Otherwise Comeback of the Week: Vanna

The Croatian singer Vanna, formerly of ET, is releasing her first new material for four years - the end of an even longer absence than Thompson's, if you count his 2003 song in honour of Pope John Paul II. Accordingly, she's given an extensive interview to Večernji list, in which she reflects on stardom in a country where 'you can see me every Saturday on Kvaternik Square buying tomatoes' and where singers only find space on the state broadcaster HTV if they're presenting talk shows:

'I understand that we miss those 1990s when there was Croatian music on HTV every day, we remember the war years alone when the news and Croatian music were the only programming. Don't get me wrong, I don't want the times when we just had the news and music to come back, but allow me to remember the times when Croatian music experienced its most shining moments.'

Meanwhile, Magazin's first song with new lead singer Ivana Kovač will be Neću plakat' namjerno, which 24 sata is helpfully previewing today. Chances are it might appeal to anyone who enjoys post-2000 Doris Dragović (rather than the harder stuff), or, the tabloid points out, one or two numbers by Ivana's dad.

Magazin: It's A Family Affair

After searching for the best part of a year, Magazin have finally revealed Jelena Rozga's replacement and their fourth lead singer: Ivana Kovač, daughter of the iconic Dalmatian singer Mate Mišo Kovač. (Actually, make that sixth lead singer: the band's two first vocalists during their Dalmatinski magazin days have dropped out of history along the way.)

Kovač's family, famously, come from Šibenik rather than the Magazin heartland of Split, though Magazinologists might almost be more surprised that the group chose a brunette rather than another of their trademark blondes.

Believe everything you hear, though, and it would seem that Magazin nearly ended up with a transnational revamp this summer: according to Jutarnji list in August, the group's manager Tonči Huljić was so impressed by Macedonia's Eurovision representative Elena Risteska when they met on a TV show that he offered her the job backstage.

No word, yet, on where this leaves Andrea Šušnjara, the teenage singer from Split who's been the gossips' long-term favourite to take over the Magazin role for at least two years - and might have had the gig in February if she hadn't shot her mouth off to a tabloid reporter.