Back in Baku, Nina Badric represented Croatia with “Nebo”, a song filled with religious themes and lyrics like, “God watches you/ Remember it every time”. But Divine power couldn’t help Nina and she landed in 12th place, failing to reach the grand final by only three points. Since then, we have watched her singing “Ceznja” at a fancy villa in Dubrovnik, modelling for a shoe company, and ditching hunky actor Goran Bogdan in Dan D.
For her new song “Vjetrenjace”—that’s “Windmills” in English—she’s dancing in the streets of New York, while wearing Pharrell Williams’ number 73 shirt. Funky lady!
Pharrell doesn’t just come through in the clothing: his spirit also manifests in Nina’s warmth, happiness and spontaneity. As for the funky beats, they will remind many of you Croats of the late King of Croatian funk music Dino Dvornik. “Vjetrenjace” may not be her best effort, but we commend Nina for pausing from all the ballads to give us something a bit more upbeat.
Nina describes the song as vital and sincere, and hopes her fans will feel a connection between it and her larger body of work, even if it’s somewaht new territory. Here’s what she said on Facebook:
“My job is to do my best, and the audience is already the best final judge. I do my songs for them because I respect their loyalty and love that has been following me all these years. We understand each other perfectly, and our concerts are always memorable encounters.”
For those of you dying to hear Nina sing in English, we have happy news: in an interview with RTL she recently confirmed that she is working on an English-language album. She’s already finished five songs at Quad studio in New York. She also admitted that her biggest desire is to find one young musical talent and take him under her wing. So, if you’re young and talented, go fly with Nina!
“I met these great musicians who play with Sting, Bryan Adams, Avril Lavigne and a range of other ingenious musicians, they entered with me in the Quad Studio, so I made the first five songs there. The album will be slowly completed and I think there will be a lot of new stories!”
Nina’s cover of The Pointer Sister’s mega-hit “I’m so excited” might give you a sense of what’s to come…
VJETRENJACE tekst
Moglo je da se desi
da se mimoidjemo tada
da odem malo prije tebe
ili da ne budem sama
Kakva bi to steta bila
kakva ozbiljna drama
zamisli da se nismo sreli
nas dvoje toga dana
Moglo je da se desi
i neko sasvim drugi
a ja ne bih ni znala
sto u zivotu gubim
Ref.
Zato ne brini
pusti vjetrenjace
nek’ ne’ko drugi
tugu dohvati
Mi se volimo
zar nije dovoljno
sto treba vise
da nam se dogodi
Moglo je tu da bude
milijun ljepsih zena
ne bi bilo afere
ja te nebih ni srela
Zivio bi ko stranac
na drugom kraju grada
i nikad ne bi ni znali
ono sto znamo sada
Ref. 2x
WINDMILLS lyrics
It could happen
That we pass over
That I go just before you
Or that I am not alone
What a pity it would be
What a serious drama
Imagine we haven’t met
the two of us on that day
It could happen
Someone completely different
and I wouldn’t even know
What in my life I’m losing
Ref.
So do not worry
Let the windmills
Let somebody else
To pick up the sadness
We love each other
Isn’t it enough
What should be more
That happens to us
It could be there
A million prettier women
there would be no affairs
I wouldn’t even met you
You would live like a foreigner
On the other side of town
We would never even know
What we know now
Ref. 2x
Nina has a lot of talent, but her song for Baku was lackluster. If she could’ve sent a song like this or Takvi Kao Ti, I think we would’ve seen a better result.