"Krajem vijeka" by Doris Dragović (1999)

The second stab at Eurovision and even bigger success than first time around - back in 1986 her song catapulted her into national stardom but this time, "Marija Magdalena" actually placed respectable 4th amongst international competition and performance was immediate hit with Eurovision fans who remember it fondly to this day. Of course, lots of things changed between 1986 and 1999 - for the start, when Doris Dragović first appeared on Eurovision, she had represented Yugoslavia and now her flag was proudly and unrepentantly Croatian. First time around part of her appeal was that youthful freshness and obvious charm that came with it, now she was seasoned and fierce veteran who commanded the stage and looked even more attractive as 38 years old woman. Last but not least, pop music had changed drastically and Dragović went with these changes completely unfazed, like she sang dance forever, when in fact it was completely opposite.

Bombastic and campy as "Marija Magdalena" was, it actually worked spectacularly well on Eurovision stage and this is something songwriting team of Vjekoslava and Tonči Huljić understood as they tailored their entry for Dragović - they needed attention grabbing, catchy hit that international audiences will quickly remember and if Biblical imagery was not exactly subtle, who cared as long as song was successful. The rest of the album was nowhere near as interesting, although its notable that singer enlisted names previously associated with mega-popular dance hits for artists like Electro Team and Nina Badrić so this was obvious (slightly belated) attempt to catch up with new trends. This step into new direction is perhaps too obvious for my taste and it seems very much like climb on bandwagon (hey, people love this kind of music so why not?) and I am less than convinced with such drastic change of direction, but Dragović basked in attention and adoration so who am I to say. Opening rocker "Šakom o stol" was just surprisingly effective exception, the rest are either generic ballads or pumped up, disco numbers that sound like than recently rejuvenated Cher on her "Believe" album. To her credit, lady sounds 100% committed and audiences surely lapped it all up because it seemed like good natured fun, but to me this kind of music have not much of substance besides obvious cellophane. Perhaps intensity of "Marija Magdalena" couldn't really be stretched trough the whole album or I simply dislike gimmicky songs by these composers who thrive on thunderous, anthemic refrains, no matter how successful this all might be. A bit too calculated for my taste.