I never thought I would say this, but my host mother and I
have waiting for the season finale of X-Factor Adria (Serbia) for the past few
weeks. I would never watch X-Factor in
the US, but as I mentioned in a previous post, Turkish soap operas have become
boring and X-Factor is currently the only show I can tolerate. But once contestants began to fall from the
show, it was apparent that Macedonia would have its hero in the show- Daniel
Kajmakoski.
Daniel is a Macedonian participant who originally hails from
Struga. However, he had lived for a few
years in Austria (?) and his English is the best on the show. So while the others struggle with English
songs due to their accents, Daniel rocks these songs. But this is X-Factor Adria, and thus half of
the songs he sings must be in Serbian as well.
As the video below shows, he can master songs in this language as
well.
So many back home are probably wondering- wait,
why are they playing a Serbian show on Macedonian television? Is Serbian similar to Macedonian, or is Chris
confused when he watches the show? Serbian
is technically a different language than Macedonian, and it has some grammatical features
(cases for nouns, lack of indefinite and definite articles) that Macedonian
does not have. But since Macedonia and
Serbia were once together a part of Yugoslavia, almost 80% of the vocabulary
are now shared due to their union for so many years.
So yes, I understand far less than the dubbed Turkish films that I also
watch with my host family. But, I
understand enough of the words to put together context for what the judges,
contestants, or hosts may say.
Even though the show is called X-Factor Adria, it does not mean
that the contestants from the show come from all former Yugoslavian
countries. In fact, the show is only
aired in a few of the former Yugoslavia countries, including Serbia,
Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia. Excluded from this group are Croatia,
Slovenia, and Kosovo (and most likely the Muslim part of Bosnia). The division between the two groups has
nothing to do with the differences in language.
Although the dialects spoken in Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, and Serbia
have diverged since the break-up of Yugoslavia, the language is often referred
to as “Serbo-Croatian”. And for the
other countries, Macedonian, Slovenian, and Albanian are the official
languages.
Many business-minded people would probably ask, “Well, why
exclude other countries that speak Serbo-Croatian? Isn’t this an opportunity to
advertise to others in former-Yugoslavian countries?” Well, those who are aware about the history of
the break-up of Yugoslavia will see that the countries to which this show is
played aligns with the alliances during the civil wars. For those history buffs who have time to
watch a 5-part series of a BBC documentary, you can learn more about the
break-up of Yugoslavia through the Youtube video below:
Basically, citizens of the former Yugoslavian countries are
not only feeling the deep wounds of the break-up, but they align themselves by
the scars they received from the war. Equally
visible between the division is the difference in religion- Orthodox Christians
on one side, and Catholics and Muslims on the other.
But in the end, X-Factor is just a show about future
teen-idols, and we continue to hope that Daniel will win. I would say that I would be objective in declaring that he is the best singer of the group. But he is Macedonian, and if votes are cast
based on ethnicity, Daniel would only have the support of about 1.7 million
Macedonians. Serbians and Montenegrins
in the region total about 9 million souls.
But if those votes are divided among the 4 other contestants, Daniel may
have a chance.
But besides watching a tolerable show with my host mother
and supporting Daniel, there is one more important reason why I watch X-Factor
Adria. The amazingly beautiful judge,
Emina Jahovic.
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