Ustani Seve, Hrvatska Te Zove

Severina also tells Jutarnji list today that several versions of Moja štikla exist, including one with 'nice, patriotic lyrics' which may eventually be released. This may be the first version of the song mentioned by today's Večernji list, which was apparently called Oja-noja or Hrvatski sokole (Croatian falcon, a folkloric synonym for 'hero'):

'Tamo iza planina,
preko žita, maslina,
tu gdje vječno sunce sja,
tu mi je domovina

To je zemlja ponosna,
rođena iz kamena,
U tebi je sva moja sudbina i snaga,
Ti si moj heroj,
a ja sam tvoja draga'

In other words:

'There behind the mountains
Past the wheat and olives
There where the sun shines forever
There's my homeland

It's a proud land
Born from stone
All my fate and strength are in you
You're my hero
And I'm your darling'

The Hrvatski sokole version, lyrically (though not musically) reminiscent of several early-nineties numbers by Doris Dragović and others, didn't survive its encounter with Goran Bregović, who wanted to speed up the song into what became Moja štikla. As far as VL's Nevenka Mikac is concerned, that might be just as well, especially given how the song was received by the Serbian tabloids:

'What would have happened... [with a version] from whose lyrics and title one could very easily have read a message not only to "various Croatian Army generals" but to the Croatian falcon detained in a cell in The Hague?'

Throw Gotovina and Croatian patriotic showbusiness (the Thompson-Škoro-Bulić-Bete tendency) into the mix, and the Croatian media might have reached overload: not to mention the Gazette, which is frankly off its virtual feet.

Two or three comments on the Jutarnji list website have already compared the Moja štikla version (not always favourably) to Let 3's 2005 album Bombardiranje Srbije i Čačka, a more instantly apparent spoof of turbofolk, Bulić-style hypermasculinity and the 'glorious soldierly tradition of the Balkans'.

Even as it is, Mikac seems to consider the slučaj Štikla (as Index is now terming it on a dedicated page) something of a watershed, which has finally provided 'a definition of Croatian turbofolk.' Seve still rejects the label, and others might say 'Croatian turbofolk' has existed rather longer than a few weeks. Either way, with coverage like this - it certainly does now.