Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004


Bosnia and Herzegovina was represented by Deen and the song "In the Disco" in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. The song was written by Vesna Pisarović, who represented the Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 in Tallinn with her song 'Everything I want'.
Deen, whose real name is Fuad Backović, was the lead singer of the boyband 'Seven Up' who came third in the Bosnian National Final of 1999. Deen ended 7th in the National Final of 2001 and 2nd in the National Final of 2003. The 21-year-old singer was born in Sarajevo and studied at the Faculty of Economy.

Before Eurovision

Artist selection

7 artists applied for the selection of the Bosnian representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004. A twenty-one-member selection committee shortlisted and voted on five artists in four rounds, with Deen receiving the most points, thus being selected to represent Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 2004 contest.

BH Eurosong 2004

The song that Deen will perform in the 2004 contest was selected through a national final called BH Eurosong 2004. BHRT also opened the song submission period for composers to send their entries. 32 songs were submitted, and a selection committee selected six songs for the national final, one of them which withdrew for unknown reasons.
On 6 March 2004, the final took place at the PBSBiH studios in Sarajevo, hosted by Ana Vilenica and Enis Bešlagić. All songs were performed by Deen and the winning song was chosen by a 50/50 combination of votes from an eleven-member jury and televoting. For the public vote, voting was open for 4 days starting on 2 March 2004.

At Eurovision

At Eurovision, Deen created a disco out of the Istanbul stage. A disco ball stage prop was mounted on the ceiling of the venue and lower down during Deen's presentation. The performance contained elaborate choreography and dancers who wore very little clothing. Everyone was dressed in either pink, purple, or blue and Deen wore a disco ball earring. The performance contained attention grabbing shots.
For the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, a semi-final round was introduced in order to accommodate the influx of nations that wanted to compete in the contest. Because Bosnia and Herzegovina placed 16th at the 2003 contest, Deen was forced to compete in the first Eurovision semi-final, held on 12 May 2004. He performed 21st, following Serbia and Montenegro and preceding the Netherlands country qualified to the final, placing 7th in the semi-final and scoring 133 points. At the final on 15 May, he performed 12th following Croatia and preceding the Belgium which led to a score of 91 points placing Bosnia in the 9th position, meaning that Bosnia and Herzegovina automatically qualified for the final in the 2005 contest.

Points awarded by Bosnia and Herzegovina

Points awarded to Bosnia and Herzegovina

12 points10 points8 points7 points6 points

  • 5 points4 points3 points2 points1 point