Severina: In Her Own Words

Among congratulations from foreign TV stations, and notwithstanding the obligatory annual Dora jury scandal (can't the tabloids do better than that this year?), Dora organiser Aleksandar Kostadinov is entitled to feel rather pleased with himself at the moment, and evidently does.

Although, wondering why we seem to have heard from everyone but Severina about Moja štikla since the weekend? Probably because she spent most of Sunday asleep after celebrating her Dora victory, and only began to give interviews again yesterday.

Asked in today's Jutarnji list what musical genre the song belonged to, Severina said:

'"Štikla" is something authentic [izvorno]. And I'm really sorry that the song was attacked so much. I'm happy about those lyrics because they sound like some folk proverb [narodna poslovica]. I get accused because the lyrics are banal, but I didn't notice that any song in Dora was exactly War And Peace. Eurovision songs in fact ought to be like that. So we won't 'spin' it into English either.'

In fact, as she tells Slobodna Dalmacija, Moja štikla was the most Croatian song in Dora as far as she's concerned:

'"Štikla" is an ordinary pop song with some funny and witty elements. We wanted to do a song in which something autochthonous, humorous and effective would be shown in three minutes. In this Dora there were various genres, Italian canzone, French chanson, tango, R&B, Spanish folklore, and my Štikla was actually the most authentic and most Croatian!'

Ivana Banfić, whose Slavonian ethno-anthem finished mid-table, might disagree, and so, of course, have a number of folk musicians. Yet, as Nevenka Mikac asks in Večernji list:

'But what would happen if that "terrible" singer and film actress who, as the sentry-chaplains of the Croatian nation claim, has shamed the nation with her ganga happened to bring Eurovision back to Zagreb in the final on 20 May? Would she then be the scandalous mockery of the nation, or would a reception be arranged for her on Trg bana Jelačića and would people cheer "We've got Seve, we've got Croatia?"'