Eurovision 2003 - Number 47 - Maja Blagdan - "Moje ime je ljubav"
2003 finds Maja Blagdan, relatively speaking, in the shadows of the Croatian music scene. After hitting the highest note in Eurovision history and taking Croatia to 4th place she had several years of fame and fortune before her star began to wane. What better way to try to turn that around then entering Dora again and giving it another go?
She's teamed up with song-writer Zrinko Tutić again, a prolific Dora song-writing entrant who she worked with before on her Eurovision entry in 1996. He also wrote all-time Eurovision classic Hajde Da Ludujemo for Tajči in 1990 as well as Yugoslavia's 1986 entry Željo Moja for Doris Dragović. This singer/song-writing partnership has pedigree.
Moje ime je ljubav (My Name is Love) is a song that revisits the past but detours through Asia along the way. There's that high note in the finale, just like in 1996, although Maja doesn't quite hit the heights she did in the past. The Asian flute motif crops up at the beginning and after the first chorus although that influence doesn't mesh with the rest of the song. I'm not sure what it's doing there.
Everything else is power-ballad-love-song-with-key-change. It may not quite be a Frankenstein-ed collage of Eurovision moments, not quite cookie cutter, copypasta - but it feels very familiar. It's pleasant and Maja does get to show off her vocal chops once, more. But it's definitely not anything new and that showed in the result. Although Maja made it through the semi-final, in the final she finished last. 12th place from the 12 finalists. Her schtick is a bit too old hat for Dora in 2003.
Maja's career revival would have to come from another source. And it did. A few years after this, she participated in Zvijezde pjevaju, a Croatian reality TV show that paired professional singers with famous celebs, sing duets and compete against other pairings. In the first season, Maja finished second (to another Eurovision alumnus...) and went on to compete three more times after that. Plus she hasn't given up on Dora quite yet. There may be more Maja to come.
