Croatia: Franka will sing the song “Crazy” in Lisbon

Croatian broadcaster HRT have finally made an announcement about their internally chosen singer for Eurovision in Lisbon. Croatian pop singer Franka Batelić will represent the Balkan nation with the song “Crazy”. A song written by Brahimir Mihaljevic with lyrics by Franka herself.
Franka will talk about her first impressions with HRT’s music editor and host Zlatko Turkalj Turki in his show Drugi dio dana on Croatian Radio HRT – HR 2 today, 13th of February at 14:00 CET. There is no information yet though as when the song will be released.
Franka Batelić was born on June 7th 1992 in Rijeka, Croatia and started singing at the age of three. Batelić auditioned for the first series of Showtime in 2007, singing “Come saprei” by Giorgia for judges Jacques Houdek, Ivana Husar and Boris Banović.
Batelić won the competition by receiving the highest amount of televotes in the final. As a prize for winning, Batelić signed a recording contract with the record label Hit Records. Batelić’s winner single “Ovaj daj” was released officially on 14th of November of 2007. So far Franka has made 12 recordings on her own.
Her comeback song  “S tobom” (With You) from November 2017, written after a four-year intermission, has been topping the charts and is also extremely popular on YouTube, where it has had over two million views so far.

Franka Batelić in Eurovision

Franka is not totally unknown for the fans of Eurovision since she has tried to represent her country earlier through Dora, Croatian music festival and preselection for the Eurovision Song Contest, in 2009 with the song “Pjesma Za Kraj” (One Final Song), and 2010 with “Na Twojim Rukama” (In Your Arms).
After numerous hits in her home country in 2011 Franka released two songs in English. “On Fire and Run” achieved success abroad as well. She was nominated in the category of the best newcomer of the year for music awards Zlatna Koogla and Porin and won the fourth season of HRT’s popular show Dancing With Stars.

Croatia in Eurovision

Croatia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 23 times since making its debut at the 1993 contest. Between 1993 and 2011, the Croatian entrant was selected at the Dora pop festival.
Croatia enjoyed several top placings during the country’s first year’s in the contest, by reaching the top ten in 1995, when Magazin & Lidija Horvat-Dunjko finished sixth. This would be the first of six top ten results in seven years.
Since the introduction of the semi-finals in 2004, Croatia has failed to reach the final on five occasions, including four years in succession from 2010 to 2013. Croatia then withdrew from the contest in 2014 and 2015. On its return Croatia reached the final in both 2016 and 2017.
The ESCXTRA team would like to wish Franka and Croatia good luck in Lisbon. We are looking forward to listen to your song.
Below you can watch Frankas entry from Dora 2010 “Na Tvojim Rukama”

 
What do you think of Franka as the Croatian representant for Eurovision in Lisbon? Could Franka improve Croatia’s results in Eurovision further? Let us know in the comments below or on social media @escXtra!