Introduction

The Croatian broadcaster HRT has made an internal choice, unlike former years when the winner of the DORA festival has been chosen as the representative at the Eurovision Song Contest. The group is called Klapa s mora (Klapa from the Sea) and they will perform the song “Mižerja” (Hard Times). “Klapa” means group of friends and this is a traditional vocal music style from the region Dalmatia in Croatia, where groups up to 12 men formed together as a Klapa and sing a cappella songs with a lot of harmony and melody, rare rhythm. There are also female Klapa groups but they never mix and there are also Klapa festivals. This group Klapa s mora has especially been created for the ESC. The group consist of Marko Škugor (first tenor), Ante Galić (second tenor), Nikiša Antica (first baritone) Leon Bataljaku (baritone) Vica Vlaić (basso) Bojan Kavadžija (basso), Goran Topolovac (composer).

The song “Mižerja” is a smooth and gentle song with a lot of harmony. The arrangement has similarities to the songs from The 10 Tenors. The song does not sound very traditionally; it’s more Croatian entertainment music. The voices harmonize well with each other. Such groups have been seen several times at the ESC, e.g. “Questa Notte” by bonaparte.lv (Latvia 2007). The group should take a look at their stage show for not appearing too conservative in this modern competition. 

History

Participations: 21

Debut: 1993

Biggest success: 2x 4th place 1996 “Sveta Ljubav” by Maja Blagdan, 1999 “Maria Magdalena” by  Doris Dragovic, 1x 5th place, 1x 6th place, 1x 9th place, 1x 10th place

This year Croatia will participate for the 21st time in the Eurovision Song Contest. As a former part of Yugoslavia, Croatia immediately participated after the separation with the debut entry “Don’t every cry” by Put in 1993 (15th). The former Yugoslavia has joined the ESC in 1961, there were 27 contributions and one victory “Rock me” by Riva in 1989. In the following year the ESC has taken place in the now Croatian capital of Zagreb.

With all the new countries the Eurovision Song Contest has not only increased the number or participating countries, also the variety of music has grown. The ESC gives a great platform and opportunity for many artists to perform in front of an international audience of more than 100 million spectators. It has often been criticised that the ex-Yugoslav countries vote for each other in a preferred way. It should not be forgotten that all these countries have singers which are popular all over the Balkan so it’s more than natural that such a singer gets votes from the whole region. This year Bosnia & Herzegovina will not be among the festivities in Malmö, so there won’t be 12 points from the neighbours.

The most successful Croatian entries were: “Sveta Ljubav” by Maja Blagdan in 1996 (4th), “Neka Mi Ne Svane” by Danijela in 1998 (5th) and “Marija Magdalena” by Doris Dragovic in 1999 (4th). Croatia often qualified for the grand final, but there was no top 10 placing. In the last three years Croatia struggled with the qualification.