Serbia 2023: Luke Black with ‘Samo Mi De Spava’

In a very watchable national final, fan favourite Luke Black claimed the ticket to Liverpool:

Perhaps a streak of two is too soon to make these comments but Serbia seem to be having a taste for the more alternative with Luke following in Konstrakta’s footsteps. I wasn't predicting much for her last year when selected and performed a 180° in good time thankfully but again I'm not overly convinced here.

There's enough of a song in there and despite plenty of wackiness this year and in the semi final this does stand out and have it's own identity. Personally the performance in its national final felt a bit too camp and sexualised and kind of cheapens it all. The video game/anime/ninja/Japanese aesthetic is enough on it's own without combining the styling of Maruv and Michael Ben David.

It's not the best semi for Serbia with only Croatia lurking and looking down the list I would have 6 ahead of it, 4 behind and some unknowns yet. That kind of puts it borderline but realistically in a 15 song televote semi and guessing what may be to come I think this will get through maybe two thirds of the time.

In the final again we are very short on Balkans this year hurting the usually strong Serbian vote. Juries have better options however and will still give this less than the public. Overall a respectable result is on the cards but nothing more I feel.

Personal Rating: 5/10

Competitve Rating: 6/10

Early Prediction: Semi Final One 7th-10th, 15th-19th in the final.