We are just 70 days away from Eurovision Semi-Final 1 and as February leaves us, interest and preparations for the contest are heating up.
The list of artists and songs that we will see take to the stage of the 68th edition is being completed day by day, completing the puzzle both around the two semi-finals and the degree of difficulty they will have, as well as the final contenders for victory.
Croatia seems to be showing its … wild moods and the goal it has set for the big Eurovision trophy. The country of former Yugoslavia, which has had a rather poor run in the competition in recent years, is this year the absolute favorite to win the tournament.
The Croatian national final took place on Tuesday night (25/2) and the triumphant winner was Baby Lasagna (stage name of Marko Purišić), who even won the competition with a record score of 321 points. It is characteristic that the points collected by the next 4 artists following him in the table were not enough cumulatively to overcome him.
Marko Purišić is 28 years old and has been involved in music since childhood. He became more widely known to the public of his country through his participation in the rock band Manntra, in which he held the position of guitarist for two periods (2011-2016 and 2018-2022). In fact, with the band in question, he participated in the Croatian national final for Eurovision in 2019, winning 4th place.
In 2023 Marko Purišić decided to pursue a solo career, releasing his own music. That’s how the song ‘Rim Tim Tagi Dim’ came regarding, a rousing rock track which he submitted to the Croatian National Broadcasting Corporation (HRT) for Eurovision 2024, eventually winning the ‘nomination’ to represent the country.
It is worth noting that Croatia was already in the top ten bets even before Baby Lasagna’s victory in the country’s national final was announced. Immediately following the release of the official video clip, the country of the former Yugoslavia climbed to the 4th place and following the announcement that he will be the representative of Croatia in this year’s Eurovision, he was placed in the second place, with constantly upward trends.
Will Croatia manage to bring the music competition back to the Balkans in 2025? It is recalled that this is the first time that this country has so openly claimed victory, while the last time Eurovision was held in our “neighborhood” was 16 years ago, in 2008 in Belgrade.
Text: Yannis Karakasidis
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