Croatia 1998

Croatia picked Danijela's (left) song "Neka mi ne svane" ("May the sun never rise") on Friday 6th March. For the first time ever Croatian TV screened the "Dora" contest live on the satellite service.

Another glittering contest from Croatia, with some very fine songs vying for the chance to be heard in Birmingham.

As usual, the twenty songs were performed in the Crystal hall of Hotel Kvarner in Opatija.

 
After opening the show with a performance by ENI of last year's song 'Probudi me' (right), the songs competing were sung in quick succession, separated only by the customary brief commercial breaks, and afterwards we had Katrina & the Waves performing their now traditional National Final set.

After Katrina, came the voting. As usual with Croatian finals, this was town by town in alphabetical order, and, as usual, I still can't believe how many places start with 'Z'.

This year's innovation was a telephone vote - but just as an extra jury after all the Z towns. Out of the telephone voters, one lucky individual voting for Danijela was picked to win a ticket to Birmingham. HRT flashed numbers like on a web counter as our presenters said 'stop!'. I found it interesting that the counter shown had 5 digits, but never showed anything over 200. Mister number one hundred and something had his name flashed up as the winner. I think the phone numbers to call were poorly presented - it seemed as if HRT were trying this method, but had little regard for it.

Quite a few artists returned from past years, including Magazin and Danijela. Danijela Martinovic (seen on the left aged 4!) was part of Magazin when they appeared with Lidija to sing "Nostalgia" in Dublin in 1995. Novi Fosili have been in many Dora competitions, and with a different line-up represented Yugoslavia with "Ja sam za ples" in 1987. Zrinka sang in both the 1995 and 1996 Dora, to best effect in 1995 with "Srce od zlata" (Heart of gold).

#	Title in Croatian	Title in English	Composers	Picture	Singer(s)	Pts/ Plc	My view
1	Sve sto si ti	All that is you	Valentina Brzovic / Valentina Brzovic / Miro Buljan		Valentina Brzovic	2	Cheerful, upbeat.
2	Nebo	The sky	Davor Tolja / Alida Sarar / Davor Tolja		Zorica Kondza	78	Slow & dramatic.
3	Zivot iza ponoci	After midnight	Marin Limic / Marin Limic		Ready - Cool	32	Simple tune, not quite catchy emough.
4	Jos te volim kao nekada	I still love you as before	Marin Limic / Marin Limic / Stipica Kalogjera		Stijene	70	Slow, a bit forgettable.
5	Stara zvona jedne ljubavi	Old loves ring true	Nenad Nincevic / Nenad Nincevic / Zeljko Sparmajer		Ena	0	Medium - paced, theatre - style song.
6	Ja cu po svom, ti ces po svom	I'll do as i like and you do as you like	Franjo Valentic / Fayo / Goran Macuzic		Melani	10	Bathed in blue in her underwear.
7	Ako me ikad pozelis	If you should want me	Niksa Jurinovic / Niksa Jurinovic / Branko Glavan		Tina & Niksa	48	Ordinary duet with a nice sax mid section.
8	Daj, daj	Give me	Branimir Mihaljevic / Fayo / Branimir Mihaljevic		Branimir Mihaljevic	132/ 3rd	Irish fiddle sounds, pretty dancers, lively, catchy.
9	U ritmu ljubavi	In the rhythm of love	Boris Djurdjevic / Boris Djurdjevic / Boris Djurdjevic		Colonia	87	Deep voice in a good song.
10	Na svijetu sve	You are all i have	Tonci Huljic / Vjekoslava Huljic / Fedor Boic		Magazin	79	Pretty Jelena leads, but song not well enough developed.
11	Pjesma putuje	The song travels	Zrinko Tutic / Zrinko Tutic / Niksa Bratos		Ivan Mikulic	61	Anthemic ballad. I thought they'd go for this.
12	Sve je za tebe	It's all for you	Slobodan Vujovic / Marina Valkovic / Tihomir Preradovic		Marsell Benzon	52	Forgettable slow ballad.
13	Bez ljubavi	Without love	Alen Nizetic / Nenad Nincevic / Nenad Nincevic / Edo Botric		Alen Nizetic	63	Loud, medium paced, better than #12.
14	Samo ti je ljubav potrebna	Love is all you need	Davor Tolja / Alida Sarar / Davor Tolja		Andrea & Davor Tolja	42	All but Andrea wear glasses. Gospel style.
15	Da bar vjecno zivimo	If we could live forever	Zeljko Kruslin / Zeljko Kruslin / Hrvoje Hegedusic		Sanja Trumbic	0	Latin beat. Weak singing.
16	Ljubi me i to je to	KIss me and that's it	Miro Buljan / Sanja Mudrinic / Tihomir Preradovic		Lana Cencic	0	A real Croatian pop song, ending with a kiss.
17	Neka mi ne svane	May the sun never rise	Petar Graso / Petar Graso / Remi Kazinoti		Danijela	177/ 1st	Typical Danijela, a fine rouser.
18	Bolero	Bolero	Zdenko Runjic / Vjekoslava Huljic / Stipica Kalogjera		Zrinka & Goran	133/ 2nd	Nice ballad.
19	Pricaj mi o ljubavi	Talk to me about love	Rajko Dujmic / Stevo Cvikic / Vedran Ostojic		Novi fosili	69	Glitter in pockets - good, but nothing special.
20	Ruku na srce	With hand on heart	Zlatan Stipisic Gibonni / Zlatan Stipisic Gibonni / Miro Buljan		Azzurro & Nikad dosta	83	Nice female band. Not so keen on Azzurro or the song.

This list was taken from the pages of Croatian TV where there's still plenty to see on the Dora.

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