#Klapa Nostalgija

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2005 - Number 59 - Luka Nižetić & Klapa Nostalgija - "Proljece"

Luka Nižetić had been surprising people for sometime. As a boy in Split, his non-musical parents realised he had a musical inclination and sent him to piano lessons. The he had singing lessons from an opera soprano and suddenly he's writing his own songs and winning awards at music festivals.

He's already appeared at Dora once before - in 2003, but it was the year after that, when he released his first album Premijera (Premiere), that his star began to truly shine. Proljece (Spring) is one of the tracks from that album. And phwoar, what an album cover.

This is a song filled with joy. Here's a man who's met the one - he's head over heels, dancing bare foot because he can't contain the restless surge of happiness within - or maybe it's the smell of the grass? This is a song using a lot of tradition. The instrumentation is filled with Adriatic strings and he's backed by Klapa Nostalgija. A Klap is a traditional acapella choir - mostly male voices, although not always - normally found on the Dalmatian coast and islands of Croatia. Here, they back Luka's infectious swoon of a song with a lot of bassy la-la-las that, simple as they are, work to set the scene.

This feels like a rather patriarchal community harmonising their approval but also letting their hair down somewhat. Luka is blessed. Their community is blessed. Everyone's happy!

This was outstandingly popular in Croatia and launched Luka into the wide popular consciousness. The simultaneous tradition and joyfulness struck a chord with the public. Dora had a first round presentation with all the songs being presented and judged. It wasn't a huge hurdle as only two songs were eliminated, yet Luka won that first round.

In semi-final two he won the public televote and was first overall making him one of the favourites to become Croatia's Eurovision representative. But as so often in these things, Luka had peaked too soon. He still finished second in the final televote, but by then, the judges had moved their attention on to other things. They placed him eleventh, putting Luka sixth overall and missing out on the Dora superfinal.

This didn't diminish Luka's sunny disposition. Four more albums followed over the next decade. He did some acting and generally was exceedingly popular. He didn't return to Dora until 2019 however, but then just maybe, we'll meet him again then.

[capdellop]

Plavi putevi mora - klapa Nostalgija

[udrugecom-blog]

KLAPA "NOSTALGIJA", Zagreb, Trg 101. brigade 2

KLAPA “NOSTALGIJA”, Zagreb, Trg 101. brigade 2

[sareneperle]

Klapa Nostalgija - Dime Niño