Winner of what? The latest Serbian celebrity reality show, Farma (The Farm). Miloš Bojanić, a 60 year old Turbofolk singer from Bosnia won the popular yet controversial reality show with a total of almost 40% of the votes out of 5 'superfinalists' last night, causing outrage and joy depending on who you talked to.Farma, based on a Swedish TV concept, was first shown in Serbia last year featuring 17 Serbian celebrities living on a purpose-built farm devoid of the comforts of modern living - no electricity or running water and all food needed to be grown by the particpants. This show is part of the huge trend in Balkan television for celebrity reality show formats, and due to their ever increasing popularity, celebrities (for want of a better word) have been clamouring to get on to these shows. As has been the case in most TV markets, D-list celebrities seeking a last gasp for their struggling careers or new starlets with little talent desperate for more publicity have seen their stocks and profiles rise after appearing on Farma or VIP Big Brother. Some, like Macedonian drag queen Boki 13 have been able to capitalise on the fact that these shows are broadcast across many Balkan countries and have expanded out of their restricting home countrz markets to go on and pursue 'international' careers.
Farma in particular has been the centre of much controversy. Last year I happened to see one episode when the 'farmers' were treated to a visit by the Turbofolk king and queen Aca Lukas (who was drunk the whole time and didn't say a word) and Ceca, whose kitschy, folksy outfit (to go with the 'farm' theme) brought to question her role as a supposed style queen. The recently finished second season started soon after the first, rated very strong and brought in a lot of money for the highly successful and Milošević-era media sedative TV Pink. What counts as a celebrity on these shows usually boils down to three catergories: singers, TV presenters and politicians. The latest season featured no less than 10 singers, a majority of whom are Turbofolkers, 2007 Eurovision winner Marija Šerifović, a dancer who performs on a high-rating Turbofolk variety show, a few presenters and an insignificant politican. Controversy erupted when one D-List Turbofolk singer, Indi, was kicked off the show for not following orders, which resulted in a huge flurry of accusations of impending court cases with the producers which in the end was just part of Indi's vain attempts of milking publicity. The behaviour of a young singing couple who had fallen in love while competing on a Pop-Idol-style Turbofolk talent show (also on TV Pink) has placed a question mark over their futures, while part-time Roma, infamous member of Slobodan Milošević's wife's Mira Marković's Yugoslav Left Party JUL, and briefly Culture Minister, the pink-haired Zorica Brunclik, had accusations of government corruption made against her. Championed to win was yet another Turbofolk singer, Mina Kostić (born Nermina Jashari), who despite only having released 2 albums, one in 2002 with cover versions of Greek, Turkish and Bulgarian songs, and the other in 2005 which successfully added electro-pop elements to Turbofolk, has maintained a high media profile for almost 10 years. She is quite open about her Albanian-speaking, Kosovo Roma background, though this could have been the ultimate stumbling block in gaining the televotes of the average Serbian viewer.
What has drawn the most public attention has been the winner, Miloš Bojanić, polarising Serbian society and grabbing far more attention than the World Cup (even when Serbia was still in it). Born in rural northern Bosnia in 1950, Miloš Bojanić has been a successful Turbofolk singer since the 1970s. His biggest hit came in 1987 with the sentimental ode to his birthplace 'Bosno moja, jabuko u cvetu' (My Bosnia, A Apple In Bloom).
He wholeheartedly participated in the role of nationalist propaganda singer during the Balkan war years in the early 1990s, most famously singing a new song in 1995 dedicated to the Serbian part of Bosnia-Herzegovina Republika Srpska. Ever using his crafty wit gained from village life, Bojanić was never shy of using nepotism to position his two sons to become Turbofolk singers themselves, the eldest Bane scoring a few Turbolfolk hits in the mid-1990s before getting married to a Serbian woman in the USA and settling down to a quiet, surburban family existence in Chicago. On the same token, after the war Bojanić cunningly dropped the nationalist songs, started doing cover versions of Turkish Arabesque songs (despite the irony and hypocrisy) and started to claim that he himself had penned these songs! In 2004, Bojanić was back on the Turbofolk charts with a brass-band number called 'Ludilo' (Crazy). Bojanić was aware that he couldn't sell the song on his looks alone, so he skillfully hired a string of young and beautiful belly dancers to help, to much effect.
He went through so many belly dancers as they all quickly quit soon after getting the job, claimng that he was a sleaze, didn't pay them the amounts he promised and was a pathological liar, all of which Bojanić denied. The video clip that went with the song featured Bojanić on a visit to Australia being greated in Sydney by a 1950s convertible with 3 bellydancing girls. Essentially, it is an ego trip and brag piece to his poor, rural fanbase to show how he gets to travel in style and gets the girls.
Now, Bojanić is the biggest celebrity in Serbia. This is thanks mainly to Bojanić appealing to the main demographic watching Farma - rural, low-class, uneducated and patriotic, which essentially is Bojanić's Turbofolk fanbase that identifies and is entertained by watching their Turbofolk celebrities doing the same farm tasks they do daily. In an article in the Belgrade daily 'Press' titled 'A Great Manipulator with Village Logic', several psychologists and sociologists were interviewed to give their insight to Bojanić's victory and how this reflects on Serbian society. Aleksandra Janković, a psychologist noted that Bojanić used typical divide and rule tactics to make him look like the victim. By then presenting himself as a true Serb and a proud Orthodox Christian, he embodied Serbian and rural victimhood, much appealling to the values, myths and antagonisms held by the main viewing demographic. Janković also added that Bojanić is a narcissist who has no compassion and will use any form of manipulation and lies to get what he wants. Psychotherapist Zoran Milivojević commented that Bojanić is a symbol of Serbian village craftiness in that he endeared himself to and behaved like his audience by not succumbing to the attacks made against him by urban-based participants. Bojanić's actions on the show have had a marked effect on Serbian society, so much so that a new phrase 'ponašeš kao Miloš Bojanić' (you're behaving like Miloš Bojanić) has entered into the lexicon in both a positive and negative meaning.
In the end, Bojanić ended up winning 100,000 Euros, which he made a point in saying will go for his 34 year old second wife Branka, and to help his sons and their families. Even though his extended family is already quite well off, by emphasising this Bojanić continues to appeal to his fanbase's moral values where parental self-sacrifice for offspring regardless of age is held in very high esteem. Whether this actually happens in practice is another story as Bojanić is a champion of sleaze and manipulation. Hey, he has 100,000 Euros to prove it. What Bojanić's victory does prove, much to the fear of more open-minded and educated elements within Serbian society, is that he was able to do the same that Milošević did 20 years ago - Serbian rednecks can be manipulated to push the agenda of a smarter Serbian redneck.
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