We’re into the top 30 of the rankings countdowns, and somewhat appropriately given guilty pleasures are often a feature of being a Eurovision fan, we have a song entitled “Guilty Pleasure” and brought to us by Mia Dimšić from Croatia who won the Croatian national selection to earn her place at the contest. Croatia has not had a great qualification record of late, can Mia turn their fortunes around?

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Mia was a somewhat surprise winner of Dora 2022, the Croatian national selection and I have to say wasn’t on mine or other fan’s radars prior to that national final. Yet she won that final decisvely, winning both the jury vote and the public vote by a clear margin. She’s not an unknown, having been in the music business since 2014 and she’s had chart topping singles (including “Guilty Pleasure”) and albums in the Croatian charts. So maybe we should have seen the win coming!

Her genres (as listed by Wikipedia) are pop, country pop and folk pop and in “Guilty Pleasure” (of which she is a cowriter) we have a pleasant pop song that has some country influences (and in particular likened to Taylor Swift’s songs, someone who Mia has said is one of her musical influences). It’s a likeable and sweet song – definitely in the “cute” category and has some earworms within it.

My ranking for this is more a reflection of fact there are many songs I enjoy this year, and I can’t say there’s much about “Guilty Pleasure” I dislike. I think my criticism, which I think is also what may hurt its chances, is that while very pleasant, it doesn’t stand out particularly. That, as we know, is crucial at Eurovision. Mia has said the staging will be changing for the contest from what we saw at the national final, but it will really need to enhance the song and make its sweetness stand out in order for it to qualify.

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Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest