić i Luciano Capurso, and 4M, like Ivan and 3M", he explains Slobodan Todorovic, journalist and founder of the website eurovizija.rs, for the BBC in Serbian.
The inglorious seventies
The following decade was not famous for the participation of Yugoslav performers in Eurovision either.
Although in the 1970s the representatives were big stars of the music scene of that time - like Kić Slabinac, Tereza Kesovija, Zdravko Čolić and Korni Group - more notable results were absent.
"If we look at the results that Yugoslavia achieved, especially in the 1960s and 1970s, we were always in the second league," points out Todorović.
He believes that at that time there was no "defined motive", that is, "what is it that we would like to present to the world".
Also, what the domestic audience liked and wanted often did not match what was the taste of Europe.
"We mustn't forget the political moment either, so when we talk about those kind of blocs at Eurovision, they were especially prominent in the decades when we participated.
"Yugoslavia then always belonged to the Mediterranean bloc, which included Italy and Spain, later also Turkey, Greece, Israel, smaller in number compared to those blocs that were called Scandinavian or Western," states Todorović.
That is why, he says, it often happened that Yugoslavia, for example, was saved from last place by Turkish points.
At the Eurovision Song Contest in Brighton (Great Britain) in 1974, he also participated Kornelija Kovač with his "Korni Group", and they introduced themselves with the famous song "My Generation".
That's how, says Todorović, the rock song finally changed the previous hits.
The victory that year was won by the famous Swedish pop group Abba with the song "Waterloo", which then received zero points from the British jury.
"They were the dressing room next to ours," recalls Kornelije Kovač.
"They weren't badly dressed, a little old-fashioned, but because of the performance they got such a plus, while we had some strange suits that fit everyone well," adds the musician with a smile for the BBC in Serbian.
Although he previously had a slightly different opinion about this event, today brings back the best memories for him.
"We had a very good performance, and the audience welcomed us, even our conductor (Zvonimir Skerl) received great applause", he says.
Eurovision participants were chosen mainly at the competition called Jugovision, but also at other domestic festivals.
Thus, in 1976, at the festival in Opatija, it was decided that Yugoslavia, in the Dutch city of The Hague, would be represented by the Sarajevo group "Ambassadors", and not the previously awarded favorite Bisera Veletanlić with the song "Baj, baj, baj".
"Not only did I not expect the victory, but I thought that even entering the finals was not entirely certain for us," he said at the time Slobodan Vujović, frontman of the group "Ambassadori".
Sanja Ilic who composed Baj, baj, baj many years later stated that one member of the special jury that made this decision, decided not to send his song to Eurovision because of the "foreign name".
"The irony was that the British group 'Brotherhood of Man' won that year with the song whose lyrics go - Save your kisses for me, bye, bye baby, bye, bye," Todorović points out, smiling.
Bad placements led to Yugoslavia withdrawing from the Eurovision Song Contest in the period from 1977 to 1980.
"There was a feeling that we were sending very good representatives who were somehow underestimated in Europe, and we got angry and stopped sending them," adds the journalist.
Renaissance eighties
The golden years for Yugoslavia at the Eurovision Song Contest came in the 1980s, and the victory in 1989 was the icing on the cake.
The first significant success, after almost two decades, was achieved by the song "Džuli" by a Montenegrin singer Daniel Popović - 1983 in Munich, Germany, where he won a high fourth place with, until then, a record 125 points.
Television Titograd, today's Podgorica, also had its representative the following year - Government of Kalembo i Izold Barudži with the song "Ciao, amore".
The promotional video of this song was banned in Turkey because the singer, who had previously performed at Eurovision with the group "Aske", appeared in it without the top of her swimsuit.
Croatian groups "Novi Fosili" and "Srebrna Krila" achieved good results for Yugoslavia in 1987 and 1988.
However, the main treat and at the same time the biggest success came the following year in Lausanne (Switzerland), when the group "Riva" from Zadar won first place with the song "Rock me".
Since the band members were young and inexperienced, TV Zagreb left nothing to chance and "well prepared" them for the upcoming music event.
Singer Emilija Kokić says that they had a whole team of professionals who dealt with them - from choreography and stage performance, to visual identity and styling.
"I didn't have to worry about anything, my only task was to go on stage, sing that song as well as possible and stand behind that piece," says Kokić.
That's why, he adds, they "did the performance with ease".
"It wasn't stressful for us because we tried many times and we were well prepared."
The singer says that they were considered favorites among the participants, which meant a lot to them.
She was especially happy that she was at the same festival with Anom Oxom, representative of Italy.
"When I saw her live, I had the feeling that I was going to faint, she was a megastar in my eyes, so now a megastar from your childhood praises the song", recalls Kokić with a smile.
She doesn't remember the moment when they were announced as winners, but the welcome given to them by her fellow citizens is etched in her memory.
"This welcoming of athletes and other deserving people in Zadar, I have the feeling that it started with us. The city was congested ever since the Zadar airport where we landed, so they literally drove us in a column to the square, where we barely managed to get there," recounts Kokić.
At the celebration, they even received wine with a label with their characters on it.
"It was not our victory, it was the victory of the whole city, we were theirs", adds the singer who was declared "Yugoslav woman of the year" that year.
Today, Emilija Kokić runs a singing school in the capital of Croatia - Zagreb.
Zagreb in 1990.
Thanks to the people of Zadar, Television Zagreb organized the Eurovision Song Contest in 1990.
The event was held on May 5 in the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, the first time on the Balkan Peninsula and in a, at least for a short time, socialist state.
Italian artist won - Toto Coutinho with the song I"nsieme: 1992".
They ran the program Oliver Mlakar i Helga Vlahovic, while the spare pair wereand Rene Medveščak i Dubravka Marković.
She represented Yugoslavia Taichi, whose performance and song "Let's go crazy" are still loved and appreciated by many Eurovision fans today.
Goodbye
The last participation of Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest was in 1992 in the Swedish city of Malmo.
She represented the country that had stepped heavily into the war Snezana Berić, better known as Extra Nena, with the composition "I love you with songs".
"It is my childhood dream to take part in such a big European, now world music competition, from which I have the best memories," the pop singer told the BBC in Serbian.
Berić, she says, financed the trip and eight-day stay in Sweden herself.
"Even though I was the only representative of my country, we barely went there. Television Belgrade did not provide me with any opportunity to get a wardrobe and other necessities for those days, which included numerous presentations, so I had to provide everything myself", he adds.
Upon her arrival in Malmö, she was greeted by numerous festival commitments, rehearsals, press conferences and many other accompanying events.
"After each of those hard days, we had a jam session in the hotel lobby at the piano, where my colleague from Israel and I sang along to various world hits - who knew, he sang and it was beautiful," Berić points out.
The entire event was "fantastically and professionally organized."
At the competition itself, she says, she was treated like a "world star", and because of the events in Yugoslavia and the risk of possible problems, she was given bodyguards and a doctor.
She added that she was also satisfied with the performance, even though there were some small technical problems in the beginning.
"When I went on stage, the monitors weren't working - it was a panic for me, but I sang that beginning thanks to my composure. And when the rhythm started and the whole hall applauded, I just continued as if nothing had happened", recalls Ekstra Nena.
The singer ended up in 13th place with 44 points.
"It was representative, dignified, and I was proud that the flag of my country was flying above my head and that the song is still one of the most beautiful compositions of the Eurovision Song Contest that is always included on compilations."
What has changed?
Special attention was regularly paid to the Eurovision song in Yugoslavia, and therefore it was considered a significant event.
"It was prestigious then, and it still is today, but then it was really a big deal when someone gets the chance to go to Eurovision," says rock critic Petar Janjatović.
Also, a lot of "care was taken to make it a strong pop song", which will have a "strong chorus", along with the unavoidable attractiveness of the performer.
"In terms of genre and style, Eurovision was much more compact then," Janjatović believes.
Today, he adds, the world scene has "capillary spread to the most diverse possible genres", so it is normal that this affects Eurovision as well.
Looking back at the victory of the Finnish metal group "Lordi" in 2006, Janjatović reminds that it was unthinkable that in 1985, for example, the Bosnian heavy metallers "Divlje Jagode" would be the representatives of Yugoslavia.
Slobodan Todorović agrees that the differences between the Eurovision Song Contest in those days, in which Yugoslavia participated, and today's are enormous.
"The essential change is that Eurovision was once perceived as a musical event, while today it is a television event and it is created and made, first of all, for television viewers - attractively, and which will in some way bring profit", according to the journalist.
After the breakup of Yugoslavia, only Serbia won this contest in 2007 with the song "Molitva", performed by a singer Marija Šerifović.
Interesting stories
Yugoslavia received the first highest rating for the song "Halo, halo" by the group "Aske" in the English Herrogate in 1982.
Televisions Skopje, Pristina and Novi Sad have never had representatives at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Yugoslavia withdrew from the Eurovision Song Contest in Gothenburg (Sweden) in 1985 because the date of the competition coincided with the anniversary of the death of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito - May 4. The song "Pokora" by Zorica Kondža was chosen.
TV Zagreb had the most representatives - 10, and Titograd (Podgorica) the least - two. TV Belgrade had four - "Korni Grupa", "Aske", Bebi Dol and Ekstra Nenu.
The representative of TV Sarajevo - Sabahudin Kurt and his song "Life has made a circle" in 1964 in the capital of Denmark - Copenhagen, did not receive a single point, which is officially the worst result of Yugoslavia at this festival.
Bonus video:
