The Eurovision Song Contest is the time for European countries to show the world who they are through songs. The contest is significant because each country tries to reach the audience in different ways to get the win. Some try to share their experience with social conflict or just share popular pop songs; in doing this Croatia would sing in Croatian and in English; music is thought of as a universal language which can unify and ultimately win over the international audience. Croatia joined the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993. Croatia uses music style, outfits, language, stage performance, and on-stage props. The overarching purpose of these characteristics is to grab the audience’s attention to win Eurovision. Here I will be analyzing Croatia’s performances from 2011 to 2013 to see if there are any similarities or differences and how it impacts Croatia’s success.
In 2011 contestant Daria tried to bring life to Eurovision. The main idea of the song “Celebrate”, which was performed in English; was to enjoy the moment to its fullest. As the song states “Stop the world for a moment / Shine like a comet” (2011b, Croatia). The use of colors has a great impact on how the message is presented to the audience. On one hand, you have the backing performers wearing all black, then the lead performer, who by the end of the song had three different colored wardrobes. The lead performer started out in a black dress, towards the middle of the song the male backing performer came from behind the DJ table and met the lead performer by this circular shape placed on the stage. Daria stood in the middle of this circular item as the male backing performer lifted, which structure looked like a portable shower; what would have been the curtain was reflective silver and pink streamers. When the male backing performer dropped the circular item, Daria was in a new pink dress (2011a). This wardrobe change happened two more times throughout the performance. The common factor of all the wardrobe change was the male backing performer, who is presenting himself as a magician. Thus, everything the male backing performer or magician touched had or added color. On stage is also a DJ table which had the same pink and silver reflective streamers as the circular curtain, which the magician was behind most of the song. As the song states, “Let the magic take over your heart” (2011b). The male backing performer is the visual representation of the “magic”. While the backing singers have on all black, the male backing performer is a representation of a magician who is using his role to liven up the performance and to create the celebration vibe. The wardrobe change not only adds color but represents the process of letting go and enjoying the moment. Like the song says, “Put your hands up/ Let the magic take over your heart/ Join us you'll have a good time, the party of your life” (2011b). This being an interactive song choice, made Croatia believe the audience would want to join and ultimately vote for them. The overall performance represents a literal interpretation of the word “magic”, with the backing performer as a magician. The lyrics and the magician demand for wardrobe change convey the overarching purpose to let go of the past and enjoy life.
For 2012 Eurovision Croatia “decided to internally select one of the nation’s top female artists (Nina Badrić)” (“Nina Badrić,” 2012). Croatia decided to go back to its language roots for this performance with the song “Nebo,” which means sky. In this performance, Nina has two backing dancers as well as three backing singers. The two backing male dancers represented the song’s emotions through their movement (2012). The overarching idea in this song is a lost love that controlled by heaven, where someone is still in love with their former partner even though the partner does not feel the same. As repeated in the song, “And I hear you’re in love and people tell me/ That you just don’t care. / Like I’ve lost my mind, / I still keep hoping for you” (“Nina Badrić,” 2012). So, the two male dancers are expressing the longing this person has for their former partner. Nina and the male dancers are wearing all black which represents the sadness of not feeling wanted in this lost love; “That you just don’t care” (“Nina Badrić,” 2012). The black clothing represents the emotions of this person, where the long white fabric being waved in the background represents heaven watching over the situation. White is seen as pure, the white in the clothing represents heaven. Along with the clothing the LED screen also shows a stormy, cloudy night during the whole performance, this is relating to a sense of sadness as the song states, “And these tears of mine will weigh heavily on your soul” (“Nina Badrić,” 2012). The title “Sky” comes into play because the “sky” (heaven) has control over what happens, and which people can receive help from; As the song states, “Well heaven settles every debt…” (“Nina Badrić,” 2012). By the performance being performed in Croatian and the stage interaction not showing the message, made it hard for the audience to comprehend their performance.
Croatia’s 2013 performance was done by a group of six men called “Klapa s mora”. Not just the language but also the song choice was “traditional” Croatian vocal music, according to Eurovision.tv; in better words love songs, (2013b). The men were dressed in black clothing which looked like typical 1700 European wear, (2013a, Croatia). With the men not having much choreography, besides the movement of their hands, the message is not getting across to the audience. If Klapa s mora would have sung the song in English that might have gotten away with it, but without a universal language and no visual representation the audience will not understand. The song is all about love overcoming all hard times, as its title is “Hard Times”. However, the audience would not get that through the performance.
There are some similarities with the three performances. All the performers are white. This just represents most of the Croatian community. The consistency of race relates to the national identity. Other nations will see this, and it will become an expectation of them as a Eurovision Song Contest audience member. Even though Croatia has seemed to modernize, their diversity in people has not; this will not appeal to a diverse audience. This will cause Croatia not to win because the audience has nothing to connect with.
Another similarity through the performances was the color of clothing. All three performances’ main color was black. The reason for this could include, wanting audiences to focus on what they were singing, giving more attention to the different choreography or background accents. The 2012 performance’s clothing was more so used as a prop, as it was connected to Nina’s wrist (2012a, Croatia). However, in the 2013 performance, took the focus off the clothing rather than focusing on the stage presence, with the message of love as strongly portrayed.
In conclusion, Croatia’s identity is shown in all three performances. With Croatia having a variety of issues with their government, it shows they played it safe these years, by performing songs about love. Also, two of the three performances are sung in Croatian which is their national language. Yet Croatia did not show their strong religious Catholic values in the performances in any type of way. With this being their core, their national identity was not represented clearly in these performances.
Word Count: 1,256
References:
Badrić, N. (2012). Nebo (Croatia). Eurovision Song Contest 2012 Baku. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzdI4yuqwzY
Daria. (2011a). Celebrate (Croatia). Eurovision Song Contest 2011 Dusseldorf. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0yt3fgPut8
Daria. (2011b). Celebrate (Croatia). Eurovision Song Contest 2011 Dusseldorf. Retrieved from https://eurovision.tv/participant/daria/story
Klapa s mora. (2013a). Klapa s mora (Croatia). Eurovision Song Contest 2013 Malmo. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYm4sGd-qP0
Klapa s mora. (2013b). Klapa s mora (Croatia). Eurovision Song Contest 2013 Malmo. Retrieved from https://eurovision.tv/participant/klapa-s-mora/lyrics
Nina Badrić. (2012). Eurovision Song Contest 2012 Baku. Retrieved from https://eurovision.tv/participant/nina-badric/lyrics
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