Serbia chooses modern pop with Tijana’s ‘In Too Deep’
Serbia seems to be one of those countries that is quite good at the whole Eurovision Song Contest game. When the country first participated as an independent country without Montenegro back in 2007, they managed to immediately win the contest with ‘Molitva’ by Marija Serifovic. Ever since they reached the top 10 of the final on three occasions and only twice missed the qualification for the Saturday night. Their most recent spot in the top 5 (and top 3) was back in 2012 when Zelkjo Joksimovic participated. It is up to Tijana Bogićević to bring her country back to the top of the scoreboard with the tune ‘In Too Deep’.

Just like FYR Macedonia this year, Serbia borrowed a song from Bulgarian composer Borislav Milanov and his co-writers Joacim Persson, Johan Alkenas, and Lisa Desmond. Borislav proved to be successful with the 4th place of Bulgarian entry ‘If Love Was A Crime’ last year, and he also co-wrote this year’s entry ‘Beautiful Mess’, which at the moment of writing is one of the favourites to win the contest. Serbia’s modern pop tune ‘In Too Deep’ is currently not flying high according to the bookmakers, but this track definitely has potential. The sound is very contemporary with some hints of drum & bass in the production and the chorus is definitely a big moment with enough bombastic quality to make the viewers pay attention. Melodically some parts are slightly similar to Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’, but not nearly enough for any plagiarism claims.

‘In Too Deep’ is one of those songs that could easily end up in top 10 with a spectacular performance, but could also struggle to finish in the top 20 if the stage show does not capture the energy of the track. I would suggest the Serbian delegation brings that hoola hoop swing on stage with enough wind machines, just like in the official video. Add some dancers to deliver a choreography to the swinging middle-eight and you’ve got a striking visual for this delicious piece of modern pop.

UPDATE – Review on semi final performance:
Serbia opened the show with the modern and well produced pop number ‘In Too Deep’, performed by Tijana and co-written by Borislav Milanov who also wrote Bulgaria and FYR Macedonia’s entries. In studio version, this song was part of my top 10, but it pains me to say that in a live setting, it never really came to life. The song required a bigger show element than Tijana just standing there and a dancer moving around her for the last minute. Vocally things could have been worse, but she just did not manage to get the big notes of the chorus out convincingly enough. And so, a potential final worthy song fell completely flat and did not qualify in the end.

UPDATE – Semi final results:
Serbia was so close to a place in the final! Tijana only had 3 points less than Anja from Denmark who finished 10th. Serbia’s 10th position with juries and 11th with televoters ended in the unfortunate 11th spot for ‘In Too Deep’.

Check all Eurovision 2017 reviews: Albania – Armenia – Australia – Austria – Azerbaijan – Belarus – Belgium – Bulgaria – Croatia – Cyprus – Czech Republic – Denmark – Estonia – Finland – France – FYR Macedonia – Georgia – Germany – Greece – Hungary – Iceland – Ireland – Israel – Italy – Latvia – Lithuania – Malta – Moldova – Montenegro – The Netherlands – Norway – Poland – Portugal – Romania – San Marino – Serbia – Slovenia – Spain – Sweden – Switzerland – Ukraine – United Kingdom