As explained in blog post 1, all countries have some type of national brand, that majority of the time is portrayed in the Eurovision Song Contest. The different countries try to distinguish themselves to the audience by representing their culture. Croatia, for the years that I analyzed, did not showcase what seems to be their national identity. Based on my research in blog post 1, their national identity came across as this very religious, humbled to be an independent country but still connected to Yugoslavia. Croatia did not present any aspect of want to seem to be so dominant in their culture. Thus, this could conclude to an overall misalignment. I will be discussing how national identity and the performances impact each other through reevaluating my original conclusion on Croatia’s national identity.
As I analyzed in blog post 1, Croatia bases their culture around the Roman Catholic religion which is dominant in their community. In Every Culture Article, Croatian who consider themselves Catholic attend the religious activities, get baptized and married within the Catholic belief system. The Catholic leaders are very active within Croatia. With this religion baptism, first communion, confirmation marriage, funeral mass, Christmas, and Easter are very significant in the day to day life of Croatians. Still to this day Croatians find it very important to observe all Saint’s Day (2017). As Croatia being seen to be so involved with Catholicism, their performances show otherwise. In the variety of performances, I analyzed there are no definite signs of religion. In the 2011 performance especially as referred to in blog post 1; Daria had on a short dress singing about how to party and live it up (Croatia, 2011). When in all actuality, according to her religion, she should be preparing for mass the next day. Even though none of the performances directly reflect their religion, the 2011 performance doesn’t even try to show modesty. Daria’s dress that she starts in as well as the second dress is way above her knees. The significance of Catholicism is also not prevalent in the 2012 performance as well. The title, Nebo, which means heaven Croatian, is the closest connection to anything religious. The overall meaning of the song still is not religiously based, it’s more so dealing with a breakup and knowing that the overseers will take care of situation or the person. As the song states, “Well heaven settles every debt and remembers everything you owe,” (“Nina Badrić,” 2012). All the bad things happening to this person, the wrongdoers will pay for their actions. Neither of these performances shows a country that their day to day lifestyle is to follow the Catholic way. Croatia could be a country that does not want what they’re known for to interfere with what they present at Eurovision, but they might want the audience to just judge upon the actual performance. The only problem with that is, there is no “it” factor to just the performance itself if the audience does not have that one special factor that no other country has. This could contribute to why Croatia has not done so well in the last decade.
Croatia has been identified as a country who became independent in 1991 after being union with the communist party in the SFR Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) tried to keep Croatia within Yugoslavia by occupying all of Croatia, but Croatia was not stratified with the union. Even though Croatia gained their independence in 1991 they were in the war for independence from 1991 to 1992 (Central Intelligence Agency, 2018). With all of this in the history of Croatia’s politics, you would think that it has an impact on their present-day society. This is not the case with the performances at Eurovision. During the years 2011 through 2013 in which I analyzed, there are no significant signs of politics. Croatia seems to go the safe route when it comes to song choice; overall their themes are usually a social view or about love and relationships. For example, in the 2012 performance, Nina sings about how a person’s previous relationship played out and the effect of the relationship; this surely has no connection to any type of political view. The same goes for the 2011 and 2013 performances; in 2011 the song is all about celebrating and the 2013 song is all about a lost love. There could be several reasons why Croatia choose not to include their substantial political view. One reason being they did not want to shine a light on the negative; however, they could have at least one of the years choose a song about overcoming their circumstances. In doing so it allows the audience to get a sense of what Croatia is about also to be able to identify their culture and national identity. If Croatia would have chosen songs to reflect their political situation the audience could have found a common similarity and share a connection. When the participating countries find that there is similarity or connection with the other participants they are more likely to vote for that country. Another reason for excluding their political aspect could be due to not wanting their countries personal issues brought to the forefront. When doing so the press could try to reiterate on the negative instead of focusing on the fact that they have overcome those circumstances. On a positive look of things, the questioning of their status could only strengthen their national brand and help solidify who they are in other countries’ point of view. Croatia could have done a better job showcasing their political ups and downs in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Last but not least, Croatia’s national identity is the consistent language choice. To give a little background on Croatia’s language identity, as stated earlier in this paper, Croatia was apart of Yugoslavia. So, Croatia’s language derives from the Slavic language (Central Intelligence Agency, 2018). Two of the three performances I analyzed were performed in their language. About 90 percent of their performances throughout the years were sung in Croatian. Croatia is doing a great job in this department, by staying true to who they are, as well as mixing it up from time to time to show some diversity. Even though none of the other countries will comprehend the words being sung, the key is in the performance itself. They must adequately showcase what their song means. For the 2011 performance, Daria and her backing performers did an acceptable job of displaying the party theme with a magic twist, as explained in blog post 2. The dress changes contribute to both overarching themes of celebration and magic. The 2012 and 2013 performance did not do enough to get the overall theme. With 2012, even though the background was representing the sky and heaven the other aspects of the performance did not support the destructive love portion. The 2013 performance was all about lost love and the five men just stood in a line singing like a choir; there is no way an audience of a variety of languages would understand what’s being sung, (2013, Croatia). Overall Croatia should stick to their language but find a better way to get across the words being sung.
Now reanalyzing and reviewing my blog post 1, I conclude a misalignment. First, looking at their so-called orthodox Catholicism; according to Christian Research Institute, I would have reanalyzed and state that they come across as Cultural Catholics, or follow the ways of cultural Catholics. Croatia does follow, in some ways, Catholicism through their social community but as cultural Catholics, they do not enforce the day in and day out application, as I explained in blog post 1. As Christian Research Institute explains, the so-called religion is treated more as a cultural and social identity. The reason I have redirected Croatia’s religion identity type is that Croatia follows the key aspects of Catholicism but not to the extent of “Ultratraditionalist” Catholics. Due to Croatia not representing any religious values on stage, they could not be considered “Ultratraditionalist”. Being Cultural Catholics is not as a day to day application as traditional Catholicism, which allows the performers to not be as restricted when it comes to dressing rules and the topic being sung (Christian Research Institute, 2009). Even though Croatia’s political tribulations helped create their national brand, it is not something that they even wanted to gamble with when coming to Eurovision. I understand political standpoint are not allowed in any performance, however, like plenty of other countries, there are ways to get around that to share the positivity without being direct. Croatia, as said before performed mostly in their language, which shows their integrity in that characteristic. My original analysis had some alignments and some misalignments but did not portray the religious aspect of their national brand.
Croatia would have a great national brand if they showcase it correctly. Based on the performances, I would make a future implication that Croatia will continue to perform in their language. I will also infer that Croatia will continue to not implement their religious values in the performances, even though it could benefit the audience/ performer connection. Lastly, based on what I have seen Croatia will not include underlying messages about their political point of view. By not solidifying their national brand, Croatia will continue to have an uphill battle being successful at Eurovision.
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References
Croatia’s country profile. (2017). BBC News. Retrieved From
Christian Research Institute. (2009). What are the different types of catholics? Retrieved from www.equip.org/article/what-are-the-different-types-of-catholics/
Daria. (2011). Celebrate (Croatia). Eurovision Song Contest 2011 Dusseldorf. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0yt3fgPut8
Europe: Croatia. (2018). In Central intelligence agency the world factbook. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/hr.html
Klapa s mora. (2013). Klapa s mora (Croatia). Eurovision Song Contest 2013 Malmo.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYm4sGd-qP0
Nina Badrić. (2012). Eurovision Song Contest 2012 Baku. Retrieved from https://eurovision.tv/participant/nina-badric/lyrics
