Next up is Croatia! They decided they weren’t gonna hold a national final on Saturday night, sharing the limelight with other countries. No no… they held their national final on Sunday night. Making sure we were all glued to our tv screens to see whether or not our favorite would make it to Malmö. It’s safe to say they did not disappoint us! After a wild night including dancing neon cats and a bunch of middle aged men in yellow dresses, Croatia picked ‘Baby Lasagna’ and his entry “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” to represent them at the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 come May!
Croatia at Eurovision
Croatia have appeared in the Eurovision Song Contest as an independent country 28 times and officially debuted in 1993. Before this they were part of Yugoslavia who debuted in the contest in 1961. 10 of the Yugoslavian contestants came from Croatia. Their first entry in ’93 was the song “Don’t Ever Cry” by Put which finished 15th in the final. They have chosen all but 2 of their representatives via their national final ‘Dora’. Croatia has known their biggest success at the competition in their early days having reached the top ten 6 times in their first 10 attempts. Including their 2 best results to date: A 4th place in 1996 and 1999. They even managed a 4 year streak from 1998-2001.
After that it has sadly gone a bit down hill for them. In fact, they have not reached the top since 2001 when Vanna came 10th with her song “String Of My Heart”. They have failed to qualify for the final a total of 9 times. 4 of which were consecutive from 2010-2013. and again from 2018-2022. They withdrew from the contest in 2014 and 2015 and returned in 2016 successfully, reaching the final once more with the song “Lighthouse” by Nina Kraljić. She was considered a fan favorite early on. However she barely made it through the semi’s in 10th place and went on to finish 23rd in the final. Nina also won the ‘Barbara Dex Award’ for the ‘worst dressed’ participant.
Last year the shock rock group Let 3 represented them with their entry “Mama ŠČ!”. The song is a reference to the Russian letter ‘Shcha’. According to the band it was written as an anti-war song. In an interview, the band said that after total Armageddon has been waged on Earth, a rocket would land on Earth, containing the letters “ŠČ”. The lyrics of the song: “That little psychopath, Wicked little psychopath, Crocodile psychopath, Mom, I’m going to war” are said to be a reference to Russian leader Putin. As a way of mocking dictators for being childish.
Croatia 2024
This year Croatia has chosen singer-songwriter and producer Baby Lasagna to represent them with his catchy heavy metal inspired dance track “Rim Tim Tagi Dim”. He won his national final rather convincingly to say the least, topping first the jury vote and then land sliding the televote. Croatia have never won Eurovision before but this year might just change that! Baby Lasagna is currently the bookies favorite to win in May. Very impressive considering the fact that he was a stand in. That’s right! Baby Lasagna was not even set to compete in Dora! WHO on earth heard this song and said no initially? Thankfully for him (and us), Zsa Zsa, who was in the original line up for Dora, withdrew from the competition, paving the way for Baby and his potential Eurovision win!
Will he be feeding us Lasagna in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest? Or will he expire before the end of the semi? Read what we think in our honest but fair review below!
niallpoints Review
Niall
What is there to actually say about this song that hasn’t already been said? This is full of absolute insanity but with a whole lot of charm as well.
Now I really like the song and enjoy listening to it, but unlike Tomas, it’s not currently in my Top 10, but for me this year is full of some really special songs that I just can’t put this ahead of, however I fully respect that I may be alone on this.
This is going to be a party in Malmö and if the staging (and point distribution) is anything like it was at Dora – Croatia are very much heading for a good result, but is this going to do enough with the Juries to win? I’m not yet convinced.
Early prediction: 4 – 8
Tomas
Croatia may just have struck gold with this one! I absolutely love this song, and besides our own Belgian entry, this is my undisputed number 1! And as we nearly have all songs out by now, I doubt that anyone else can top this. It’s completely bonkers and yet it has that traditional charm that makes it very genuine.
I have no idea what the juries are going to do with this, but seeing as it’s the bookies favorite, I doubt they’ll tank it. Baby Lasagna has already promised us some changes to his Dora performance, which means they’re really taking this seriously! That performance was already great, but with some elevated staging I could really see Croatia taking the trophy, despite it having a lot of direct competition.
Baby, you have my vote! What more can I say? Oh there’s this: someone needs to seriously fire whoever heard this song at Dora and said: no, we don’t want that in our selection! Really…
Early prediction: 1-5
Guess what?? We have our full reaction video to Croatia’s entry right here! Go check it out and leave comments (respectfully), like and subscribe. Or don’t… it’s all up to you really. Don’t forget we have loads more content coming for you! But for now: do you agree with us? Do you think Croatia can win this year? Let us know in the comments down below!
