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Black outfits and soft lights for Serbia

18 May 2012 at 14:59 CEST

Željko Joksimović today arrived backstage together with Jovana Janković, who presented the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest together with him and who, since January this year, is his wife. She had come to Baku only last night, and Željko said he was very glad to have her support now.

"It's a very different feeling, being a presenter or competing as a singer, you cannot even compare them", he stated about the roles he has had in past Eurovision Song Contests. Regarding changes compared to the first rehearsal in Baku, he said that they were trying to make everything look even smoother by changing the camera angles and the lighting scene.

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The second Serbian rehearsal saw a change in the LED backdrop and lighting indeed: The colour of the spotlights was changed to yellow, and the main colours of the LEDs and the stage were dark blue and purple.

Today, Željko and his backing musicians already appeared on stage in their Semi-Final outfits: The male artists were wearing elegant black suits, while the female performers wore long black dresses. Several musical instruments were featured in the stage act - violins, a guitar, a flute, and of course a grand piano.

The professionalism of the whole team showed very well today, as they delivered yet another heartwarming and flawless performance.

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The second Serbian press conference was started with a music video clip of Nije Ljubav Stvar which included a translation into sign language. Duška Vučinić-Lučić, the Head of Press of the Serbian Delegation, then introduced the team to the press, and she gave the word to Ksenija Milošević, one of the backing vocalists of the winning entry from Serbia in 2007, Molitva. "It was a fantastic experience", she stated.

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Željko Joksimović then performed an unplugged version of Nije Ljubav Stvar together with his musicians. Then his wife, Jovana Janković, was asked about an incident that happened in 2006, when she correctly predicted the Serbian Eurovision victory in the following year, and she was requested to make a guess who would win this year. She showed her full support for Željko: "I may be in love, but for me, he has the best song."

"I grew up with the Eurovision Song Contest, as I represented Serbia in 2004, the first participation after twelve years of absence, and since then, I have loved the contest. Of course the contest has changed since then - the main difference now is that I already know all the entries. But I am not afraid about anything, I'm enjoying it", Željko explained on the issue if his repeated participation after coming second already in 2004 would put pressure on him.