GEORGE NATSIS

Born: March 6th, 1958, Bucharest (Romania)

Nationality: Romanian

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

George Natsis is a Romanian pianist of Greek descent, who is the pianist of the Radio Romania Big Band and assistant-conductor to Ionel Tudor. He wrote arrangements for musical saw virtuoso Benedict Popescu as well as for religious music. In light music, he composed children’s songs. In 2010, he was the president of the jury in the Romanian Eurovision Song Contest heats.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

George Natsis conducted the orchestra for Dida Dragan, who represented Romania in the 1993 preselection held in Ljubljana for seven Eastern European countries that wanted to enter the Eurovision Song Contest final in Millstreet, the programme being entitled Kvalifikacija za Millstreet. Dragan sang ‘Nu pleca’, which finished last and thus did not qualify. Each of the 7 competing acts presented a second song; for Dida Dragan's dramatic rendition of 'Blestem' (The Curse), Natsis sat down at the piano instead of conducting the orchestra.

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1993 Millstreet

Country – Romania

Song title – “Nu pleca”

Rendition – Dida Drăgan

Lyrics – Dida Drăgan

Composition – Adrian Ordean

Studio arrangement – unknown

Live orchestration – unknown

Conductor semi-final – George Natsis

Score semi-final – 7th place (38 votes) & DNQ

PETAR UGRIN

Born: January 12th, 1944, Zagreb, Croatia (Yugoslavia)

Died: September 14th, 2001, Ljubljana (Slovenia)

Nationality: Slovene

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

Petar ‘Pero’ Ugrin studied the trumpet and violin at the Ljubljana Music Academy. He became Yugoslavia’s best-known jazz trumpeter, playing in the ensembles of Josip Forenbacher, Janez Gregorc (with whom he performed at the Bled Jazz Festival), and Silvije Glojnarić. In 1972, Ugrin joined Jože Privšek’s Ljubljana Radio and Television Big Band. In 1979, he released a modern jazz album, ‘Samo muzika’, for which he sang and moreover played the trumpet, flugelhorn, electric violin, and tambourine; some pieces on this album were written by Privšek, while Slobodan Marković took care of the synthesizer. Ugrin was a member of progressive jazz band September. As a session musician, he worked with artists such as Tihomir Asanović and Aska.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

Petar Ugrin was the musical director of Kvalifikacija za Millstreet, the pre-selection in which seven new EBU members from Eastern Europe vied for three places in the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest final in Millstreet. He conducted the RTV Ljubljana Big Band for the Slovenian and Hungarian entries, ‘Tih deževen dan’ and ‘Árva reggel’ respectively, of which the former qualified. Ugrin, however, did not accompany the Slovene group 1 X Band to the Eurovision final, where ‘Tih deževen dan’ was conducted by its arranger, Jože Privšek.

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1993 Millstreet (1)

Country – Hungary

Song title – “Árva reggel”

Rendition – Andrea Szulák

Lyrics – György Jakab / Emese Hatvani

Composition – László Pásztor / György Jakab

Studio arrangement (demo) – László Pásztor / György Jakab

Live orchestration – Miklós Malek

Conductor semi-final – Petar Ugrin (MD)

Score semi-final – 6th place (44 votes) & DNQ

1993 Millstreet (2)

Country – Slovenia

Song title – “Tih deževen dan”

Rendition – 1 X Band (Cole Moretti / Andrej Bedjanić / Tomaž Kosec feat. Urška Gestrin / Sandra Zupanc / Barbara Šinigoj)

Lyrics – Tomaž Kosec

Composition – Cole Moretti

Studio arrangement – Jože Privšek

(Festival Orchestra RTV Slovenia conducted by Petar Ugrin)

Live orchestration – Jože Privšek

Conductor semi-final – Petar Ugrin (MD)

Conductor final – Jože Privšek

Score semi-final – 1st place (54 votes)

Score final – 23rd place (9 votes)

PEETER LILJE

Born: October 13th, 1950, Valga, Estonia (Soviet Union)

Died: October 27th, 1993, Oulu (Finland)

Nationality: Estonian

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

Violinist and conductor Peeter Lilje studied at the Tartu Music Academy and majored in choral conducting in 1974 after having taken classes with Arvo Ratassepp. Roman Matsov taught him orchestral conducting. Later, Lilje studied symphony and opera conducting with Arvīds and his son Mariss Jansons at the Leningrad Conservatory, graduating in 1980. In the course of the 1970s, Lilje played in various jazz groups and became assistant to conductor Neeme Järvi of the Estonia Concert and Opera House in Tallinn; later, he succeeded Järvi. In 1990, Lilje left to Finland, where he was chief conductor of the Oulu Symphonic until his untimely passing in the fall of 1993.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

Although a purely classical conductor, Peeter Lilje was invited to conduct Estonia’s first-ever Eurovision effort, ‘Muretut meelt ja südametuld’ (singer: Janika Sillamaa, arranger: Urmas Lattikas), in the preselection held for seven new EBU members from Eastern Europe in 1993. In Ljubljana, this entry – composed by Andres Valkonen with lyrics by Leelo Tungal – finished fifth, whereas only the first three countries qualified for the international final in Millstreet.

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1993 Millstreet

Country – Estonia

Song title – “Muretut meelt ja südametuld”

Rendition – Janika Sillamaa

Lyrics – Leelo Tungal

Composition – Andres Valkonen

Studio arrangement – Urmas Lattikas

Live orchestration – Tõnis Kõrvits

Conductor semi-final – Peeter Lilje

Score semi-final – 5th place (47 votes) & DNQ

ESAD ARNAUTALIĆ

Born: February 28th, 1939, Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina (Yugoslavia)

Died: December 4th, 2016, Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina)
Nationality: Bosnian

In due course, the short impression below will be replaced with a more extensive career overview

BIOGRAPHY

 
In the 1960s, Esad Arnautalić worked as a producer and arranger for RTV Sarajevo, the Bosnian branch of the Yugoslav national broadcaster. As such, he invented the formula of the popular annual Vaš Šlager Sezone music contest, which was first staged in 1967. He worked as a composer and arranger with many of Yugoslavia’s most well-known artists, including Pro Arte, Krunoslav Slabinac, Radojka Šverko and Kemal Monteno. Several of his compositions participated in music competitions, including the Split Festival and, of course, Vaš Šlager Sezone. Later onwards, Arnautalić substituted Radivoje Spasić as the conductor of the RTV Sarajevo Orchestra.

EUROVISION SONG CONTEST

In the 1970s, on two occasions, the Yugoslavian Eurovision pre-selections were won by artists from Bosnia-Herzegovina: Zdravko Čolić with ‘Gori vatra’ (1973) and Ambasadori with ‘Ne mogu skriti svoju bol’ (1976). On both occasions, Esad Arnautalić accompanied the representatives to the international festival, staged in Luxembourg and The Hague respectively, as their conductor. 

In 1993, Arnautalić made a surprise return to the contest, conducting the first ever Bosnian Eurovision entry, ‘Sva bol svijeta’, in the Eastern European pre-selection (organized for the new EBU member states in Central and Eastern Europe), staged in Ljubljana. The aforementioned song, performed by the group Fazla, succeeded in qualifying for the international Eurovision finals in Millstreet (Ireland). There, however, the Bosnian entry was conducted by host MD Noel Kelehan.

EUROVISION INVOLVEMENT YEAR BY YEAR

1973 Luxembourg

Country – Yugoslavia

Song title – "Gori vatra"

Rendition – Zdravko Čolić

Lyrics – Kemal Monteno

Composition – Kemal Monteno

Studio arrangement – Ranko Rihtman 

(Revijski Orkestar RTV Sarajevo conducted by Esad Arnautalić)

Live orchestration – Ranko Rihtman

Conductor – Esad Arnautalić

Score – 15th place (65 votes)

1976 The Hague

Country – Yugoslavia

Song title – "Ne mogu skriti svoju bol"

Rendition – Ambasadori 

(= Ismeta Krvavac / Slobodan Vujović / Andrej Stefanović / Krešimir Vlašić / Miroslav Šaranović / Enes Bajramović)

Lyrics – Slobodan Đurašović

Composition – Slobodan Vujović

Studio arrangement – Slobodan Vujović

(Revijski Orkestar RTV Sarajevo conducted by Esad Arnautalić)

Live orchestration – Slobodan Vujović

Conductor – Esad Arnautalić

Score – 17th place (10 votes)

1993 Millstreet

Country – Bosnia & Herzegovina

Song title – "Sva bol svijeta"

Rendition – Fazla (= Amir Bjelanović / Muhamed Fazlagić / Erliha Hadzović / Izudin Kolečić / Enver Milisić / Edina Salkanović)

Lyrics - Dino Dervišhalidović (Dino Merlin) / Fahrudin Pecikoza

Studio arrangement – Sinan Alimanović / Dino Dervišhalidović

Live orchestration – Sinan Alimanović / Dino Dervišhalidović

Conductor semi-final – Esad Arnautalić

Conductor final – Noel Kelehan (MD)

Score semi-final – 2nd place (52 votes) & qualified

Score final – 16th place (27 votes)