Baby Lasagna: 10 facts about Croatia’s Eurovision 2024 representative

Croatia is buzzing with excitement as they dream of clinching their first-ever Eurovision win! And guess who’s stealing the spotlight? None other than Baby Lasagna – real name Marko Purišić! He’s all set to rock the stage on Tuesday in Semi Final One with his catchy tune “Rim Tim Tagi Dim,” which fans can’t get enough of. The hype is real, folks! According to the bookies, Baby Lasagna might just be the one to make history and bring home Croatia’s first Eurovision crown!

But who is Baby Lasagna, and why? We learn some more things about this year’s Croatian Eurovision representative. Who inspires him? Why lasagna? Does he even like lasagna? The latter may surprise you.

So let’s delve in deeper, scroll down for 10 Facts about Baby Lasagna.

10 Facts about Baby Lasagna

1. Who is Baby Lasagna?

Baby Lasagna who’s real name is Marko Purišić was born 5 July 1995. He comes from the Croatian coastal town of Umag and his music has been described as a mixture of pop punk, techno, metal, and house.

2. Baby… Pizza?

Surely Baby Lasagna got his name from a love of the delicious layered Italian dish? Wrong. He tells our William Lee Adams that in fact, another Italian favourite has his heart – and his stomach:
“I like pizza way more than I like Lasagna” But Lasagna sounds more cool.

“I was just walking through the park by the sea in Novigrad. And I was looking for a store to buy a bottle of water because I had a headache and the name just popped into my head. My friends thought it was funny and cool. I hear a lot of hiphop artists having a name with ‘Baby this’ and ‘Baby that’ so I wanted Baby, but something stupid, so Baby Lasagna!”

3. Rim Tim Tagi Dim literally means…nothing really.

If you put “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” into google translate, you may be surprised to learn that you would struggle to get a translation of what it means. Baby Lasagna tells us: “It means nothing actually. The first sample you hear in the song, I started to sing with it. ‘Rim Tim Tagi Dim, Rim Tim Tagi Dim” and I was like it would be funny if I put some real vocals recorded with rim tim tagi dim and that was it. There was no origin story.”

4. Leaving home for a better life

In short, Rim Tim Tagi Dim is a hugely relatable song about leaving your country in search of a better, richer life.
“A lot of my lyrics come from subconscious things that I am not thinking about. In Croatia, we have a lot of problems with young people moving out. Subconsciously maybe the song is about young people leaving our country in search for a better place, with a heavy heart, as it says in the song “in my anxiety attacks, I am going to miss you all but mostly the cat”

5. He is a cat lover!

“Meow cat please meow back!” Unsurprisingly, Baby lasagna is a huge cat lover and tells us about his three cats. “One is really nice and cuddly, the other is always outside and the third one is like a princess, like ‘don’t talk to me’.”

6. Comparisons and Inspirations

Fans have been comparing “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” to Kaarija’s “Cha Cha Cha” from last year’s contest, but now we know there is actually a reason for it. It has been revealed that both artists were inspired by the German rock band Rammstein.
“Rammstein all the way! When I first started, the first riff, I wanted it to sound like a Rammstein riff. And Kaarija has a Rammstein tattoo and said he wanted to sound like Rammstein in the first part of the song – so we both took from Rammstein.”

7. Baby Lasagna can do it all

Baby Lasagna isn’t just a singer. He is a man of many talents and confesses that he produces his own music. “I write, record, mix, master and do everything. The videos are done by my fiancé.”

8. Not his first rodeo into Dora

Interestingly, this isn’t Baby Lasagna’s first foray into Eurovision. He took part in the Croatian National Final Dora in 2019 as the guitarist in the rock band Manntra. They sung the song “In the Shadows” and they finished a respectable 4th place. Though he is no longer part of the band any more he is still in touch with the current members.

8.1 Of course, Baby Lasagna wasn’t meant to even be at Dora!

At the end of 2023, after the submissions window closed for Croatia’s national selection show DORA, broadcaster HRT selected 24 acts. Baby Lasagna was not among them. Instead he was relegated to the reserve list. However, in early January, the singer Zsa Zsa withdrew. Baby Lasagna was subbed in and the rest as they say, is history.

9. Baby Lasagna does watch Eurovision

Baby Lasagna said he started to watch Eurovision after his experience with the band Manntra. One of his favourite bands is the Italian rock band Måneskin and he was angry when Kaarija didn’t win Eurovision last year.
“I love Maneskin, they are one of my favourite bands – I think they are really special. A lot of people say that a vibe of Damiano (the lead singer) when singing. I was so angry when Kaarija didn’t win Eurovision. I was surprised how angry I was. Expressing my anger through swear words. I really like that guy, he seems crazy.”

10. Mr Baby Lasagna

Coming from a family in which his mother and several other family members work as teachers, Baby Lasagna expressed that he would have most likely become a teacher too if he had not decided to pursue a career in music instead.

Stay tuned to Wiwibloggs for more on Baby Lasagna, and to find out 10 Facts about more of your favourite artists from Eurovision 2024!