Croatia 2000

Goran Karan will sing the powerful ballad "Kada zaspu andeli" for Croatia in Stockholm after winning the excellent (if very long - over 4 hours!) Croatian final in Opatija on February 19th.

The song will be heard in Croatian in Stockholm, but on a recent 'Celebrity squares' show on Croatian TV Goran performed the song in English as 'Stay with me'. You can see this song by clicking on this link. The file is a Real Video G2 file encoded for 56K modem, so its better than usual, and you can download it by right click - save target.

Goran is 35 years old, from Split. His career really took off thanks to his appearance in the 1998 & 1999 Dora competitions where he came 2nd & 3rd respectively. I met him briefly after the 1999 Dora, and he seemed very calm, relaxed and genial.
Composers Zdenko Runjic & Nenad Nincevic are from Spilt also, and are amongst the busiest writer/producers in Croatia. Zdenko Runjic now organizes the Croatian Adriatic Music festival (MHJ) held in Split every summer, and something I've always wanted to attend.

The Croatian Dora was to have been held over two days climaxing on February 20th, but budget cutbacks have reduced it to one day now on Saturday 19th February with 26 songs selected from the 320 entered. After last year's three-day spectacular in Zagreb, the 2000 show will be held back in the old venue of the Hotel Kvarner in Opatija.
Presenters will be Vlatka Pokos (co-presenter last year) and Marko Rasica.
There was some contoversy over the Severina song - originally it was titled "Mexico", but this was felt unsuitable by Ksenija Urlicic, the fiesty Croatian TV Director of Light Entertainment, so it has been changed to "Boom, Boom". I don't yet have the writer information, but I know Severina is now part of the Tonci Huljic stable, as is Minea and Cronica. Cronica is said to be basically Magazin - their song has only one line: "I will love you till the end of time" sung in English and Croatian. I'm sure Tonci has a few others in there too.

We also have a few returnees from last year, notably Renata, Joy, Zorana, Josip Katalenic, Alen Nizetic & Goran Karan.
Vanna makes her first Dora appearance, as does Severina. Vanna is the lead singer in ET, a superb Croatian rock group who make epic videos, and Severina is one of the biggest stars in Croatia. Her first hit "Moje Stvar" (My thing) was massive in 1995.
Unfortunately I'm unable to be at this year's contest (It was really great to be there last year), but I'll be glued to the HRT-1 digital feed on Hotbird on the 19th.
Here's the list compiled from various sources, not least Renata Sabljak (pictured right), one of the performers, and also from a mailing list message from Vedran Anelic.

Originally planned song title list - there were numerous changes before the show:

#	Title	Title in English	Performer(s)
1	Mogla bih te voljeti	I could love you	Zorana Siljeg
2	Na mom jastuku	On my pillow	Boris Novkovic
3	Vjerujem ti sve	I believe you all	Andrea Bosnjak
4	Sama medju zvjezdama	Alone between the stars	Izabela i Stijene
5	Na svijetu je dovoljno srece za sve	There is enough of happiness in the world for all	Dea
6	Ja ne gren	I am not going	Alen Vitasovic
7	Samo ti i ja	Only me and you	Tajna veza
8	Srna i vuk	Roe and wolf	Giuliano
9	Put u raj	Road to paradise	Josip Katalenic
10	Za tebe zivjeti	Live for you	Renata Sabljak
11	Nikome nije dobro kao nama	Nobody feels so good like we do	Tina & Niksa
12	Sto bi mi	Why should I need you	Minea
13	Oblake sada pokreni	Put the clouds in motion now	Too Much
14	Boom, boom, boom	Boom, boom, boom	Severina
15	Kad se voli	When it is loving	Dogan Family
16	Hrvatska rapsodija	Croatian rhapsody	Cronica
17	Hajde reci sto	Say what	Teens
18	Kao rijeka	Like a river	Vanna
19	Ja cekam noc	I am waiting for night	Vesna Pisarovic
20	Kada zaspu andjeli	When the angels go to sleep	Goran Karan
21	Dobro, bolje, najbolje	Good, better, the best	Anita Horvatic
22	Hrabro srce	Brave heart	Alen Nizetic
23	Love me tonight	Love me tonight	Jozefina & Trio Rio
24	Helleya, planet Nova zemlja	Helleya, the planet New Earth	Putokazi
25	Baby	Baby	Joy
26	Idi	Go	Vesna Ivic

If you have any more news or comments, please e-mail me, Geoff Harrison, at my contact page and I'll credit your contribution.

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