Credits
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© HRT
Part fifteen
Introducing the 2009 entries: Croatia
Basic information
| Performers: | Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea (Igor Cukrov & Andrea Šušnjara) |
| Song: | Lijepa Tena (Beautiful Tena) |
| Language: | Croatian |
| Music: | Tonči Huljić |
| Lyrics: | Vjekoslava Huljić |
| Draw: | 1st in the second semi final |
The song
Lijepa Tena is a classic ballad. The lyrics are a declaration of love to the wonderful and beautiful Tena:
I draga i draga
Suze u pamuk pretvaraš
Umorne oči odmaraš
Začaraš
I lijepa i sveta
Vodu u vino pretvaraš
Ti se moliš za sve nas
Tena, Tena
Sweetheart, Sweetheart
You turn tears into cotton
You are what aching eyes look at
You are charming
Beautiful one, divine one
You turn water into wine
You pray for us all, for us all
Tena
The singers
Igor Cukrov became famous as contestant of Operacija trijumf, a version of Fame Academy with competitors from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, FYR Macedoania, Croatia and Montenegro. During the shows, he performed songs by various acts including Andrea Boccelli, Zeljko Joksimovic (Serbia & Montegro 2004), Dino Merlin (Bosnia & Herzegovina 1999), Céline Dion (Switzerland 1988), Aerosmith and U2. He was eliminated in the 13th show, which was held two weeks before the final and he therefore finished seventh. Previously, he had already won the Best New Artist award at the Split Festival.
Andrea went to music school, where she studied piano. In 2004, she entered DORA, the Croatian national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. With her song Noah, she finished equal second in the first semi final and second again in the final, where she scored only four points less than Ivan Mikulic. The same year, she won the Best New Artist award at the Split Festival. In 2005, she entered Dora again. Although she finshed equal second in the first semi final again, she reached equal fourth in the final not qualifying for the superfinal with her song Ljudi s mora.
Igor and Andrea joint forces for the 2009 edition of DORA with the song Lijepa Tena, where Igor Cukrov originally competed as a solo artist with Andrea as a backing singer. He had been chosen by the broadcaster to be one of the ten acts that were directly qualified for the final and had not to go through the semi final stage. Competing as Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea, they are the first duo to represent Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest.
The national selection
Again, the music festival Dora was to select the Croatian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. Following last year's format, a semi final was held. Six acts qualified from the heat to meet the ten acts that had already been chosen for the final by the broadcaster. Igor Cukrov won the national final despite being only the second favourite of both the jury and the televoters.
Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest
Croatia entered the Eurovision Song Contest as an independant country in 1993. After mediocre results during the first two participations Croatia found a run of luck finishing in the top ten six out of seven times in the following years. However, Croatia has not been reaching the top ten in a final since 2001 and was eliminated in the 2007 semi final. However, the Croatian boadcaster gave Yugoslavia its only victory in 1989 and it was also the region the most Yugoslav entries came from. Other Croatian entries under the flag of Yugoslavia took part in 1963, 1965, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1986, 1987 and 1988.
Igoru Cukrovu i Andrei želimo svu sreću i dobar rezultat u Moskvi!
Videos
Live in the national final:
Preview video:
Igor Cukrov performing I don't wanna miss a thing in Operacija trijumf:
Andrea with Noah in Dora 2004:
Andrea with Ljudi s mora in 2005:
Other parts of this series
- France
- Portugal
- Romania
- Denmark
- Netherlands
- Cyprus
- Latvia
- Ireland
- Malta
- Armenia
- Germany
- Serbia
- Belgium
- Greece
Tomorrow, we will take a look at the Polish entry.
Related polls
- Norway: Vote for your favourite song in the final of Melodi Grand Prix
- Azerbaijan: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Milli Seçim Turu
- Hungary: Vote for your favourite act in the final of A Dal
- Iceland: Vote for your favourite song in the final of Songvakeppni Sjonvarpsins
- Malta: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2012
- Hungary: Vote for your favourite act in the second semifinal of A Dal
- Norway: Vote for your favourite song in the third semifinal of Melodi Grand Prix
- Sweden: Vote for your favourite act in the first semifinal of Melodifestivalen
- Malta: Vote for your favourite act in the semifinal of Malta Eurovision Song Contest 2012
- Bulgaria: Vote for your favourite act in the Bulgarian national final 2012
- Latvia: Vote for your favourite act in the final of Eirodziesma 2012
- Belarus: Vote for your favourite act in the final of EuroFest 2012
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EuroDalmatia and Legen Entertainment published on youtube editing transmission ending (without voices and sounds) of voting for the 4th Dalmatian Song Contest.
http://www.youtube.c(...)/watch?v=4QO_uiY8_qk
http://www.youtube.c(...)/watch?v=QCSKO9ovBAM
http://www.youtube.c(...)/watch?v=tUzCqDlSGv4
http://www.youtube.c(...)/watch?v=ozhRK5FA0Lo
http://www.youtube.c(...)/watch?v=4xQpjI4Q2sM
http://www.youtube.c(...)/watch?v=DzyCtBFmDIY
VOTE FOR CROATIA IN MOSCOW LET SPLIT BE A HOST OF ESC 2010
Don't like it
WE LOVE YOU CROATIA 2010!!!!!!!!
GOOOOOOOOOO IGOR!!!
NUMBER 1 IN THE SEMI AND NUMBER 1 IN ESC 2009!!!!!!!
SPLIT 2010!!!!!!!!!!
I love this song and i am sure it will reach final!!!
i saw our chances arent good
im planning to change it one day LOL
Nice entry. Lovely melody. Good luck Croatia!
this song is just perfect !!
Eurovision is full of surprises
Croatia might surprise you in May who knows
i know you don't like this song that much
but honestly its much better than some of the other entries and it has a nice melody.
im croat...and i dont agree with your opinion...i admit that this song is much more better than our last song,but this is not it
i wanted to see franka or feminnem on ESC..ahhh
i see lot of other good comments about other songs for which i think they are awful...and that just decreases more and more my confidences about croatian song.........
Will I ever experience the victory of Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest...i dont think so,not during my life if it continues like that...ahhhhh lol
Croatia will be in the final i am sure of it
if they don't get through to the final
then it is a very big injustice in my opinion
because croatia's song is one of the very good ones this year!
i like this song...but in the 2nd semifinal is much more higher competition than in the 1st semifinal...im 60% sure that we wont reach the final just cause of high competition..vote for croatia..please
my best croatian entry was severina-moja štikla...i was so proud that year.....i want to see severina again on ESC
WONDERFUL
Good Luck
Croatia
I like this song. Beautiful melody. It gives the impression of genuine.
Good luck to you, Croatia !
I don't like this song, not my taste!!!
Sorry neighbours but i don't belive in finale for croatia this year!!!
Whatever GOOD LUCK!!!!
But even if we don't manage to qualify, there's nothing we should be ashamed of. On the contrary, I'm convinced our entry will be a very charming opening of the second semi-final (the same as it was in 1998 when we opened the contest with the amazing song "Neka mi ne svane" 
.
Concerning "Vukovi umiru sami", I never liked that song.
@paschalis
Yes, it really might happen that Croatia doesn't reach the finals this year. Which I would find an injustice and very irritating bearing in mind that Croatia managed to qualify very easily with a considerably worse song last year. But as we know, ESC is often unjust.
@magnuna: haha fair enuf love! i liked "vukovi umiru sami" as well!
@ vatroslav
I don't pray to God that Croatia doesn't reach the final, if you see my profile carefully you will see that I like Croatia more than Greece this year. I just said that I don't think Croatia will reach the final.
The studio version gets my 12 points this year. The Croatian song is my personal favourite for 2009. Having said that, the live performance was below average and would probably leave Croatia in the semi-finals. It is also very strange that Andrea (who performs as bad as Igor in the live) is not to be heard at all in the excellent studio version. If the performance in the national final is their plan for Moscow, Croatia will get no points from me.
@magnuna: UM this song aint got shiiiiit on marija magdalena!! 
marija magdalena is magic, sure it gets repetetive, but she has an amazing voice, igor's is irritating! plus Doris had a zillion times more charisma and stage presence then Igor can ever hope to have!!!
And zeljo moja was great too.... but the best ever song from the old yugoslavia was "hajde da ludujemo"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
croatia croatia............. i love that country. been twice and i adore it. wish their song was better though
good luck
First at all, thanx to all who suporting Croatia this year and yes i see here maney intersting reaction as its normal ... we all have different tastes of music some of us are older some younger so maney opinons thats fine
Also, people you re all welcam to Croatia and discover great fun on beach and cultural issue
There are every year at least two-three entries which make me especially thrilled and which are one of the main reasons why I'm ESC fan.
I'm sooooooo happy that the magical Croatian song is one of these superb entries this year 
Ooooh, they should have posted the official clip too. It's probably the best video this year, at least in my opinion.
I'll be honest. When I first heard that Igor will represent Croatia, I was really happy for him, as he was one of my favs during OT, but I didn't like the song at first. And it wasn't the song, it was his vocals. I was thinking ''What the heck happened to this man?!'' But now that I've listened to the final version a couple of times, I really like it. It's so touching and it always moves me. Very dramatic and emotional.
Good luck Croatia
@Daniel
You like Doris Dragovic's ''Zeljo moja?'' I'm impressed you remember that song It's probably one of the best songs ex-Yu ever sent to ESC.
ah sorry i still cant listen to this all the way thru 
good luck neways!
i wish croatia would send a song like marija magdalena again, which is an all time fave of mine
Hmm okay guys thanks, won't keep you off topic any longer
@Allen:
Interesting, because this incident actually happened in a village near Zadar.
Don't worry by the way, I'll be back to Croatia! Lol I mean, I still need to see Dubrovnik.. It's just I was surprised because I had no idea scorpions actually lived anywhere in Europe, but obviously I was wrong..
I see dead people walking every year too ...
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