Zorica Brunclik: Why She Snubbed Desingerica
Months after speculation began, the singer explained why she never congratulated Stefan Cekic, the contestant backed by fellow judge Desingerica, and answered his jabs at her.
Zorica Brunclik has explained for the first time why she didn’t congratulate the winner of the first season of Pinkove zvezde on stage. She gave the statement to Pink.rs and the show’s YouTube channel on September 24, months after speculation about her reasons first began.
Brunclik and Dragomir Despic Desingerica are sitting together on the judging panel again this season. In the first season, Desingerica’s contestant, Stefan Cekic, won, and Zorica didn’t congratulate him once the winner was announced. The story ran for months afterward and followed her into the new season as well.
The singer says the reason came down to the moment itself. She explains that she stayed on stage with her own runner-up, because she felt he also deserved someone congratulating him on his success, and on top of that, she had just had surgery.
“It’s neither becoming of me nor is it right, but I have no reason not to congratulate him.”
Said Zorica Brunclik, singer and judge on Pinkove zvezde, to Pink.rs and the show’s YouTube channel. She adds that it would have felt unnatural to call the winner across the whole stage while the crowd around him was still celebrating.
What changed her mind, she says, were Desingerica’s own jabs at her afterward. She claims she then deliberately skipped the congratulations, so it wouldn’t look like she was defending herself in front of the audience.
“Once he started taking shots at me, that’s when I decided I wouldn’t congratulate him on purpose, because it would look like I was making excuses. And I don’t make excuses.”
The singer explained, adding that it never occurred to Desingerica that she had just had surgery, that she was away longer because of it, and that she was afraid someone in the crowd around the winner might hit her. She also says that once the winner later relaxed, he made comments about her that weren’t appropriate either.
Finally, she dismissed the explanation that circulated most widely online, that she withheld the congratulations out of spite because her own contestant hadn’t won. “The idea that I’m bitter my contestant didn’t win, that’s not true,” Brunclik told Pink.rs and the Pinkove zvezde YouTube channel.
The new season of Pinkove zvezde is currently underway, and Zorica Brunclik and Dragomir Despic Desingerica are still sitting at the same judges’ table. Whether last year’s story repeats itself will only become clear once the new season crowns its own winner.
