CROATIA

The Croatian song was presented on March 27th during a press conference held by the broadcasters HRT. They then went onto perform on the show "8.kat".The song and performers had been internally selected by HRT back in January but the song " Mižerja" (Misery) and the band, Klapa s Mora, had been kept under wraps until now.

The 6 strong male group is a 'super group' - there are taken from several different bands that specialise in the klapa style of song. As there are 6 of them, there is nobody else on stage. They are dressed in back suits although in other appearances they have all been in 'normal' clothing. It certainly look very striking and look like a cohesive group. It might be interesting to see how they utilise the background in Malmo to make this stand out further.

The song is an orchestral lilting ballad in the klapa style. This involves a lot of harmony and singing together. The singers have different ranges and so when they sing together it sounds very rich. The song is entirely in Croatian, which in this case makes sense as this is a culturally Croatian song so lends itself to being in the mother tongue. The instrumental part about 2 minutes in is very uncomfortable as the guys don't quite seem to know what to do or where to look or put themselves.

I personally like the song, even though it is a ballad and not in a language I fully understand. I also like the fact that this is something cultural but not in an embarrassing way. The chorus is very memorable and I think this will stand out, especially with all the shenanigans going on around it - just having 6 men standing as singing may just stand out in a simple dignified way. However, I really don't know, apart from the neighbouring Balkan countries and those with a significant Eastern Diaspora, who will vote for this. Part of me thinks that the juries might go for this but this may depend on the instructions given to them for voting.

 

Artist - Klapa s Mora

Song - Mižerja (Misery)
Music - Goran Topolovac
Lyrics - Goran Topolovac