Eurovision 2019 spotlight: Croatia's Roko with "The Dream"..
The former Yugoslav republic of Croatia have had some bad luck in the event as of late, only qualifying for the finals four times in their last nine tries with another two taking off it completely. Last year one of the country's biggest stars, Franka, surprised a lot of people (including myself) when she missed out with her powerful ballad "Crazy", which was in a tough semi-final but still ended up a mediocre 17th. Can they do better this time out?
Croatia - "The Dream" from Roko
In this year's national finals, a young newcomer from the coastal city of Split took the prize instead; Roko Blažević, another former singing competition contestant locally, won the place to go to Tel Aviv with "The Dream". It was written by Jacquies Houdek, who some in the Eurovision fandom revere but really was the Cartman-esque figure that came in eighth the year before with the tacky pop/opera blend of "My Friend". Houdek wrote "The Dream with Charlie Mason, who does have Eurovision props, having written a bunch of top ten entries including the best song ever in the competition, "Rise Like A Phoenix". But this very Eastern European/Balkan ballad loses its mark in the translation to English, with "Dream" being used as the rhyming word over and over again. And in the national finals, in true expectations I have from Houdek, Roko was dressed up like a guest star in a Bryan Singer pool party with a white suit and wings borrowed from at least two other past acts...
This would've killed in 1988.
Anyhoo, after winning, and probably seeing some of the reaction to it, the Croatian team has given the song a revamp and a new video that clips its wings, but honestly this would've been much better all (or mostly) in Croatian..
Roko has an amazing voice, and should've deserved a much less hokey song than this. And the new video attempts to look "deep" by inserting news clips of bad things that just make "The Dream" seem like the charity record it isn't. (Like a "We Are The World" of Croatia, perhaps). His talents would have been much better served without Houdek involved, and I doubt this will pass the semis. (Rating 2/10)
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Croatia has been in Eurovision as a part of Yugoslavia since 1961, with many of its entries hailing from that part of the country. Six of its top ten finishes were Croatian acts, including Yugoslavia's only win, when in 1989 they took the victory with "Rock Me" from the band Riva. That gave Yugoslavia the opportunity to put on the competition the following year, which they did in Belgrade, but the country would disintegrate in a few years after...
The country has been competing as Croatia since 1993, and in that time, their best showing has been in fourth place, which they have done twice; first in "Sveta Ljubav" ("Holy Love") from Maja Blagdan...
...and the second time in 1999, with the fiery "Marija Magdelena" from Doris Dragovic...
But as I've said, my favorite was last year's overlooked "Crazy" from Franka...
On the other hang, Jacques Houdek proved the power of cheese when his over-the-top "My Friend" came in at 8th. Yes, he is wearing a jacket that's half tuxedo and half biker jacket....
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