Day Three - Sunday 7th March

Sunday came, and we decided to hit the Sheraton, and who should we find but Tonci Huljic, the man behind (and in front of) Magazin, also the man behind Tonika, and the writer of three songs in Dora '99 - those by Magazin, Doris Dragovic, and Minea.

Tonci is no stranger to the Eurovision - Magazin (Danijela was the lead singer then) & Lidija performed 'Nostalgia' in the 1995 Eurovision in Dublin, and every year he has songs in the Dora. He was kind enough to grant us an interview.

Select this link if you want to read it, and learn of Tonci's plans & views, and see his picture.

After talking to Tonci we took a taxi up to Jadran Film again to take in the rehearsals for the Dora.

The presenters for the final were Vlatka Pokos and Oliver Mlakar (right).

Vlatka is no stranger to Croatian pop, having had a number of dance songs a few years ago. She was also a presenter of Sedma Noc, a Sunday night entertainment show tragically axed by HRT in 1995.

Oliver will be more familiar - he was co-presenter of the 1990 Eurovision Song Contest which was held in Zagreb.

Both were very polished. No autocue or idiot boards for them (1998 final in Birmingham used autocue) - they just memorised their words and came out and said them - from various parts of the set. Some parts that seemed to be made of aluminium foil proved to be strong enough to stand on. Vlatka had some problems with her off-the-shoulder dress but nothing serious.

The afternoon's rehearsal went well - the show was looking great. One of the odd things was that the commercials were played in the rehearsal - at least at first it seemed odd, but obviously the commercials between each song were critical to timing, so had to be up there. Because of this I now think they are part of the show, and wouldn't have a video recording without them!

Some of the acts were sitting around in the press centre between the final rehearsal and the live transmission, and amongst them was 20 year-old Maja Suput, the lead singer from the group Joy. We had a chat with her:

Select this link if you want to read it, see her picture, and find out about this rising star

Maja's father, Boris Suput, used to manage Minea before she teamed up with Tonci Huljic, and he was behind "Good Boy", and the stream of dance hits Minea had before the move to Tonika, so maybe we will see more of Maja Suput.

Helena Miladic (right) is the lead singer of the group Mandi, and told us how she had only joined the group five or six months ago, replacing a girl who'd left for a solo career. Normally the songs are more dance oriented. She asked us to "Say hello to England", adding that she'd never been there.

We also had a chance to talk to Jelena Rozga (for the picture, see Saturday's page), who comes from - you guessed it - Split, where she lives with her parents. Jelena used to be a ballerina, and used that skill to good effect in the 1996 Dora singing "A-ha" in a ballet dress. It probably explains why she stood on one leg at the end of the song in the 1997 Dora! Now she doesn't have time for dancing. This was her fourth Dora, and she'd been with Magazin three years. The recent Magazin concert in a stadium had been quite an experience for her. She wanted us to notice the tear drop make-up had put under her left eye for the song - "It's so sad."

We also talked to Djani Stipancev and Renata Sabljak, who are an item. This was the first time they had been in a competition together and there was some rivalry. "If she scores more than me, I will beat her!". Thirty year-old Djani comes from Mokrinu in the Vojvodina area of "lovely friendly Serbia", as he put it. He's been singing in clubs ten years, and studying Biology four years. He wanted us to notice his green shoes on stage, which cost 1000 Kuna - about a hundred pounds. Renata is 21 years old from Zagreb, and was first on TV in the "Turbo Limach Show" in 1992. She has an album out called "Renata". Her favourite songs by international artists are "Black velvet" by Allanah Miles, and "Stop" by Sam Brown. The two of them have sung duets together in the 1997 Arenafest and the 1998 Zadarfest.

Then it was time to get into Studio 2 to our seats. This proved more fun than expected, as there had been a re-shuffle since we got our tickets, and we were moved around, first obstructing the Floor Manager's view (a rather severe lady!), and then on a row of our own just in front of a static camera.

And then it was time for the show. Everything went perfectly. We were pretty close to the front, but could see the Floor Manager getting annoyed when a singer didn't wait to be told to leave the stage at the end of the song, or wouldn't go!

	What was the interval act? There had been rumours Dana International would be there, at least by satellite, but I never thought it likely in such a traditionalist Catholic country. We had seen in the rehearsals how the interval was mostly devoted to "The Turbo Limach Show", which had been the starting point for many of tonight's performers, the presenter Sinisa Cmrk told us. The show is where children get to sing their favourite songs on TV, but unlike so many shows, here they really sing. The interval segment brought a few of the best of these onto prime-time TV, and amongst the best of them was Dorothea Maric who gave a sterling version of "Sveta Ljubavi", and little Maja Kesic whose "My heart will go on" was really very good. After that we had a medley of Dora songs with dancing, and Danijela came on to sing "Neka mi ne svane" for the third time in the weekend. The show looked like it would last all night, but the voting was fast and rather unexciting, as Marija Magdalena was always in front. We took to keeping an eye on the zero points, and the battle between Renata & Djani (which Renata won by one point). Ultimately four songs got no points, amongst them the excellent songs sung by Kristina and Branka Bliznac, both of whom we'd met.

Before long Tonci was getting his car keys for the Clio (won by them winning songwriter) and Doris was belting out the song again.

The press conference was, of course, in Croatian, but I was eager to find out if Marija Magdalena was going to be sung in English in Jerusalem. I heard a Slovenian radio presenter ask the question in Croatian, so I checked around for a translation of the answer. One of the press officials said, "Of course, it will be in Croatian", but the radio journalist who'd asked said, "He said he hasn't decided", so I thought I'd best ask Tonci himself. He told me he was undecided, and would be contacting a friend in England about the English lyrics. Maybe it would be partly in English. I think this was an interesting example of the local politics - Croatia is so newly independent that it's probably essential the song be sung in Croatian if the team behind it don't want bad reviews.

Then I spoke to Doris Dragovic herself.

Select this link if you want to read and hear the interview with the lady who may just win the 1999 Eurovision Song Contest, and a picture.

Back in the bar area, some of the performers were chatting. It seems HRT decided not to have a post-event party, so it was taking place right there - well sort of. We talked again to Helena from Mandi and Maja from Joy, but there was some fun as we left. Helena & Kresimir from Mandi pulled a polystyrene Dora logo off the wall of the press centre and ran over to the Renault Clio Tonci had just won, and leaned against it holding the logo aloft for a photograph from another member of the group.

We thought maybe the Sheraton would be fun, but we only found the group Andy there, and Goran Karan. The manager of Andy was a little scathing about the Tonci Huljic contribution to the Dora. He thought he should not have been allowed to have three songs, and said he thought the volume had been turned up for Doris's song. As we had heard before, Tonci was criticised for his use of foreign styles. My own view is that you cannot make people like music, so Tonci has something people like. A ballet teacher had choreographed Andy. We were told the managers had no control over the TV presentation of the songs, unlike in the Eurovision final.

Everyone was tired so we said hello & goodbye to Goran, missed Zrinka as she sneaked by to the lift and retreated back to the hotel.

The final morning was spent seeking out more CDs - we found the ones by Renata, Zorana, and Mandi (without Helena), and rushed to the airport for the return flight - phew what a weekend!