EUROVISION 2019 REVIEW: CROATIA - Roko - The Dream

Welcome back!

Today we review Croatia, who after the return of national final Dora have chosen 'The Dream' by Roko, which is written by Eurovision 2017 alumni Jacques Houdek.

Here are my thoughts:

What I Like: 'The Dream' is a song designed to show off Roko's vocal power. I know its incredibly annoying when people bring this up but its hard to believe that Roko is only 19 years-old because he is so mature in both vocal ability and performance, its really impressive that he can perform this so well vocally and it impresses me how he can hold this song together on his own. I'm also a fan of this song when it switches to Croatian and to be quite honest wish that it just stayed in Croatian for the whole song because it covers up the lack of lyrical depth here.

What I Don't Like: Sorry but I'm just not into this. This is the cheesy dated ballad that we've all moved on from because its stuck in another era and it feels like they're actually being serious about it. With Jacques Houdek involved I'm almost expecting joke staging that distracts from Roko's talent and makes the song a gimmick and I'm nervous. They've already made the Dora staging a gimmick with the angel wings, then the music video which just has me screaming, the drama was turned up to 11 and not in a good way, which leads me to believe that the staging at Eurovision will follow that theme. Maybe they just think its the only way a song like this would have a chance of qualifying?

Furthermore, the lyrics are so basic and nullify any possible emotion or power that a viewer could feel from the song. The chorus is lyrically so simple and bland that even in the Croatian part, a language I don't speak, I can tell the song is cliche on top of cliche and I'm not a fan.

Prediction: Absolutely no doubt in my mind that this is not qualifying. They can make any gimmicky staging they like up but it won't work like it did with 'My Friend', because Jacques song was one big joke anyway. This is not and Roko deserves to be respected more than that.

Final Score: 2.5/10

Summary: A talented artist who has sadly been handed a song that is just stuck in the wrong decade and therefore stuck in the semi-final.

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