Croatia

Following their neighbor Slovenia will be another Balkan (and ex-Yugoslav) republic in the First Semi Final:  Croatia.  [A small admission before I go into the stats and information.  I secretly want Croatia to win, so I can have more incentive to visit the Dalmatian coast, particularly Dubrovnik (which incidentally stands in for King's Landing in Game of Thrones.  OK, I think two of my geek worlds just collided and I can't get up).  Now back to the reason you're reading this blog:  the Eurovision Song Contest.]

Though Croatia's capital Zagreb played host to Eurovision in 1990 (after Yugoslavia's win with Croatian band Riva's Rock Me Baby in 1989), the country's first appearance at the contest as an independent nation didn't happen until 1993.  That year Croatia was represented by Put, who performed Don't Ever Cry to a very enthusiastic crowd in Millstreet, Ireland.  The song came in 15th, but Croatia's Eurovision lot improved in its first decade participating in the Contest (two 4th place finishes in 1996 and 1999, 5th place in 1998 and a total of 6 Top Ten finishes with its first ten entries in the Contest).  But then the ESC rapidly expanded eastward (including almost all former Yugoslav and non-Baltic former Soviet republics; the Balkan countries of Bulgaria and Romania; and eventually the countries of the Caucasus region:  Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia), leaving Croatia in the dust (in terms of points the country received).  But let's have a throwback moment to one of the last "old-school" songs to win the Contest...Riva with Rock Me Baby at the 1989 Contest hosted by Lausanne (after Celine Dion's win for Switzerland in 1988 - and yes we're talking about THE Celine Dion, but we'll get to that later):

This year, Croatia comes to Malmo with the music ensemble (their description, not mine) Klapa s Mora, performing Mižerja.  Certainly an interesting selection, this song will, if performed well at the live shows, stick out from the rest of the electro-pop entries it is surrounded by.  And I specifically applaud Croatia, along with any country, who sends an entry to the Contest, sung entirely in their official language, instead of in English (which somehow has become the unofficial "official" language of Eurovision).  All the best of luck to you Hrvatska: