Croatia has brought together some of its finest musical talents for this year's Eurovision Song Contest. Singer and lyricist Severina Vuckovic is one of the country's biggest stars and in Boris Novkovic and Franjo Valentic they have composers, arrangers and producers of who are respected throughout Croatia and its
neighbours.
Severina Vuckovic was born in Split on April 21st 1972. Her musical talent was obvious from an early age and in first grade, Severina joined the school choir and later went on to perform in Splitsko Kazalište (Theatre of Split) winning the audience prize. Even before becoming attenage she spent most of her
time dancing, playing the piano, singing and acting. Later she joined KUD Mozaik, an association for culture and art in Split. As a talented 13 year old, she starred in the musical for children "Frane Štrapalo’". Severina later joined the band ‘Treća smjena’ (‘Third Shift’) as their singer.
In the mid-1980s she won a series of youth talents competitions and was later voted the best singer at the "Studentsko Ljeto" (Student Summer) festival. After winning these prizes, Severina entered the DEMO-X competition, winning the first prize and the chance to record her first album. Around that
time, Severina was given the job of host and singer on the music show "Top Cup".
In 1992, Severina signed a contract with the prestigious Croatia Records and released her second studio album "Severina". In 1993, the album "Dalmatinka" (Dalmatian Girl) was released. This album proved the be Severina's major commercial breakthrough containing several hit singles, written by
several top Croatia songwriters.
Severina’s 1995 album "Trava Zelena" (Green Grass) achieved gold status and was followed in 1996 by the album "Moja Stvar" (My thing). These albums helped develop Severina as one of Croatia's biggest stars and her songs filled local radio and music television channels. In 1998, Severina went
back into the studio to record the album "Djevojka Sa Sela" (Country Girl). Most of the songs on the album were written by Severina herself. The title track became the first hit single from the album and became the anthem of the Croatian national football team during the World Cup in France in 1998.
Severina continued to win over Croatian audiences and in 1999, she released the album "Ja Samo Pjevam" (I’m Only Singing). Almost every song on the album became a hit, including the title track as well as "Ante" , "Da Si Moj" (If You Were Mine) and "Dodirni Mi Koljena" (Touch
My Knees). Severina had also become a hugely popular live performer and a live album of her concert followed later in the year. In 2000 Severina made her first attempt to get to the Eurovision Song Contest, however her song "Daj Mi, Daj" (Give Me Give) only finished 8th in the Croatian national final.
In2001 Severina released an even more successful album "Pogled Ispod Obrva" (A Glance Beneath The Eyebrows"). The album contained several hits including "Virujen U Te" (I Believe In You), "Mili Moj" (Honey), "Krivi Spoj" (Wrong Connection"), as well as the title
track. Severina went on tour in 2002 which in turn spawned an album and DVD "Virujen U Te Uživo" (I Believe In You, Live) containing her best known songs. Released after she changed record labels, this album became a massive hit in Croatia and went gold. Meanwhile, Croatia Records released a compilation called "18 Najvecih
Hitova" (18 Biggest Hits).
In 2003, after more than 15 years concentrating on her music career, Severina returned to the theatre. after she was invited to be a part of the play "Karolina Rijecka". The following year Severina released her ninth studio album "Severgreen". This colourful album contained a remarkable song
"Sama Na Sceni" (Alone On The Stage).
Also in 2004 Severina became part of a scandal after a personal videotape leaked on the internet showing her having sex with a then married man. This damaged her public image. Severina decided to sue the web page that released the content of the tape for invasion of privacy, but the case was subsequently dismissed by
the District Court in Zagreb.
In 2005, Severina starred in the film "Duhovi Sarajeva" (Ghosts Of Sarajevo) directed by Dejan Radonic. In the same year Severina starred in the one-woman show "Cekajuci Svog Covika" (Waiting For My Man’) by Jagoš Markovic.
When Severina's name was announced as one of the performers in his year's Croatian selection, the Dora it immediately raised interest in the show as it was the first public test of Severina's popularity after the previous scandal. However following a virtuoso performance Severina won the ticket to Athens, with "Moja
Štikla", a song for which she had written the lyrics.
The composers behind the Croatian entry are Boris Novkovic and Franjo Valentic, two of the best known names on the Croatian music scene. Boris Novkovic has a musica career going back over twenty years and has released fourteen albums. He is a familiar face to Eurovision fans, as he sang his own song "Vukovi Umiru
Sami" (Wolves Die Alone" in Kyiv in 2005, finishing 11th.
The other songwriter behind the 2005 entry is Franjo Valentic who has also co-composed this year's entry. For almost twenty years he has been working in recording studios as a sound engineer, producer and arranger. He has mixed almost 5,000 tracks and has arranged and produced over 200 songs, mostly for Croatian
artists. Since 1994, he has been writing lyrics and he has now written some 50 songs for different Croatian and Balkan performers. Fanjo made two attempts to get to Eurovision in 1998 and 1999 and he mixed Croatian songs for the contest in 2001 and 2004.
Following the withdrawal of Serbia & Montenegro from this year's contest, Croatia was promoted to be an automatic qualifier. Despite being sung in Croatian, "Moja Štikla" is rated among top ten favourites in most fan polls as well as with the bookmakers.
CROATIA @ EUROVISION