Here, are my last two cents. I mean it's just an old yugo-schlager-new wave inspired-pop song, very simple and no hidden meanings, or political messages are involved so there's only so many things one can say. There could be a play with words, why not, especially when you consider it's English - the lingua franca. However, in this particular case I’d say there are rather not any references or innuendos, the song uses a typical dance schlager lyrics and since in 30 or so years since it was released this was the first time I have ever heard such a suggestion. Fun to investigate, but the answer is an uninteresting one, I'm afraid. Therefore if that was the idea behind the song it failed hard, but again - it was not.
Speaking of my comparison with Bijelo Dugme was an unfortunate one and kind of a ignorant one since I never considered that others are not informed about the Yugoslav musical history. They were a huge act with a long and successful career and their legacy is something that most artists, even internationally recognised ones, can only dream of. We can easily say that they are still relevant to this day. Their style changed through time, but their pop-rock base was consistent throughout their career. Riva was a one hit wonder, that used that pop rock formula and watered it down, just like I said. The genre may not be the same, but it is the very same formula - Rock Me Baby was literally what popular pop-songs sounded like in Yugoslavia.
Yugoslav festival culture is not a matter of question, it is something absolutely true and finally one of the reasons why we came back to Eurovision after the breakup. It is much more broad than just with music - there were and are festivals for anything from folklore to movies to ajvar. There's not a town that has not some kind of a festival, many of them are considered iconic. To stay focused on music and local "powerhouses", we have to consider two things - pop wasn't the most popular genre in the country (folk, new-vawe and rock were the genres that ruled the charts). and Eurovision was and still is considered as a "festival laganih nota" - festival of the "easy listening" music. However people liked Eurovision and it was held in high regard, so the very best acts were included in both Jugovizija and Eurovision.
The main music centres and the only powerhouses were Sarajevo, Belgrade and Zagreb, and if you wanted to become successful you would engage in these music scenes. My guess is that Riva's failure to join them probably was one of the reasons for their later irrelevancy. Today, we can say whatever we want, but Belgrade is absolute capital of Western Balkans' music and if you want to make it big, wherever you are from it's the only place to go and try.
This song in particular is how Yugoslavia saw Eurovision since it was meant to compete and represent an easy listening track for a festival (both Jugovizija and Eurovision) that had the same easy listening reputation. Yugoslavia had "a festival culture" and obsession with all kinds of festivals, so no shocker Eurovision was huge and many of our biggest stars from Čolić, Kesovija to Novi Fosili graced the Eurovision stage.
this year.
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