Bosnia & Herzegovina withdraws from the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest

Another country has announced its withdrawal from the 2013 Eurovision Song Contest in Malmö.  Broadcaster BHRT has released a statement confirming it will not be in Sweden.

Bosnia & Herzegovina is the latest nation to stay away from the Contest next May in Malmö.  In a short statement on its website, BHRT said that it had delayed the decision until now to see if the money was available for participation.

Hope had been high that we would see the Balkan country in Sweden, but BHRT went on to say that dur to financial and budgetary pressures, along with an ongoing recession in Bosnia & Herzegovina, taking part in Malmö was not an option.

BHRT has said, however, that it will broadcast the three Eurovision shows on 14, 16 and 18 May, and does hope to return to the Eurovision fold in 2014.

Bosnia & Herzegovina first took part as an independent nation in the 1993 Contest in the Irish town of Millstreet, with the song Sva bol svijeta by Fazla (video below).  This was while the country was still in the throes of a bruising civil war.  Prior to this, several inhabitants of the country had represented Yugoslavia.  The country’s best ever finish was third in the 2006 Contest in Athens with Lejla by Hari Mata Hari.

In 2012, Maya Sar sang for Bosnia & Herzegovina, finishing 18th in the Saturday night Final with Korake ti znam. Click on the video below to see her performance recorded using Eurovisionary’s ground-breaking 3D technology.

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Source: Eurovisionary, BHRT
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