Until further notice, Ukraine is still on the list of participants of this year’s Eurovision Song Contest (if Russia had not been excluded, the two countries were in the same semifinal by the way). Ukraine is represented by the group Kalush Orchestra, which the song “Stefania However, Kalush Orchestra had only finished second in the preselection. But the winner herself withdrew when doubts arose about the correctness of the documents with which she had previously traveled to Crimea.
A country at war at the Eurovision Song Contest? That has indeed happened before. For one of the most striking stories, we have to go back to the year 1993. After the break-up of Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina was consumed by an ethnic conflict with the Serbs. Still succeeded Bosnia and Herzegovina managed to send a candidate to Millstreet in Ireland that year. That didn’t come naturally, though.
Singer Fazla and his bandmates risked their lives by fleeing besieged Sarajevo in the middle of the night, into the mountains surrounding the city. their song”Sva bol svijeta” (“The pain of the whole world”) they could have absorbed a few weeks earlier with the help of an emergency generator. The conductor (at that time there was still a live orchestra at the Eurovision Song Contest) had planned his departure later, but was unable to flee Sarajevo due to heavy fighting. In Milllstreet the Irish conductor stood in for Bosnia.
When it was necessary to call Sarajevo during the scoring (at that time everything was still done by telephone), the sound was very bad. But once the phrase “Hello Millstreet, Sarajevo calling” rang out, a big round of applause erupted from the hall. Bosnia and Herzegovina themselves came in 16th, but they had won the sympathy of all of Europe.
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