Matteo‘s turn to take over the 90s pick. And he went for his rightful winner from 1999…
Croatia 1999: Doris Dragovic – Marija Magdalena (4th place)
Would this song get accepted now? We don’t know. It is a rather metaphorical lyrics – but at the same time it makes reference to bible characters – so bringing with it a “religious message”.
But for the end of the 90s it was perfectly alright.
Croatia has been missing from the contest since 2013 and this pick is a plea to them to come back. Because in the years they always demonstrated their musical skills with different genres, different ages and different genders in their acts.
Doris Dragovic had already represented her country – which back then was called Yugoslavia – in the 80s and reached a respecatable 11th place. She had a big follow already and probably made Croatian proud of their entry for Eurovision.
It was 1999 and the contest was in Jerusalem. We all know who won there, but this was my favourite from the year – my winner.
“Marija Magdalena” came an even more respectable 4th place, even though sang in Croatian the first year of the language rule drop.
What is the song about? Love, mainly. The connection between Doris and Mary Magdalene is quite strong, and as she say: “as God is my witness, I swear by my heart, that this woman knows, she belongs to you entirely”.
