Introducing the 2009 entries: Croatia

All entries in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest are known, but the actual contest is still six weeks away. As a warm-up, we introduce one of the entries every day in random order. Part fifteen is dedicated to the entry from Croatia.

Basic information

The song

Lijepa Tena is a classic ballad. The lyrics are a declaration of love to the wonderful and beautiful Tena:

I draga i draga
Suze u pamuk pretvaraš
Umorne oÄ�i odmaraš
ZaÄ�araš

I lijepa i sveta
Vodu u vino pretvaraš
Ti se moliš za sve nas
Tena, Tena

Sweetheart,Sweetheart
You turn tears into cotton
You are what aching eyes look at
You are charming

Beautiful one, divine one
You turn water into wine
You pray for us all, for us all
Tena

The singers

Igor Cukrov became famous as contestant of Operacija trijumf, a version of Fame Academy with competitors from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, FYR Macedoania, Croatia and Montenegro. During the shows, he performed songs by various acts including Andrea Boccelli, Zeljko Joksimovic (Serbia & Montegro 2004), Dino Merlin (Bosnia & Herzegovina 1999), Céline Dion (Switzerland 1988),Aerosmith and U2. He was eliminated in the 13th show, which was held two weeksbefore the finaland he therefore finished seventh.Previously, he had already won the Best New Artist award at the Split Festival.

Andrea went to music school, where she studied piano. In 2004, she entered DORA, the Croatian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. With her song Noah, she finished equal second in the first semi final and second again in the final, where she scored only four points less than Ivan Mikulic. The same year, she won the Best New Artist award at the Split Festival. In 2005, she entered Dora again. Although she finshed equal second in the first semi final again, she reached equal fourth in the final not qualifying for the superfinal with her song Ljudi s mora.

Igor and Andrea joint forces for the 2009 edition of DORA with the song Lijepa Tena, where Igor Cukrov originally competed as a solo artist with Andrea as a backing singer. He had been chosen by the broadcaster to be one of the ten acts that were directly qualified for the final and had not to go through the semi final stage. Competing as Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea, they are the first duo to represent Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest.

The national selection

Again, the music festival Dora was to select the Croatian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. Following last year's format, a semi final was held. Six acts qualified from the heat to meet the ten acts that had already been chosen for the final by the broadcaster. Igor Cukrov won the national final despite being only the second favourite of both the jury and the televoters.

Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Croatia entered the Eurovision Song Contest as an independant 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 semi final. However, the Croatian boadcaster 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.

Igoru Cukrovu i Andrei želimo svu sre�u i dobar rezultat u Moskvi!

Videos

Live in the national final:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh3VVCMg61Q&ap=%2526fmt%3D18&rel=0

Preview video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSERZJ5wyBc&ap=%2526fmt%3D18&rel=0

Igor Cukrov performing I don't wanna miss a thing in Operacija trijumf:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFN-PLCXTZE&ap=%2526fmt%3D18&rel=0

Andrea with Noah in Dora 2004:

Andrea with Ljudi s mora in 2005:

Other parts of this series

1. France
2. Portugal
3. Romania
4. Denmark
5. Netherlands
6. Cyprus
7. Latvia
8. Ireland
9. Malta
10. Armenia
11. Germany
12. Serbia
13. Belgium
14. Greece

Tomorrow, we will take a look at the Polish entry.

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