Following a campaign of teasers, the Croatian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 is now released.

My friend will be sung by Jacques Houdek, who tried his luck in the Croatian selection Dora for six times before, reaching the second place in 2011. It is composed by Houdek, Siniša Reljić and Tony Malm and written by Houdek together with Ines Prajo, Arijana Kunštek and Fabrizio Laucella.

“It will be very interesting, Eurovision-y, and its structure and complexity is extremely thought-provoking. We are confident it will arouse interest.”, said Željko Mesar, the Croatian Head of Delegation, prior to today’s official release.

This year’s entry is the first Croatian entry to include lyrics in another language than English or Croatian, as the song includes Italian lyrics in addition to English. The official lyric video which was presented today was produced by Dario Lepoglavec.

After a row of failures in 2010-2013 and a two-year break, Croatia came back to the Eurovision Song Contest last year, making it to the final for the first time since 2009. The country’s hopes are now set to a second consecutive qualification in Kyiv, from the second half of the second semi-final.