Croatian selection for Eurovision 2023, Dora will take place on 11th of February and ahead of it we had a chance to talk with one of the finalists, Tajana Belina who will be performing her entry “Dom”.

Hello Tajana, congrats for being selected to take part at Dora 2023! The Croatian audience got to know you through second season of The Voice Croatia, how did the show affect your life and how was that experience?
Thank you. The Voice of Croatia was an amazing experience. It pushed me as a singer and an artist, and brought into my life many wonderful people. I chose not to pursue a full time music career after the show ended, but remained focused on my “day job”. However, the Voice didi bring forth the opportunity to work on another extraordinary variety show produced by HRT, which is A strana. I was part of the show for two seasons, as long as my job permitted, and loved every minute of it.

What made you decide to take part at this year’s edition of Dora?
The main person I have to thank for this is Marcel Sprunkel, the author of the song. He is a great Eurovision fan and the person who nudged me to send in our song this year.

As a marketing specialist, journalist and a singer how is it for you to combine all of your passions? Any advice for other people who are trying to achieve the same?
Working in marketing, I am very much aware that having a great song and a great voice today is just part of the equation of being successful. It is equally important to promote your music and grow your audience. And this is a full time job. So, with my career and two bands I sing in, building my own social presence is a lot like the old saying “a cobbler always wears the worst shoes”.

You are a member of choir “Izvor” which you described as a family, can you share your experience, some memory or an anecdote of being a choir member?
Singing in the choir taught me the importance of creating music with other people, in harmony, and how to listen to other people creating music with me. I have the most precious memories of my time with Izvor, and have built life-long friendships there. A few years back, after 25 years with Izvor, I decided it was time to try something new, something else. It was not an easy decision to make, and I will always remember how we toured with Oliver Dragojević and Gibonni, biggest Croatian singers, how we made it to the finals in HRT’s competition “Last choir standing”, but also the feeling of Izvor being my family, sharing the good times and less good times together.

Can you tell us more about your entry “Dom” and what does it mean to you?
The original version of the song is written in English by Marcel Sprunkel. He wrote it during the pandemic. As we were bombarded with the message “Stay home”, he started thinking about what home is and that’s how the song came to be. Translating it to Croatian gave me the opportunity to make it more my own. To express what home means to me. And to me it means the place where I can be all of who I am, the good, the bad, the ugly, so to say. It is also the people who make me feel safe to be all of who I am, without the fear of being judged. That is home for me.

What can we expect from your performance? Any hints of it which you can share?
I cannot divulge much, as I want some things to be a surprise for the audience. I will do my best to show the audience more of who I am within those three minutes.

If you could chose a musician to record a duet with who would it be and which style of the song would the two of you perform?
I would have loved to sing on the same stage as Freddie Mercury. However, that is not a possibility. There is a band that I have been listening to in the past two years more than any other band. They are AnnenMayKantereit, a young rock band from Cologne. They started as street performers, and I believe this can be seen and heard in their performances. It would be a pleasure to make a duet with them.

Do you watch Eurovision regularly? Which song/performance is your favourite?
I used to watch Eurovision regularly as a child. And I imagined myself on that stage as a little girl. In the past 10-ish years, I guess life got in the way and Eurovision would go by without me noticing. I still remember songs like Hold me now by Johnny Logan and Wadde hadde dudde da by Stefan Raab.

What are your plans after Dora 2023?
I am not a person who makes plans. I much rather prefer seeing what life brings and doing my best in every situation.

Thank you so much for your time Tajana. We wish you the best of luck at Dora 2023.
Do you want to share something else or you maybe have a message for followers of escbubble?
I hope you enjoy the competition, and if you feel that you have connected with my performance and the song, please vote! 🙂

You can listen to “Dom” by Tajana Belina below:

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