Croatia with a foreign song at this year’s competition.
Croatian Composers’ Society (HDS) expressed their disappointment because Croatia will compete at the Eurovision Song Contest with a song of created by foreign authors, the Society said in a statement, reports Večernji List on March 15, 2016.
“We were unpleasantly surprised and disappointed with the news about this precedent the Croatian Radio and Television (HRT) has made. After 60 years of participation, Croatia will not enter the Eurosong competition with a Croatian song, but with a song created by foreign authors”, HDS noted. In their opinion, there are at least three reasons why the country should not allow that.
The first reason, HDS explained, is that Croatia has its own music industry, successful both at home and abroad. “There is a number of active composers in this country, one of whom once wrote the winning song for the Eurosong contest. A few of them have even created songs that have ranked among the top five in the past 20 years”, they pointed out.
According to HDS, to ignore these people and their numerous colleagues would be as if the French public television entered an Italian or German dish for an international culinary competition. “The meal could be great, but it does not represent a promotion of their own national resources, talents and traditions”, the Composers’ Society said.
Another reason has to do with the business side of the industry. “The singer on the television screen is only one fragment of the complex mechanism that constitutes the music industry. Each song is a commercial product, someone’s business venture in which the composer, songwriter and performers invest their talent, knowledge and time; arranger and producer contribute their technical and professional resources; and a record label and publisher provide money and infrastructure. To use the powerful Eurosong platform, which is co-financed with the HRT subscribers’ money, to promote a song that has not come from this national network represents a mistake and damage to the national economy.
“The third reason is the preservation of the Croatian identity, or, if you will, patriotism”, they said.
In the end, they wished good luck and success to Nina Kraljić with her song “Lighthouse”, but they also appealed to relevant HRT officials to be more aware of their role as the national public television and to rely on national resources and people who are a part of these resources when selecting Croatia’s competitor for the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017.
