Bosnia & Herzegovina: Dino Merlin takes Love In Rewind to Eurovision

21 February 2011 at 23:43 CET

Bosnia & Herzegovina takes a soft approach to the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest. Dino Merlin will represent his country with the mainly English-language entry Love In Rewind. The song is set in a calm mid-tempo production and was presented on stage in the show together with a band of musicians as well as a circus artist.

Special guests

The Bosnian one-and-a-half-hour show paid homage to Dino Merlin's extensive career with song performances and several special guests.

Italy's return to the Eurovision Song Contest was also given special attention, as the duo Jalisse was invited as one of the guest acts. They told the viewers that they like the country's comeback song, Follia d'Amore, performed by Raphael Gualazzi.

The Eurovision Song Contest will always have a special ring to it for Jalisse, being the latest Italian representative from the 1997 Contest.

"We love it inside our hearts," Fabio Ricci of the duo said during the show.

Great interest in Dino

The live broadcast of the Bosnian song presentation show was eagerly awaited by fans from around Europe. The viewing figures of the Eurovision.tv webcast was the highest to date in the national selections season of 2011.

Apart from being a loved singer/songwriter in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Dino Merlin is popular in countries such as Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, FYR Macedonia, Slovenia and Turkey. He has covered most of Europe on tour.

Dino Merlin was revealed as the artist for Bosnia & Herzegovina since earlier, and the interest for his song has been considerable.

Successful streak

Dino Merlin will try to defend his country's long streak of qualifications for the Grand Final of the Eurovision Song Contest. Since the introduction of the Semi-Finals of the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, only four countries have managed to reach every Final of Europe's favourite TV show through the Semi-Finals. One of them is Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Dino Merlin has already represented Bosnia & Herzegovina in the Eurovision Song Contest, back in 1999 together with Beatrice with the song Putnici. They finished 7th in Jerusalem, Israel.

In the Final of the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, Vukašin Brajić finished 17th for Bosnia & Herzegovina with the song Thunder And Lightning.