The Croatian entrant for this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Kyiv, Jacques Houdek is due to shoot his music video for his entry My Friend this week
Jacques Houdek will represent Croatia at this year’s Eurovision song contest in Kyiv with his song My Friend and will take part in the second semi-final. His creative team will be filming his official music video this week on the 22nd and 23rd of March and it will be in Zagreb, Croatia. Jacques is very pleased with this idea as he grew up in the Croatian capital.
The video will be directed by well known producer Katja Restović who has already worked with Jacques before, having directed previous songs of his such as Miris zene, Kao kise kap, Otkade nemam and Zid. She also directed the official music video of Crotian singer and entrant at Eurovision 1999, Doris Dragović‘s and her song Marija Magdalena which ended at a very prestigious 4th place in the final.
Katja Restović is very happy and excited to work with Jacques again:
I have great respect for his exceptional talent, and working with him has always been an honour. We share the same sense of aesthetics, quality, and artistic sensibility, and I am truly enjoying working on the project.
She also explained that she has been working on the screenplay for already multiple weeks:
The spot will have a very human, emotional, warm touch, and its message will celebrate the miracle of life. Our differences are supposed to bring us together instead of dividing us, because life isn’t a dress rehearsal – we should live in the moment. We all forget and ignore this all too often, and so this video and song are a true challenge. I will try to make the video engender the emotion that Jacques has so richly provided with his voice, and this is exactly what he wants and expects from me as director. Filming has been scheduled for 22 and 23 March in Zagreb, and I will be filming with my dear friend, cameraman Josip Ruzić and his team. My assistant Ana Sever will be responsible for the making of video and for photography during the recording.
While waiting the official music video you can watch the lyric video here:
The #beMyFriend Campaign
The Croatian creative team would like to inform all readers that the #beMyFriend campaign is still underway, the goal of which is to spread love and frienship and to create a friendly atmosphere. This campaign was recognised and supported by many big stars and many public figures with photographs and messages of support to Jacques Houdek having been published by Croatia’s former Eurovision representatives Maja Blagdan and Vanna as well as representatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina Maya Sar and Maja Tatić; Alka Vuica, Ivana Banfić, E.N.I., Ivana Kindl, Doris Pinčić, Andrea Čubrić, Ante Pecotić and Predrag Martinjak Peggy, Antonija Šola, Aleksandra Milutinović, and many others. Jacques is especially happy with this show of support from his colleagues.
Croatia in Eurovision
The country participated a total of 22 times and qualified 17 times, they reached their best score yet in 1996 with Maja Blagdan and in 1999 with Doris Dragović placing 4th. They last participated in 2016 with Nina Kraljić and her song Lighthouse which reached the 23rd place in the final with 73 points.