Our popular segment Wiwi’s Way is in its third edition and today we’re rewinding to Eurovision 1999 in Jerusalem. This is the first time we have ventured into contests before the 21st century, and we couldn’t be more excited! Our blog team named Doris Dragovic from Croatia as our favourite act — and our readers have agreed. A total of 422 votes were cast across the 23 entries, and Miss Dragovic won with 18.5% of them, well ahead of actual Eurovision 1999 winner Charlotte Nilsson (now Perrelli), who secured 12.7% of the vote. Let’s take a look at your top 10!
Reader’s Way 1999: Top 10
- Croatia: Doris Dragovic – Marija Magdalena (78 votes)
- Sweden: Charlotte Nilsson – Take Me To Your Heaven (54 votes)
- Iceland: Selma – All Out Of Luck (44 votes)
- Germany: Surpriz – Journey To Jerusalem (27 votes)
- Netherlands: Marlayne – One Good Reason (21 votes)
- United Kingdom: Precious – Say It Again (20 votes)
- Tie. Bosnia & Herzegovina: Dino & Beatrice – Putnici and Lithuania: Aiste – Strazdas (19 votes)
- (no eighth, tie in seventh)
- Belgium: Vanessa Chinitor – Like The Wind (16 votes)
- Estonia: Evelin & Camille – Diamond Of Night (15 votes)
Reader’s Winner: Croatia
Maybe it was her costume change, which British commentator Terry Wogan described as a “crowd pleasing strip” or perhaps it was her amazing vocal performance. Either way, Doris really stood out on the night with her mystical song. It was ethnic pop at its finest and her chant “Marija Magdalena” had a spiritual and anthemic quality. This remains a classic not just among Balkan Eurovision fans, but among Eurovision fans in general.
Did you vote for Croatia back in 1999? Is it your favourite Croatian entry to date? Let us know below!
We’ll be back with Wiwi’s Way for 2008 soon.
1999 … The year where Eurovision started to go downhill for me …. maybe it was the questionable music quality, the permission for cheesy pop crap very late 90s getting in, the dance tunes of cheap quality, etc … I guess It was everything all wrapped up in one. I understand fans here must have loved that but for me … it was a disaster … a disappointment from start to finish … every single song was either just average, cheesy or snooze … until Estonia came in and that I breathed in relief … what an astonish song mingled… Read more »
hail , Marija Magdalena
For me better verision is from Dora , croatian national final. With that version they will gets more points from western countries.
She did, but not for the year.The deduction was off Croatia’s 5 year average.
Didn’t she get some kind of point deduction for the backing vocal?
Croatia was my second choice. I find my winner, “All Out Of Luck” from Iceland to be one of the best eurovision songs of all time. Purely perfect for me!
1999 was a pretty lame song contest