Exactly one year ago, Nina Kraljić (Croatia’s 2016 Eurovision contestant) released her debut album, Samo (Only), and one year later she has released a bilingual single entitled Negdje (Somewhere).
The song was written by the esteemed tandem of authors, Ines Prajo and Arjane Kunštek, while the music is the work of Ivan Popeskić.
As she has revealed through her social networks over the past few weeks, Nina Kraljić has been taking professional dance training for the purpose of the new video; she spent 15 days training regularly to create this emotionally-charged video, alongside professional dancer, Vlado Kopčić.
The video is directed by Luka Rukavina and was filmed at the Zagreb Dance Centre and on a rooftop garden.
The choreography story behind Negdje
The idea of dancing the tango in Negdje was just a tiny idea I had while the song was being written. Choreographing such a complicated dance, of which I had little knowledge, was in itself a huge challenge. Fortunately, Vlado Kopčić and I share a love for the challenges. I am immensely grateful for his patience and desire to jump with me in this adventure. Thanks to the entire team of who were behind this. I also want to give special thanks to the Zagreb Dance Centre, which has given us all three rooms all day with utmost courtesy.– reveals Nina
Apart from the original Croatian version, Nina also sang the song in the Hebrew language, and this version is also available on the debut album entitled Ata ey foshehu sham.
Ines Prajo, one of the songwriters, reveals:
When the music of this song was born, we recognised the Sephardic atmosphere, and it was logical for us to make the text bilingual. Since we do not know anyone who would have been able to make a poetic translation into the Ladino language (the language of Sephardi people, a Romance language written most often in the Hebrew alphabet), we decided to use Hebrew. Eden Barzilay, a young Israeli artist with whom we have been working as an authoring team, made a truly wonderful songwriting effort to keep the meaning and poetry so the song sounds natural, as if it were originally written in Hebrew.
Nina Kraljic is very emotional and sincere about the origins of the song and its meaning:
The song Negdje contains a large part of myself in its textual, melodic and stylistic elements. We realised early on that it is a special, international song, because it connects the Sephardi and Balkan ethea. We knew we had to record two versions; one in Croatian, the other in Hebrew, showing that music has no language barrier. As a little girl, I was inspired by Ofra Haza, so this was a huge honour and challenge for me. Ines Prajo, Arjana Kunštek and Ivan Popeskić, thank you for joining this song with my childhood imagination. I am privileged.
Nina’s album Samo was released last year, and Negdje was released today.
Kraljić at Eurovision 2016
Nina Kraljić represented Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2016 with the song Lighthouse. She finished in 17th place with 23 points.
