Croatia's Franka gave a powerful first rehearsal on stage

30 April 2018 at 13:05 CEST

Franka from Croatia performed 'Crazy' in 2018 Photo: EBU / Andres Putting

Moments ago, Franka showed a strong first performance of her song 'Crazy' on the Eurovision stage. She will represent her country in the first Semi-Final.

Franka was born on June 7, 1992 in Rijeka, Croatia. In February, the Croatian national broadcaster HRT announced that singer and songwriter Franka Batelić, better known as Franka, will represent Croatia at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest with the song Crazy.

Franka is very excited about her participation in Eurovision: "When I was two years old, I was standing in front of our TV set, holding a remote control instead of a microphone, singing the lyrics of Tony Cetinski's, Nek' ti bude ljubav sva from Eurovision 1994. That girl never stopped dreaming and now the dream is coming true! I would like to thank the Croatian Radio and Television for their invitation and expressing their confidence in me. My team and I are aware of the responsibilities that participating in Eurovision brings, we are ready for the challenge and we will do our very best to represent Croatia in the best possible way."

READ MORE: Franka's participant profile.

Her performance starts with white light and we see Franka in close-up, wearing a sparkling black gala dress. Only a few seconds into the song, the stage lights turn into numerous colours, from red to purple and from pink to yellow.

We see Franka on stage by herself without dancers or backing vocals, and she delivered a surprisingly powerful performance, even flirting with the camera a little.

Eurovision.tv caught up with Franka after her first rehearsal and she said with a smile that she was very happy with it: “I felt really great. I am super excited and super nervous at the same time, but in general I’m very satisfied with it.”

During Franka’s rehearsal, the Eurovision.tv team noticed some tears on Franka’s face, and though we thought they might have been from the wind machine, Franka admitted getting a bit emotional on stage: “Yes, there were tears. It was everything all together, I got emotional for many different reasons.”

Franka will take to the stage again on Thursday, 3rd of May, for her second rehearsal. Croatia takes part in the first Semi-Final of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest on the 8th of May.