Croatia – The Croatian broadcaster HRT has today revealed a short teaser of their entry for May. Jacques Houdek will be singing ‘My friend‘ in Kyiv and the full version will be revealed on 2nd March 2017 at 14:00 (CET).
The staging will apparently feature a violinist and cellist and 3 backing vocalists and be a celebration of diversity, sung in different languages. Here’s the first teaser:
The Eurovision Times 
Hmmmmmm ….
I can’t really tell judging by this tiny snippet but i’d say it sounds like i thought it would.Is he trying to immitate 2CELLOS?
Off topic: The gorilla is coming to Kyiv: http://www.sorrisi.com/musica/sanremo/francesco-gabbani-sanremo-con-il-ballo-di-occidentalis-karma/
They are warming up for very clever and fun social media campaign.
Franco is so totally not my type, yet I’m so totally into him. WTF? 😃
What’s not to like about him? He is a young man with no obvious physical defects, who exudes an air of self-confidence (hence the stories circulating about his size, since people always seem to assume that of self-confident men) and who looks like he is genuinely having fun. All very sexy qualities in a man I must say.
The reports i had read about his private parts were based on photos and rumors in Italian showbiz and not just assuming based on his self-confidence.lol
I am sure you have all the photographic evidence and will produce them in due course :-P I think the rumours were actually based on the tweets of two gossiping queens covering San Remo :)
Indeed what’s not like about him! These are qualities that transcends all language and cultural barriers. He will take Europe by storm.
I’m so glad they take marketing seriously and they have very fresh take on that. Fresh and loveable, just like our dear Francesco.
I love his smile.
Desmond Morris doesn’t hold back either when praising Occidentali Karma. More on subject on wiwi and Italian Huffington post.
Wow. Talking about a ringing endorsement! :)
What a lovely comeback for Desmond Morris’ classic, too. And the Brit journalist called to get a disapproval. Little did he know 😃
I would also like to know what Milan Kundera would say about this song. The lyrics remind me of him rather than John Lennon as Morris says. He is always going on about how humour is the only way you can approach serious stuff but it ends up leaving you utterly exposed because feigning “seriousness” always acts as a protective shield in the world. Dario Fo, the late italian satirist and Nobel laureate would also have a lot of things to say on the subject if he was alive I think.
Good point, I totally agree. Add the spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.
The things he satirizes about contemporary society are also very similar to things Kundera would satirise in his books. The single cover photo for example: He is half-dressed as a buddhist monk, supposedly embracing eastern spirituality which is all about suppression of desire, negation of the self and letting go of your individuality to merge with the cosmic universe. But his other half is wearing fashionable attire and taking a selfie: Eastern spirituality is just another fashionable consumer accessory used to promote his self-centredness, totally negating what it is supposed to be about. I find it utterly brilliant.
Satire of contemporary culture is always difficult and demanding genre. To do it in pop music is even more demanding. I love the different layers of Occidentali’s Karma and how they open up one by one. On the surface, it’s very happy go lucky and catchy pop song, well crafted, produced and performed by charismatic young man. I totally fell for it the first tile I saw it. Then comes the lyrics. It’s a spot on satire of contemporary culture and when you take closer look at them you get a climpse of dystopian future which waits us just round the corner. All this neatly bined together with references to Desmond Morris’ Naked Ape. We surely haven’t got too far! What a stroke of pop genius.
It’s satire is boisterous, fun and fast as Can’t pay? Won’t pay! And just like Fo’s masterpiece, Occidentali’s Karma comes with a big heart.
Indeed. Tha fans are more interested in his looks, apparently. Shallowness is paramount nowadays, I’m afraid.
I am interested in his looks too – he is a sexy guy. But I am also interested in what he has to say :)
Of course, everyone is to a certain extent, but the priorities in wiwi seem to be different.
Well, they did run a good article about this. To be honest, Eurovision lyrics are rarely fodder for intellectual discussion – even Jamala with an undoubtedly worthy entry about a serious subject was rightly criticised for lack of lyrical sophistication. So you can’t really blame them.
I was alluding to the priorities in the comments section; I should have been more precise.
Sorry, Dimitri. The article was already mentioned. The reactions to it are very enlightening.
This could be news theme music somewhere in more exotic parts of ex Soviets. I think they might have some separatistic issues inside there borders and some grade A beef with their neighbours.
“A celebration of diversity sung in different language”.
I think I’m going to throw up again.
*fetches the bucket*
Thank you!
Florence Nightingale calling … :)
So glad, don’t really want to make a mess on these beautiful wooden floors of ET!
Give the guy a chance at least. I am waiting for the song :)
My first comment of him was that I realiy like his voice and I’m waiting for his song. Jacques can only blame his communications team for my current reluctance. 😃
Even if it’s the best song in the world I’m still gonna feel pretty uneasy about this I bet
I’m in the same club with you. I like his voice, but this is just too much.
The snippet is meaningless. What is written about the song is not promising at all, though; I suspect that Croatia 17 will be another ‘A million voices’ = zzzzzZZZZZzzzz. We’ll see.
sounsa intresting :)
sounds :)
Is that coffee, Avat?
Yes it is :) Morning coffee somethere in the north of the country.
It looks delicious!
I’m big coffee fan. I see you too :)
The biggest. :)
I don’t know what to make of that. The hypocrisy of someone who says said so homophobic things in the past singing about friendship and diversity is nauseating though. Even more reasons to be negatively predisposed towards this entry,
This would get my support <3 <3 <3
Luce was my biggest etsc discovery, though I might prefer “Gold Shadows” I have Luce 12pts for it was very new to me!