Croatia 2024: Baby Lasagna with ‘Rim Tim Tagi Dim’
The “25th best” entry submitted to Dora has gone and took the W after weeks of building traction:
It's easy and simplistic to relate this to Kaarijaa but the comparisons really are unavoidable with the light hearted atmosphere and bit of a genre shift from rock into edm. There's even the same nonsense main hook (Cha Cha Cha vs Rim Tim Tagi Digi) whilst the national final performance went out of its way to appear a copy. We'll address that first as it is the main and obvious stumbling block so should Mr.Lasagna or anyone from HRT stumble across this I'll bullet point:
Ditch the glam rock aesthetic and OTT sleeves and focus on the ye old-timey approach and identity. There’s a certain fitting irony in the attempt to modernise the attire not actually working but seriously just dressing as per the music video/in actual traditional dress would be far better.
Vocals will improve with practice but focus on the basics and avoid unnecessary inflexions.
Work the camera more than the crowd - easy to fix considering our man is pretty much a novice.
Find something more for that bridge. Arm pumping and a bit of Gangnam style is insufficient. I'll leave this one open but quickly snappy camera cuts between Baby and the rest on stage seems more effective than a single panned out shot.
The current level on display also makes the rival entries from Estonia, Finland and surely the Netherlands more relevant and threatening to taking some support. In top gear they wouldn't be much of a concern similar to how Moldova, Germany, Serbia and Austria were obliterated last year. Even with all performance issues fixed, I doubt this can reach Kaarijaa levels of public support (proportionally, there are of course less points on offer) as that kind of score really feels lightning in a bottle so to say but we have been seeing more extremes and also consensus in recent years. If something lands, it really lands with social media and even fan momentum helping this. These things can also snowball quickly with some old polls below to illustrate.
I guess my point is it's very reasonable to assume this won't get near Kaarijaa's televote score per country and that's what I believe too. I think the evidence of the last few years is however it's essential to be open minded on what a televote winner could achieve and Baby Lasagna might be second if not first in the running for that assuming this improves at least a little before May and that has been my main realisation from overlooking this to shifting onto it just before the music video hype.
Opposing a potential jury winner that is forecast around 6th-10th with the public may be fine. Opposing a potential televote winner that could be 6th-10th no longer is. How the juries do treat this will of course be more dependent on any staging improvements but there is potential for around a 5th-7th place considering the usual inflations a song in the running generally receives and a few generous neighbours etc. In studio, this is not as objectionable as 'Cha Cha Cha' in my opinion but points are lost, again in current guise, for a lack of originality.
Prediction time and what to make of this? In current presentation this is around 6-7th in the final. The best case scenario of all issues being fixed is a televote win and chance at the victory should the maths oblige. Even with everything sorted, Ukraine would probably still see this off if not just place higher in the televote anyway. It’s a pity also from Croatia's point of view that the loose Balkan bloc is missing 5 members now from it's peak whose presence would have greatly benefited this. One to remain on the shortlist but some uncertainty thrown in.
Personal Rating: 9/10
Competitve Rating: 9/10
Early Prediction: Semi 1 1st-4th, 1st-5th in the final.