Slavko brings disco extravaganza to Eurovision for Montenegro
SO far, Montenegro has participated eight times in the Eurovision Song Contest as an independent country and they have only qualified to the final twice. In 2014 and 2015 they were successful in qualifying with traditional balkan ballads, but their first top 10 finish in the final is yet to come. This year Montenegro chose a completely different approach by internally selecting the extravagant pop star Slavko Kalezic with his song ‘Space’.

Slavko’s looks might not be as shocking to viewers around Europe anymore as Conchita Wurst already won the contest three years ago, but it still is the first time a half naked male with a beard make-up and a meters long braid will take the Eurovision stage. Montenegro sure took the slogan of this year’s contest, ‘Celebrate Diversity’, to heart and we applaud them for that. Slavko’s ‘Space’ is an upbeat pop number, heavily influenced by disco. The talking over the first verse echoes the sound of the Pet Shop Boys, but the trumpets in the chorus takes us straight back to the 70s. The production swings and the melody is quite catchy, but still it feels like the track never properly ‘goes off’ and therefore misses a climax. Judging on the rehearsal footage, his vocals are quite thin and not strong enough to fully carry ‘Space’. To be honest, I would be surprised if Europe will appreciate this enough to get it through to the final.

UPDATE – Review on semi final performance:
The extravagant pop star appeared with a see through top and a long braid on his head which he fiercely swung around on stage. Unfortunately he was a bit too focused on this part of his performance, causing him to seem to forget to sing for a decent amount of his time on stage. The parts of his camp disco anthem ‘Space’ that he did sing, did not sound all too convincing however, but he at least brought 3 minutes of entertainment to the stage, which was quite obviously doomed to fail in the competition.

UPDATE – Semi final results:
Slavko did a lot better with televoters than the juries in his semi final. People at home placed him 11th while the juries gave him the 16th position, after which he ended up with the 16th place overall.

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