Countries in Review: Croatia part 1

Back to my "Countries in Review" and back to the Balkans with Croatia.

Croatia used the TV show "Dora" to select their entrant for a number of years.

Croatia has entered Eurovision 21 times, starting in the first growth of the contest eastward in 1993.   After a rough couple of years, Croatia did quite well in the contest.   Croatians were perennially in the top ten in the early in the 1990s and early 2000s.   But poor finishes in recent years (combined with the European financial crisis) have made them sit out for the past two years.

In this entry I'm going to be looking at the songs I ranked from 6 to 21.  Watch for my next post for my favorite Croatian entries

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Croatia's sent two types of songs to Eurovision.  The first is the Balkan ballad, a dramatic song usually about love.  This type is exemplified by this interesting, technically difficult song from the 1996 contest.

"Sveta ljubav"   Maja Blagadan   1996

This song didn't crack my top five for one reason only--the high note that really doesn't need to be there.   I'm impressed Blagadan is able to hit B Flat 5, but the song doesn't need it.  (It did work in the voting, though.  Croatia came in fourth in 1996 garnering them one of their best results.)

The other type is the the female pop ballad.

Vesna Pisarović   "Everything I Want"   2002

Every country sends these sort of songs, and Croatia's entries were no better or worse than other countries' offerings.  Because of this, most of them fall in the middle of my list.

On occasion, Croatia would send something a little different--like this quirky little entry from 2008--

 Kraljevi ulice & 75 Cents   "Romanca"  2008

but you could really depend on Croatia to stick to those two types of songs.

That said, I have to highlight perhaps one of the worst songs ever presented at a Eurovision Song Contest.

Daria Kinzer   "Celebrate"   2011

Unlike a lot of other songs that come across horribly, this one is special because I feel nothing but pity for the singer.  "Celebrate" is a terrible song with staging ten years out of date and completely intimidated by the audience.  It's like the Croatian broadcasted spent the bare minimum to get Kinzer to Düsseldorf and it's not suprising Croatia stepped away from the contest a couple of years later.

For those of you who are curious where the other Croatian entries fall, here's my full ranking of the songs from 6 to 21.

6.   "Sveta ljubav"   Maja Blagadan   1996
7.   "Mižerja"   Klapa s Mora   2013   Cool but not a Eurovision song.
8.   "Romanca"   Kraljevi ulice & 75 Cents   2008

9.   "Marija Magdalena"   Doris Dragović   1999     It’s the most successful Croatian song in Eurovision, but the performance leaves me cold.
10.   "Lako je sve"   Feminem   2010   They are competent singers wearing bridesmaid dresses.

11.   "Lijepa Tena"  Igor Cukrov featuring Andrea  2009   He looks so smarmy and doesn’t have the charm to pull off the Balkan ballad the way other singers can.
12.   "Vukovi umiru sami"   Boris Novković feat. Lado     2005    A standard male Balkan ballad but, Novković does have a bit of charm.   Too much crap on stage, though.
13.   "Everything I Want"   Vesna Pisarović   2002
14.   "Vjerujem u ljubav"   Dragonfly feat. Dado Topić    2007   I like his voice, but she’s off key and it pulls the song down in my ranking.
15.   "Moja štikla"    Severina    2006   Highly ethnic in the ethnic period.  Lots of effort for no real result.
16.   "Strings of My Heart"   Vanna   2001   She has no stage presence.  That’s what knocks this song, when this is my favorite song on the CD.
17.   "Više nisam tvoja"    Claudia Beni    2003     I am sleeping.  The lack of enthusiasm and stage presence is making me cry.
18.   "Don’t Ever Cry"   Put   1993  I have no idea what they’re singing, but taken all together it feels like a Christmas song.
19.   "Nek' ti bude ljubav sva"  Tony Cetinski   1994   Did Chuck Mangione butt in for a trumpet solo?
20.   "You Are The Only One"   Ivan Mikulić    2004   Both dull and off key.

21.   "Celebrate"   Daria    2011  

Eurovision 2012 Entrants: Macedonia

Keeping up my walk through the former Yugoslavia, I'm taking a look at the Macedonia and their song.

Macedonia did the same thing a lot of other countries have done this year, they went with an internal selection and asked Kaliopi to be their representative.

I really don't blame them.  Kaliopi is a successful singer in the Balkans and has been a well known singer in that part of the world--winning awards since the mid 1980s.  Besides, she's been to Eurovision, sort of, before.  She attempted to represent the country back in 1996 with this song:

Kaliopi  "Samo Ti"  1996

It didn't make it past the preselection process that happened, so she didn't get a chance to perform on stage in Oslo.

And now, sixteen years later, she's back with this song:

Kaliopi "Crno i belo" 2012

I really have no opinion on this song, other than the fact that I love Kaliopi's voice, and the hard rock guitar makes the song stand out from the other Balkan ballads I've listened to, but that's about all I can say about it.


Who would have thought that I would be stymied by a Eurovision song?

Eurovisionaries: Lúcia Moniz

Sometimes I write about singers from the Eurovision Song Contest a newcomer to the contest know, but may not know they were a part of Eurovision--like Celine Dion or ABBA.

This one is me introducing you to a Eurovision Song Contest participant that I think you should know.

If you're a lover of romantic comedies, you know who she is already.

I'll confess it, Lúcia Moniz is my Eurovision crush and the singer of my favorite Portuguese song in the Contest.  (Which is saying something.)

Lúcia Moniz  "O meu coração não tem cor"  Portugal  1996

It came in sixth in the competition, and is Portugal's best placing in the contest to date. 

After the contest, she has kept herself busy, working steadily in television and releasing five albums in her native country, the most recent of which, "Fio de Luz", is available on Spotify.   (I highly recommend it.)  

 

However, for Americans she's famous for the movie she was cast in, Love Actually. 



Moniz lives the dream of many people--getting proposed to by Colin Firth.

 

Shame she hasn't done more English language movies...  I'd pay to see them.