Day Two - Saturday 6th March

Saturday was a fine day, and we spent lunch drinking coffee in an outdoor cafe on a pedestrian street in Zagreb with Sasa from HRT who'd got us the tickets and passes.
Sasa works on getting rights and linkups to sporting events for HRT, and we had long chat about HRT, and Croatia, as most of Zagreb wandered by to take their coffees in the sunshine.

< Picture - Jelena on the Sunday

We'd made the papers - "Jutarnji List" had a story about four English journalists covering the Dora. We were two of them, the other two being Glen and Michael who were writing for the Eurovision Network News fan club magazine. The article mentioned how we'd talked to Toni Cetinski - fame at last!

After lunch at Calazo, an excellent Italian restaurant recommended by Sasa, we went out to Jadran Film again.

Saturday's show was called 'Let's all sing Dora'. The singers due to sing in the Dora proper on Sunday would sing a song of their choice from past Dora contests. For the less well-known performers this was an excellent chance to showcase their talent, but some chose to cheat a little and sing their own songs. So we had Minea singing her own 'Good Boy' (Dora 1995) and Magazin singing 'Aha' (Dora 1997), written by Tonci Huljic of Magazin, and sung by Magazin's vocalist, Jelena (a solo artist in 1997). But there were braver souls, like Kristina who sang Maja Blagdan's "Jedini Moj" (Dora 1993).

Kristina (pictured at the foot of the page) was discovered in Split by record producer/writer Ivo Lesic, and some success starting with her Zagreb Fest '97 song 'Ruke' (hands) which was a hit, and has a four-track CD in the shops "Samo jednom srce voli", all the tracks being from music festivals. She's based in Split, like most of the Croatian pop industry, and sings in clubs in Dalmatia & Bosnia at weekends. Ivo told us he looks for talented singers in Split "Because the girls are more beautiful there." 17 year-old Kristina didn't score so highly at school, but he's told her she will have to learn English if she wants more success.

Branka Bliznac (right) was in the Dora in 1997 coming 18th with "Nasoj Ljubavi", which she decided to sing again for the "Let's all sing Dora" Saturday show. Born in Berlin, where her father, who now manages her, lived for 20 years, she has taken part in several other festivals including the Bratislava International '97 where she came 15th, and the Split '97 Festival where she sang "Ja sam Dalmatnka" (I'm a Dalmatian girl). 18 year-old Branka's favourite international artist is Bon Jovi. Her boyfriend Mario told us about last summer's hit "Otok Banana" (Swelling banana), the video of which was shot on the beach in Split close to the cafe his family owns. Branka's album is called "Ljubi me do zore", and includes the 1997 Dora song, as well as "Otok Banana".

HRT was going to use an Orchestra for the Saturday show, and we talked to Petar Graso (below left) about the use of backing tracks. Petar was the writer of last year's Croatian entry "Neka mi ne svane" sung by Danijela, and told us he hadn't realised backing tracks could be used in Birmingham until it was too late. "If I would have known I could have used a backing track, I would have used one - it would have been much better than that orchestra". He has a new album coming out in July, and when I asked him about his relationship with Tonci Huljic, who manages Tonika, the record company Graso records for, he said he was in full control of his career, and was not like the other acts Tonika has. Of his chances in the Dora, "I have a good song - it's not always the favourite that wins." On the Saturday he sang his Dora 97 song "Idi".

Kresimir, from HRT's Public Relations told us something about HRT itself. There'd been problems financially recently, and it was no surprise Proctor & Gamble had been awarded a prize in the Friday show - they had spent more money on TV advertising on HRT than anyone else, and HRT needed the money. Some festivals had not been televised recently because of lack of financial support.

I was surprised the record industry didn't put its money in, but it seems the towns of Split and Rovinj and the like get a lot of nice publicity, as do the songs, but HRT gets little money from these expensive shows. This year's Dora was in Zagreb to save money, but HRT didn't have a big enough studio yet, so Jadran Film was being used.

We asked about the 'Blue Pearl of Rovinj' show in 1997 which was a wonderful International contest won by Hungarian singer, Eszter Biro. HRT had planned this to be another sort of Eurovision Song Contest, but it had been too expensive, so the 1998 event was not televised. Dora 2000 would have to be cheaper, but nonetheless Kresimir was rightly proud of this production and told us much about the equipment and people.

Anyway, the Saturday show was on, and we were in there - very entertaining - twenty-four unique performances, only a few available on disc. Kristina sang "Jedini Moj" beautifully, Jelena did "Aha" without the ballet dress, Joy did a jolly version of last year's 3rd placed song "Daj, daj" - they were to sing another of Branimir Mihaljevic's songs on Sunday. Zrinka did her wonderful 1995 tearjerker "Srce od Zlata", and Petar Graso rounded it all off with his powerful ballad "Idi". The only weak song had been "Good Boy" sung by Minea. This had been a poor choice because it just didn't suit the use of the full orchestra - a pity for such a great dance song.

Ian & I also had our first chance to see "Miss Timpani" a pretty girl in the orchestra who would sit back sullen in the songs that had no timpani, but would be there banging away furiously in others, then testing the pitch in quieter passages. She was almost as much fun to watch as the show itself.