Moj Sokole Again

You wait.. not very long... for a Severina scandal, and then two come along at once. With essentially the same song, no less.

Jutarnji list is reporting that Severina has decided to withdraw Moj sokole from Splitski festival after all - the result, according to JL, of negative publicity caused by Jasmin Stavros's earlier withrawal (on the grounds that Sokole, alias the demo version of Štikla, would have an unfair advantage over the rest of the line-up), and by recent allegations that Sokole had been copied from Toma Bebić's 1980s song Oja noja. (Back in March, Oja-noja was in fact being given as another alternative title for the demo.)

The festival director, Tomislav Mrduljaš, told a press conference yesterday that Severina was all the more upset to withdraw because of her own connections with Split, but still felt under too much pressure to be able to continue in the festival.

Večernji list, meanwhile, has the news that Danijela Martinović is bringing out an album with Latino vesions of some of her old hits under the title Cante i baile con Danijela (Sing and dance with Danijela). (Shakira surely has a lot to answer for.)

The Gazette's favourite story of the day, though: Henry Jenkins's discussion on his new-ish blog of the upcoming Bollywood take on Superman...

Two For The Price Of One

Anyone who had already had enough of Severina's Moja štikla ought to look away now: the song's first version, Moj sokole (My falcon), has been accepted for the Splitski festival competition and will appear in the second semi-final.

Moj sokole is better known as the first version of Moja štikla, produced before Goran Bregović became involved. It's still not quite clear why Sokole's patriotically-themed lyrics (mountains, wheat, olives, heroes, homeland: present and correct) were exchanged for Štikla's folk-music parody, except that they apparently didn't fit the rhythm once Bregović had done his thing.

According to Severina's manager, Tomislav Petrović:

'She'll appear in the second semi-final of Splitski festival, the song ought to be premiered on Croatian Radio, and we're not intending to make a video for the moment. Although this was the first attempt at Štikla, it's actually unbeliavable how different the arrangements are. Otherwise, Severina's working on her new album now, and soon she's off to Germany for the World Cup.'

There's no response, as yet, from any of Splitski festival's other 31 contestants (in fact, the festival organisers still haven't announced who they are), but one can easily imagine that some performers might not feel too welcoming towards a song with the greatest head start possible in publicity terms. (See: most editions of the Gazette this year to date.)

There's the question, too, of whether the whole of the audience will take Moj sokole as appropriate for Splitski festival's well-known Dalmatian character - although the song's musical origins in inner-Dalmatian folklore were frequently emphasised (and debated) during the Štikla case.

Meanwhile, very efficient readers should be able to hear the song played on Zlatko Turkalj-Turki's HR2 radio show (link via Seve Fan Club) - or, no doubt, at every opportunity in the Croatian media for the next month and a half.