Earlier this month she told us that she’ll represent Croatia at Eurovision 2018 with a mystical and contemporary song — and one that we wouldn’t expect from her country.
And today Franka has certainly lived up to that script, releasing a teaser featuring the opening seconds of her official music video for “Crazy”.
“Don’t be afraid to go crazy,” she wrote in an Instagram post announcing the news. “Crazy for love.”
Scroll down for teaser
Working with sand, a sexy sound and avant-garde dancers, she’s tackling Eurovision head-on. Even in twenty seconds there is a sense of power and direction, which reflects the skill of Franka and her songwriting collaborator Branimir Mihaljevic.
“We came up with the song unexpectedly,” she said in a statement sent to wiwibloggs. “We were recording the three songs we were going to propose for Eurovision in the studio and this one just crept up suddenly. Branimir started playing it on the piano, I started humming the lyrics and that’s how ‘Crazy’ came about. We picked it up right away because it’s unusual and unexpected. It’s powerful, emotional, strong, modern and the production is great. I hope the audience will love it.”
Branimir didn’t have to look far for inspiration. He’s got plenty of it in his Eurovision muse.
“Franka has all the qualities of a true world star and we did our best to make a world song, keeping up with the current trends, but at the same time creating a completely new sound and original atmosphere. Young Denis Mevlja had a big role in the making of the song, and mixing was done in London’s Metropolis Studio by the people who had created the sound of Adele, Amy Winehouse, Lana Del Rey and many others. The final processing of the song will be done by London’s legendary Abbey Road Studio. I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you hear the song.”
Franka’s manager Sinisa Bevanda knows that a song of this caliber deserves staging that can match its might.
“We want a beautiful and impressive performance, but we won’t be doing anything very spectacular. We have some interesting ideas and this is the most intensive period for us because the whole concept must be worked out. From the video clip and costume design to the performance. We got some valuable advice from recognized professionals and colleagues with whom we had worked in Zagreb when Franka was the opening act for Beyoncé, so that means a lot to us.”
WHO IS FRANKA?
A place at Eurovision 2018 would mark an incredible comeback year for Franka Batelic. At just 16 years old, Franka made her name winning the talent show Showtime in 2007. Amongst the judges of that contest was none other than Jacques Houdek.
Franka regularly released singles throughout the rest of the decade, including her attempts at Dora. Also in 2009, Franka won Ples sa zvijezdama, Croatia’s version of Dancing With the Stars.
But up until 2017, Franka seemed to have left the music industry. She’s come back in style though with her latest single, “S tobom“. The track charted at #3 in Croatia and has put her right back in the spotlight.
What do you think of Franka’s teaser clip? Do you think that she can bring Croatia to the final for the third year in a row? Let us know all your thoughts in the comments section below.
According to HRT, today some more snippets of the clip will shown during the news “Dnevnik” and tomorrow morning during the show “Dobro jutro Hrvatska” the whole clip will be released.
Looking forward to it 🙂
As a matter of fact, the whole clip will be available for viewing on YouTube this evening @ 19:00hrs, i.e. in less than 15 minutes – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbc26Hg2rdLw6ZLZKlmcNBg
WHERE did she get all that sand from…?
I love Croatia – but its like properly rocky EVERYWHERE. The nudist beaches are agony (apparently). I feel deceived. Your promising me sand …
Croatia’s Adriatic Sea mainland coast is over 1700 km long, while its 1,246 islands and islets encompass a further 4000 kilometres of coastline – the most indented coastline in the Mediterranean. One can hardly believe that the beaches are really rocky everywhere as this beautiful country is truly versatile in all its majesty. 😉
https://croatia.hr/en-GB/trip-ideas/Full-life
Sounds promising – but that’s all I can say before I hear to full song.
The teaser is 100% copy of Denisa Gjezo “zemer ku je”, that participated this year in FiK.
We are waiting for the complete 3 minute version though.
yes cause someone would bother to copy this irrelevant girl with mediocre song…get your head out of your a**
Go and listen to “zemer ku je”, you don’t have to insult me for speaking the truth.
It’s 100% copy.
that beat is indeed similar but still not the same…also that melody is so simple that even if it was exactly the same wouldn’t be relevant…i mean how many songs have the same guitar chords in the background?
also i will insult you because you are irrationally accusing and undermining someones hard work and you heard JUST a snippet…so yes you deserve to be put in your place
Albanian fans do this every year, don’t bother with them too much haha.
? to Franka from Slovenia.
<3*
I’m not speaking in behalf of Albanian fans, we are talking about song, it’s not a war. You dont have to take sides.
So sue her, with all the arguments about copying/plagiarism, explain to the court which part of the song Franka stole, which 4 tacts are exact the same in comparison with that other song, and let’s see what would happen. ..Jesus Christ, not even Laura Tesoro’s song – What’s the pressure, that bass intro was not plagiarism, even though the frame of the intro was taken from Queen – Another one bites the dust. It’s really giving me itch when people who don’t have minimum knowledge about copy rights and intellectual property start talkin about plagiarism.
Its 100% the same, just Frankas teaser is a bit higher. And NO it’s not something that simple tha we hear everyday.
I’m not putting someones hard work down, it’s just that you can’t copy someone elses work and claim it’s yours.
But if you really think that it’s original and want this to represent your country as it is.. then go on. I really feel sorry if i hurt any feelings but i still stay after my words.
yeah…you are right and everyone around you is wrong…then how come you are the only one who “noticed the plagiarism”? let me know when that girl issues a law suit (which obviously wont happen cause there is no plagiarism to begin with)
I wasn’t the first to notice it. Some Esc fans posted it in the Eurovision group in Facebook.
I am removing my attetion from this issue for now.
I don’t know if Denisa will issue or not.
sue not issue
Sue her, and let’s see what would happen. … I will take the popcorn and watch your ass burn.
The synthesizer line sounds kinda like Zemer Ku Je from FiK
sue not issue
I’m getting Sam Brown’s Stop vibe here. I like it already.
This is like a bag of pinuts. U can’t stop listening to it. Hopefully the full version is as half of good If it is WINNER
juju
Sounds really good. Let’s see if it delivers.
This is very promising! Love the mystery it creates and the end left on the edge of my seat. Hope it’s sth great this year for Croatia!
Me thinks Croatia is on to a top tenner here? ? we will wait for the full song….but I have a feeling
This is promising a lot, which worries me as last year Tijana and Artsvik played the same teasing card and ended disappointing me… Hope she proves me wrong.
So excited for this one! I’m confident she will deliver!
I don t like it. I think it wili sound like bad copy and similar sound like many song from western countries USA,UK…
so what are we supposed to do? stick to our old, traditional music and have no attempts at being remotely modern ever again? because what? it’ll be ‘Muricanised?
you do know that americans didn’t invent music and that the fact that they have the biggest music industry doesn’t immediately make them owners and creators of every modern music style?
So many songs throughout the world sound like this. It isn’t “American” music or “British” it is just modern music.
The teaser is 100% copy of “zemer ku je” that was performed by Denisa Gjezo this year in FiK.
Well im not convinced at all by this teaser … I hope the full song will be better
This sound like Armenia teaser 2017, but with different music instruments.
Serbia have also teaser in 2017 and reaction was huge, and after teaser jump on betting odds, and after song realised , teaser music was not strong in song like in teaser.
It sounds like gaga bad romance
This is way too short for me to have an opinion about it. Can’t say anything untill the full song is out…
Exactly….no part of the song can even be heard
It sounds promising as everyone else already said. Can’t wait to hear the full version.
Very excited about this one!
Looks promising! Anyone who knows when it will be released? 🙂
The video looks expensive and the sound is promising! Please, Franka, make us proud! I am looking forward to this.
I’m so hyped!!! Very interesting and promising. I believe in Croatia this year 😀
This sounds like a song from a dark chocolate commercial. You know where it shows the dark side of the girl wildly eating the chocolate? All those temptation and passion, it exactly feels like that. 🙂
Anyway, this is very good so far. I’m curious about the full version now.
This is so true! It sounds very interesting and has limitless potential
It feels cold and pretentious. I dunno what to expect. Not very enthuasiastic about this
Love this, now I hope the rest is just as good. Modern but with a bit of 1920s. Very interesting, can’t wait.
When will we get to hear the actual song? We will probably hear a lot of the entries at the last possible release date, when the video clips start popping up on the Eurovision channel. Everyone wants to be Bulgaria and be the last. It can’t be much longer though, mid-March is rapidly approaching. There is a lot of name-dropping in the article, which I am not impressed by. On the other hand, it certainly seems like Croatia is putting money into their act, so it might turn out well. Also, I like the composer’s previous Eurovision song “Lako je… Read more »
“everyone wants to be Bulgaria”
and since when is the last day before the deadline reserved only for Bulgaria?
Since never. I was just expressing that I would like to hear them sooner and Bulgaria have been exaggerating the most out of all the countries.
On that note: Does anybody know when the last date is for sure? Is it March 12th? Is that the day where the EBU dudes have their HoD Meeting?
oh ok then….i think its 13th but not 100% sure…but from previous experience EBU has no spine and they’ll allow even later releases if someone feels like it
haha you’re right. What was I thinking?
Gaga oohlahlah
Wayyyyyy too far fetched.
Seems like i have my winner
This is very promising!! Can’t wait to hear it. Its kind of fifty shades of craziness;-))
This Looks and Sound veeery good so far. I hope the song is as good as it seems!
Seems very very promising, but pls croatia just release it.. none of the internal selections have actually released yet – excepting Greece, which was intended to be an NF anyway
This is so promising! Croatia wants to SLAY this year! 😀