1999 Jerusalem - Number 7 - Doris Dragović - "Marija Magdalena"
Another controversial one, and perhaps for more than one reason.
There is no denying that when it comes to qualifying for Eurovision Doris Dragović is spectacularly good. In 1986 she entered Jugovizija and went on to represent Yugoslavia in Norway. After that she had a very successful solo career in the former Yugoslavia, but was feted the most in her native Croatia and specifically Split, her home city.
In 1999 she gave it another shot, and entered Dora. She waltzed away with the crown, scoring ten maximums for the regional juries and winning the televote. Two attempts, two victories. Doris headed to Jerusalem with strong backing and a strong song.
Marija Magdelena is another religious song in a Eurovision year full of religious themes and allusions. This one is slightly more overt given the subject matter, although ultimately this a song about the devotion of a woman to a man using its theme to present a more earthly hankering. The verse builds with drama and strings until the chorus fulfils the longing that's been building with a simple, rich chanted name.
All of this worked. It came fourth in the results despite performing fourth in the running order. We saw last year how much of a disadvantage that could be with a full televote.
However was it legal? This was the year that backing tracks became compulsory and the orchestra vanished. But there were rules about what could be on those backing tracks, specifically all vocals had to be live and a Marija Magdelena had male voices supporting that dramatic chorus. There weren't any men on stage. Technical foul! Norway challenged and Croatia were docked 33% of their points, but only for the purposes of the calculating their future qualification score on the EBU's runic numerology tables.
Doris didn't care - she continued a successful music career, only briefly scoring perhaps more opprobrium by singing her most successful song to the new Montenegrin Prime Minister on their independence day in 2000. The football fans of Split were not happy and issued death threats.