The Wiwi Jury — our in-house team of music unprofessionals — is reviewing and rating the 40 competing songs in Eurovision 2022. Next we review Croatia, who have chosen Mia Dimšić with “Guilty Pleasure”.
Is the song our guilty pleasure of the year? Read on to find out!
Mia Dimšić – “Guilty Pleasure” (Croatia Eurovision 2022)
Review: Mia Dimšić – “Guilty Pleasure”
Lucy: Oh boy, is “Guilty Pleasure” drastically underrated this year or what? I’ve heard people say they don’t find it interesting etc., however I couldn’t disagree more. The lyrics tell such an emotional story of forbidden lust, set to the dreamiest melody I’ve heard this year. There’s something so sensual about the way Mia describes her object of desire coming to her in her dreams to then wake up next to her spouse. I do hope the staging is different in Turin, as I don’t think the interaction with her dancer works well. But if they make it simpler, this could be delightful on stage.
Score: 8
Sebastian: Mia is a solid singer. She has great stage presence and an unwavering voice that is almost perfection live. Unfortunately, “Guilty Pleasure” does border on a Taylor Swift filler song that simply doesn’t stand out from the pack. Hopefully, the focus can solely be on Mia in Turin, as she is the star of this package. Distracting dancers and interpretative dance don’t have a place here, and the national selection performance ultimately is a wrong mesh of visual and aural. There is, however, a diamond in this rough.
Score: 4
Renske: Mia Dimšić automatically sounds different from all other entrants at Eurovision 2022. “Guilty Pleasure” is a real singer-songwriter track. The use of live instruments on the backing track instead of electronical sounds makes the song stand out musically from other entries this year. “Guilty Pleasure” is a small song, perhaps a bit invisible between all the bombast. However, we have seen calm songs sailing through to the final in the past too.
Score: 7.5
Natalie: It’s always nice to see a woman with a guitar rocking some mesh. There’s a lot of parts working together here, but strangely the song still feels minimalist. I like it, but I just wish everything held together a little bit more. There’s also something that feels a little bit insincere about the song? I can see it’s trying to be something original and interesting, but still trying too hard to be mainstream. Mia Dimšić is a very talented artist, so I hope she comes back again with something a bit stronger.
Score: 5.5
Josh: Mia gives us a lovely, simple, and sweet song that has a surprising amount of truth. We’ve all had moments where we think how our life would be different if we were with someone else, but circumstances never work out to where we can turn those feelings into reality. Mia gives those thoughts an effective voice. The only thing holding me back from giving a higher score is the lack of depth in the instrumentation and repetitive chorus.
Score: 7
Croatia Eurovision 2022 ranking
In the Eurovision 2022 Wiwi Jury, we have 18 jurors but only have room for five reviews. The remaining scores are below:
|
Angus: 7.5 Antranig: 7 Cinan: 6 Deban: 5 Jonathan: 5 Luis: 5 Oliver: 5 |
Pablo: 5.5 Robyn: 4 Ron: 5.5 Suzanne: 6 Tom: 7 William: 5 |
We have removed the highest and lowest scores prior to calculating the average. This is to remove outliers and potential bias. We have removed a low of 4 and a high of 8.
Wiwi Jury verdict: 5.84/10
What do you think of Croatia’s Eurovision 2022 entry? Share your own score and review for Mia Dimšić’s “Guilty Pleasure” below!
great
sad
My impression of this song is severely undermined by the fact that I’m Croatian and know she was set up to win (most things in Croatia are set up that way), thus robbing Marko Bošnjak and his angelic voice of victory. I see Mia differently because she has been very aggressively promoted in Croatian media for years (connections), so she irritates me to no end. The song itself is not that bad, but it still reeks of a second-rate Taylor Swift copy.
I feel like this song is quite underrated. I hope this song soon grows on people. Good Luck from the UK!
Sadly, the team decided not to take into account almost unanimous advice from the fandom to ditch the dancer and go minimalist…sooo..she’s gonna have three dancers in Turin that will completely be out of place
Definitely not my guilty pleasure. Bland ballad with a bland performance that will get lost in its semifinal. 4/10.
There’s always a feel-good song that I believe has the potential of stealing a spot for the final. Right now, I can’t decide between TWO; either this one, or Rosa Linn’s “Snap” from Armenia.
I’d have run away with her and sent Marko Bosnjak instead, just can’t see Croatia overcoming the fact they’ve got Portugal, Iceland and Armenia all in the same half of their SF to compare to, running order not helping at all either…
I like it but it’s a bit too “middle range of death” for its semi.
CROATIA – This nice country-pop song would likely sound at home on any American radio station. In fact, I don’t think that it would be any less polished than many of them. Mia is a fantastic performer, and she manages to create this sweet and nostalgic vibe. Her heart tells her to run away with the man she loves, while her brain is telling her that’s not realistic in these circumstances. It’s bittersweet and hits the right note in transmitting that feeling. The song doesn’t have ”the moment” to draw one in right away, so it might go unnoticed if… Read more »
There’s nothing in the lyrics that says this song is about a man.
Yes, she’s married to one, but I like to think she’s singing to a woman. The pressure of society made her marry young, her religious parents made her believe this is the only way. Like she sings, being with a woman goes against everything she has been taught. Now she’s beginning to realise that her parents were wrong, and hetero life is not for her.
The dancer kinda ruins that for me, but still.
You are right. The implication is made by the dancer and the man in her official music video. In the song itself, you can easily apply it to a scenario where she’s in love with a woman. True.
The Croatian version, however, explicitly says it’s a man.
You are right too, but a song is only what the listener hears. After that, what the listener brings to it themselves. I would give it my silver star either way.
It hurts that Croatia is underestimated this year, after all, this country is sending someone famous again, and even more so I hope for the final, because I saw comments that people are surprised by Mia’s performance during the promotional tour, which must happen that Croatia will be noticed at the Competition Eurovision songs and Mia is a talented singer and I’m proud of her
39.Croatia – I don’t know. This ain’t a guilty pleasure at all. It’s just bland. I have no words for the staging.
This is gonna be either a surprise qualifier or the last place of SF1. No in between.
3/10 Definitely not my guilty pleasure
To those of you who like this song, please don’t read the rest of this comment. This song is refrains galore and on repeat. It’s playful and sweet, but it’s not really to my taste as a song. There are way too many repeating lyrics and refrains for my liking. I mean, how many times do you have to ask someone to run away with you in the space of three minutes? “In this real life, there’s no way.” Literally. However, I like the singer, and the performance at the national final was beautifully choreographed. They definitely did the best… Read more »
Awh. I like the song but still read the rest of your comment!
It does have some level of repetition to it, for sure. I don’t know if it is the biggest offender of that this year (Oh dear god, Moldova) but yeah, I can understand how if you’re not *totally* into what the song is doing, that it could start to wear on you a bit.
She nailed it with those guitar chords
This is such a grower and with each live performance, it just looks stronger and stronger. I know it’s not the most competitive of Eurovision entries but every year, one such song seems to gain traction and I see no reason why it cannot be this one in 2022. Lyrically, I think it’s really solid and for an English language song in Eurovision, I don’t think these lyrics would be out of place in a regular mainstream radio-song. Oh and speaking of which, its radio-friendliness is one of its biggest assets. It is simple and could be heard anywhere. Vocally,… Read more »
Rating: 6.0/10.0
Shockingly underrated by the wiwis. That’s what happens when you have too many people with similar tastes.
I think that Croatia could end up last in sf1. :/ She is good live, but Franka was good too, and Armenia will steal all their votes.
Is it me or this year all scores and comments are too politically correct??
you’re just saying words
Nothing against her or even the song, but this is elevator background music. It’s wildly unimpactful and I have a hard time picturing people picking up their phone to vote for this.
7/10 My favourite in Dora, I usually don’t like the Croatian entry but this year I do!! I think this song is really pretty and quite unique. Underrated, however I can see why some don’t love this song.
I hope the moderation problem is solved soon.
3 comments filtered out of 3 today. I feel like I’m in probation. 😀 In any case, all of them were quickly approved. But if all comments are getting the same fate, I imagine Wiwi team is even more anxious than us to solve it.
Same. All of my messages today have been filtered. Some appear within minutes, some within hours. At least they appear.
I don’t mean to complain, it’s annoying for everyone, including Wiwi. I’m actually wondering if it wasn’t the system that swallowed poor Tibor up, there are obviously some gremlins. Probably not, though.
Oh, I wasn’t implying you meant as a complain, it was more the reflex of someone that once had to approve comments one by one on a certain page, because it can be quite annoying to do it. The weird thing is that the filtered was less invasive in the last months, so maybe they’re dealing with someone trying to spam.
This is going to make having an actual conversation difficult.
Yes my comments are also always waiting for moderation. Up to now though all yesterday’s comments have appeared apart from my Ireland review.
Apparently my subscription to an anti-spam plugin had lapsed. I’ve updated payment info and now the plugin is working again, so hopefully this solves the problem!
Yes I think it’s solved. I just posted a comment that got up immediately. Thanks William!
Yeah.. not really something i vibe with right there. Incredibly bland and forgettable. Mia deserves better. This is too safe and doesn’t respond to her level. I think it’s safe to say that the Croatian NQ streak will continue..
Rating: 4/10 (34th)
It took a while, but Taylor Swift’s influence finally landed on Eurovision. The good thing is that Mia channels it with personality and a sweetness that makes it quite endearing. Her voice is gorgeous, but the lyrics are probably the most interesting thing, because no matter if it’s about polyamory or about daydreaming with an affair, it’s a subject I believe we haven’t seen before in ESC. On a negative note, I fear the production of the track isn’t very jury-friendly, something that I imagine also costed “Tick-Tock” some points last time. 6.75/10
wasn’t anna bergendahl a TS influence back in 2010?
That’s a fair point. I guess back then I still didn’t pay the same attention to Eurovision or to Taylor Swift. But I can totally see what Anna keeps doing like an alternate version of Taylor if she sticked to her initial style, which is basically the path taken by a bunch of country artists in the US.
I mean, whenever I think of Taylor Swift at Eurovision, Manuella exists. I think your point about Balkan production not doing so well with Eurovision juries is something that needs looked at. I mean, I know there are some cases where the sounds just doesn’t work in any way (Montenegro 2019, Montenegro this year, N.Macedonia this year) but there are also examples of beautiful orchestrated arranges that are well-produced (Serbia 2019) that are also overlooked in jury-voting and shouldn’t be. Not everything needs to sound like a Swedish-radio entry…and juries need to do a better job of having their voting… Read more »
Yeah, the famous ”blue is blue and red is red”. I guess it goes along with mentioned Montenegro’s ”the air is what they need, the air is what they breathe”. But in principle I agree. There is this Balkan sound that even in its highest forms (Khteju tokes, Inje, or aforementioned Kruna (which, by the way, is growing on me yet again, and I upped my rating, yet again) doesn’t reach the jury to the point that Scandi pop does. Both are good, only different. And ESC should be about equally stellar regional differences.
I’ll answer you and Colin at the same time with this one. I think there are separated problems. Indeed, beautifully orchestrated and produced entries from the Balkans are regularly overlooked by Eurovision juries. As the juries tend to avoid more risky things, so I agree that sometimes they’re too attached to that Scandinavian slickness and also to anglo-american trends. But in the case of this track and “Tick-Tock”, I would say the production in both of them is not “clean enough”. If we compare “Tick-Tock” to “El Diablo”, I say the first is more creative, but the second sounds much… Read more »
INCREDIBLY underrated! I don’t get what people don’t like about this song. Mia delivers it PERFECTLY every time. Her vocals are something to watch out for! Austria and Czech Republic, beware!
Don’t get me wrong, it’s just a fine song but its simplicity (in the way it’s composed at least) and the fact that it attempts to be cute doesn’t attract my interest. In fact, I find it rather slightly boring and forgettable, it’s missing that WOW factor than will maintain my interest on keep listening to it. The chorus is rather flat and monotonus, the verses are alright. But if I had to grade this, according to my PERSONAL interest as always, I’d give it a 3/10 and my 39th place out of 40 participating countries for this year. Not… Read more »
A song I kind of like (or at least doesn’t dislike) while I’m listening to it but completely forget after that. Maybe it’s because I’ve listened to it like 3 times (?) during the whole season, being one of them a couple of minutes before I came to write down my thoughs on this song. It’s a cute song but a bit bland and generic. It’s there and it’s oey but I’ll be equally fine with the line up if it don’t exist. Mia looks like a nice person so I wish her all the best. I don’t think Croatia… Read more »
Unfortunately for a lot of people this entry will be not a “guilty pleasure” and I do get that. Personally I kinda like this song, it’s simple but not that bad at all.
Loved this song until I finally decided to give a listen to “Willow”…Yikes! The most blatant ESC ripoff since last year’s Cypriot song.
This entry would benefit so much if it were sung in Croatian, because it would at least make Mia Grokan Dimsic seem a little less like a dime-store version of Taylor Swift.
If the staging of this included a string quartet and was glammed up in a Taylor Swift-Esque way- this might have a chance of making the final- it’s not a winner- but a finalist perhaps.
Wait until this qualifies and ends up on left side of a scoreboard. I remember how y’all underestimated Lithuania in 2018 big time! Croatia and Moldova are harshly overlooked this year, and I put my heart in they both will qualify. Mia was killing it at PreParties, and Sebastian to call her “solid singer” is an insult. Her vocals are on point, she made song sound better when performing live.
this song is well-written and it has a nice melody. the subject of the song – being in a committed relationship and, from time to time, daydreaming of an adventure while knowing it’s not going to happen because you’d rather stay committed – is very peculiar and the concept is well-executed. my only concern with it is how empty its instrumental sounds, which doesn’t play in its favor.
This song to me is the definition of “This sure exists”. It’s decent when it’s up, but 5 seconds after it’s over and it’ll be completely forgotten. It’s a 4/10 for me. All points I gave are purely because Mia’s vocal is good, but that’s all she has going for her.
This is interesting and a very peaceful and nice song, but I’m not sure if this can qualify as Albina couldn’t last year, and her song was pretty good.
I don’t know if Albina is a fair comparison as most people do consider her not qualifying to be somewhat of an injustice. I definitely don’t think we’re at the stage of saying “You need a better song than Tick Tock to qualify at Eurovision”. XD
33. Croatia – Mia Damsik – Guilty Pleasure – 5/10 – far, far, far too safe in its musical style and presentation. This is a perfectly pleasant entry but is very forgettable. If I am reading the lyrics correctly, then I don’t like them very much which adds another incentive to press the skip button. There is a good level of professional competence in the act but for me the song is devoid of emotional pull, such that I actually can’t be that bothered to actively criticize it and the fact that I don’t care enough is perhaps the biggest… Read more »
Is it really that hard to write artist’s last name correctly?
I’m really surprised that you don’t feel any emotional pull from this one, Kosey! For me, it’s definitely there and I am feeling this one when it’s on. I do see a lot of the words you use and can see where they’re coming from, “Pleasant”, “Professional”, “Competent”, it’s not the most exciting description and that could be a problem. However, I think there are going to be people that “Guilty Pleasure” resonates with in a more personal way and that’s why I’m quietly optimistic about its chances.
Croatia – This is a lovely little song that is very pleasant, but I don’t know if it’ll be enough to qualify. Nothing to me is wrong with it, and Mia’s voice is lovely, I just feel it may get forgotten among the other songs in SF1. 5.5/10
Silver star.
5.Croatia: Going against the tide here, I have Croatia inside my top 10. I am always attracted to country-folk songs and this one is no exception. Her voice is mellow, and the song’s lyrics are actually really well-written. The staging will be changed as Mia herself has said. I am hoping for a minimalistic staging that will make the beauty of the song and her voice stand out. This is a song that doesn’t need fireworks or dancers to work. It only needs a nice interpretation and a dreamy atmosphere. Given the fact that many songs of this style are… Read more »
A song like this always faces an uphill climb to qualify at Eurovision and the running order in SF1 is definitely going to be an issue as you’ve mentioned. However, this is definitely my favourite of the songs that you’ve alluded to and I do think it is the most accessible. I’d be surprised if it didn’t get the highest televote score out of those entries.
Also agree that the dreamy, reflective atmosphere is what they should be going for in the staging. The lyrics are quite specific and easy-to-follow, they don’t need over-elaborate staging to tell that story.
It will be really interesting to see what the televote’s behaviour towards Croatia and the rest of the songs from SF1 that have the same vibe is. I hope “Guilty Pleasure” gets translated better on the Eurovision stage than at Dora.
The worst song. It give us nothing. Flat and annoying melody. Absolutely waste of time. Is this really the best Croatia can give us for this big international show?
You a troll, a rapper or a space cadette?
On the left side of my personal scoreboard. Underrated in odds and polls.
I think this is this year’s Black Mamba. Not doing well with eurofans but it will at the ESC.
6.5/10
Seems everyone’s very lukewarm and while I have to mostly agree, I’ve actually really been enjoying Mia’s performances recently so I would put this a little higher on the scale at 7/10. The only thing that would have pushed this higher for me was if she took the Croatian version to Eurovision.
Can’t wait for this song to pull off a Belarus 2010 and qualify unexpectedly!
Circus Mircus has the quality of being my Guilty pleasure. Unfortunately Croatia doesnt tick my boxes.
i wish her all the best.
I am under the impression that the wiwi jury this year is more generous with their scores than previous years. And that is good. If scored objectively, none of these songs deserve a 2, 3 or even a 4.