Introducing 2013: Croatia

by Edward Montebello 313 views

Thirty-nine countries are competing with the aim to lift the trophy in Malmö. The nineteenth country to be introduced is Croatia. The country never won the Eurovision Song Contest and this year Klapa s mora will fly the Croatian flag in Sweden.

Basic information

Performers: Klapa s mora
Song: Mižerja
Language: Croatian
Music: Goran Topolovac
Lyrics: Goran Topolovac

The song

This year’s Croatian entry is a ballad with some traditional sounds. As the title states it is about someone facing difficult times but with a golden heart of purest love.

Zlata niman da
te njime okitim
Samo ove ruke dvi
da ti dušu zagrlim

Ej mižerja ka tvrda si stina
Ej mižerja ka dvi kapi vina
Nemam ništa, samo viru
I bokun čiste jubavi

Ružo moja lipa
za te živit ću
I zadnju koru suvog kruva
s tobom dilit ću

Ej mižerja ka tvrda si stina
Ej mižerja ka dvi kapi vina
Nemam ništa, samo viru
I bokun čiste jubavi

The performers

Klapas are traditional Croatian songs which will generally celebrate love, wine, the country, and the sea. A klapa group consists usually of a first tenor, second tenor, a baritone, and bass, Klapas are usually performed acapella, but it is quite common for a gentle guitar or a mandolin to be added. Klapa s mora is a traditional Croatian form of vocal music originating from Dalmatia, in southern Croatia. The group consists of Marko Škugor, Ante Galić, Nikša Antica, Leon Bataljaku, Ivica Vlaić and Bojan Kavedžija.

The songwriter

Goran Topolovac went into the studio for the first time in 1993 to record the first song he had ever sent in to any contest: the Split festival, highly respected in Croatia. Afterwards he began to work more intensively on composing. He considers his first great success to be the song Ring Of gold, which was performed at the Croatian Radio Festival of 2007 by Karlovac singer Željko Golik. Topolovac entered the world of klapa singing thanks to Klapa Furešti (Foreigners). Some of the songs he wrote for this group also received awards, and the music videos of them are watched enthusiastically on local TV stations and specialised music channels.

The national selection

Klapa s mora was internally selected by the Croatian national broadcaster HRT.

Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Croatia entered the Eurovision Song Contest as an independent country in 1993. After mediocre results during the first two participations Croatia found a run of luck finishing in the top ten six out of seven times in the following years. However, Croatia has not been reaching the top ten in a final since 2001 and was eliminated in the 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012 semi-finals The Croatian broadcaster gave Yugoslavia its only victory in 1989 and it was also the region the most Yugoslav entries came from. Other Croatian entries under the flag of Yugoslavia took part in 1963, 1965, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1986, 1987 and 1988.

Statistics

This will be Croatia’s 21st participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. It will be the sixth time that the country is being represented by a group. The song will be entirely performed in Croatian. This is 8th time in the last nine years that Croatia will present a song in its native language.

Croatian vote in Eurovision

Throughout its history in the Eurovision Song Contest Croatia gave its most points to Bosnia & Herzegovina while the Slovenians voted most for the Croatian songs in the contest.

The betting odds

According to oddschecker.com, Croatia is currently standing at number 33 to win the Eurovision Song Contest. According to the odds, Croatia will not qualify as it is the twelfth favourite to qualify from semi-final one.

Hrvatskoj i Klapa s mora želimo svu sreću i dobar rezultat u Malmö!

Videos

Preview clip

Song presentation performance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQDGlNnhBvI
Tomorrow another country will be introduced (hint – A thousand lights to the moon!)

Have your say

You can rate the Croatian entry by voting in our poll

[polldaddy poll=7010025]

You can view previous parts of this series by clicking here