Croatian love songs: big feelings, plain words

A Croatian love song is built to be sung back. It is the song a whole table knows by the second chorus, the one that comes on in the car and somehow turns the volume up by itself. The feelings are big and the words are plain, and that combination is much harder to write than it looks.

This is a short guide for listeners who are new to it, and for anyone who wants to write one.

Where it comes from

Two traditions meet in the modern Croatian ballad. The first is the sea. Along the Dalmatian coast, klapa groups sing in close harmony without instruments, a tradition UNESCO lists as intangible cultural heritage, and its long, shared vowels still echo in the way Croatian choruses are written: melodies made for many voices at once.

The second is the pop song. What Croatians call zabavna glazba, literally “entertainment music”, grew up around song festivals and big, memorable choruses. Its great voices set the standard listeners still measure ballads against: Oliver Dragojević’s Dalmatian warmth, Gibonni’s songwriting, and Toše Proeski, the Macedonian singer whose ballads are loved across the region.

Today’s songs keep that craft and change the sound around it: piano and strings next to modern drums, a closer, more intimate vocal, and production that would sit comfortably on any international pop playlist.

What makes one hit

• A plea or a promise, said to “you”. The strongest titles are things you would say to someone’s face: “Oprosti” (forgive me), “Obećaj mi” (promise me), “Ne puštaj mi ruku” (don’t let go of my hand). There is no irony and no distance. The chorus says the feeling and means it.
• Rhymes that ring. Croatian words often end in open vowels, so a good rhyme rings out on the long note. NENO Lone’s “Lažem ti lijepo” builds its whole hook on one: “Lažem ti lijepo, / a ti vjeruješ slijepo” (I lie to you beautifully, / and you believe me blindly).
• Small, real things. Keys left on a table, a car horn under a window, hair held up with a pencil. The big feeling sits on a detail anyone could photograph. In “Čekam te dolje” (I’m waiting for you downstairs), the whole romance is a man waiting in the car downstairs, sounding the horn for two words, “and you know which ones”.
• A chorus that climbs. The verses stay low and close; the chorus opens up and goes higher, usually on a line you can sing in one breath.

Words you will hear again and again

• ljubav: love
• ljubavi: my love, the way you call to someone
• volim te: I love you
• oprosti: forgive me, or I’m sorry
• obećaj mi: promise me
• ne puštaj mi ruku: don’t let go of my hand
• najljepša si: you are the most beautiful
• poljubi me: kiss me
• nisam te prebolio: I’m not over you

Where to start on Vibnelo

NENO Lone writes Croatian love songs for grown-ups: promises, apologies and the quiet moments in between. Start with “Oprosti što te volim” (Forgive me for loving you), a love kept at a distance “the way you love the sea in winter”; “Da te zaslužim” (To deserve you), a vow to lead her to the altar one day; and “Ne puštaj mi ruku”. Every hook below plays with its words lighting up as they are sung, so you can follow along even if you don’t speak Croatian yet.

On Vibnelo, hooks in Croatian compete in the Balkan League together with Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Macedonian and Slovenian songs, the way the region shares its charts.

Writing one

• Write the title as something you would say to the person directly, and put it on the longest note of the chorus.
• Keep lines between eight and twelve syllables, and rhyme on the stressed syllable, by sound.
• Give every line one real object, place or time.
• Let the verse stay small so the chorus can open up.
• Test it on strangers before you release it. Nine tips for a chorus people remember and how to find the hook in your song go deeper.

Filed under Love songs, Songwriting, Music discovery