Riva was a Croatian pop band formed in

Zadar Zadar ( , ), historically known as Zara (from Venetian and Italian, ; see also other names), is the oldest continuously inhabited city in Croatia. It is situated on the Adriatic Sea, at the northwestern part of Ravni Kotari region. Zadar ...

in 1986. After forming in 1986, the band appeared on Zagrebfest 1988, Performing with the song "Zadnja Suza" ("Last Tear" in Croatian). Their song " Rock Me" won the

Eurovision Song Contest 1989 The Eurovision Song Contest 1989 was the 34th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, held on 6 May 1989 in the in Lausanne, Switzerland. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (TSR) on behalf of the Swiss Bro ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, with a score of 137 points. According to author John Kennedy O'Connor in ''The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History'', it was an unexpected win.O'Connor, John Kennedy The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 The band brought the first and only victory for Yugoslavia. The contest was then hosted in

Zagreb Zagreb ( ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, north of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the ...

, representing

Yugoslav Radio Television Yugoslav Radio Television (''Jugoslavenska radiotelevizija''/Југословенска радиотелевизија or ''Jugoslavenska radio-televizija''/Југословенска радио-телевизија; JRT/ЈРТ) was the national ...

. After the success, they released two subsequent albums, one titled after their winning track " Rock Me" (1989) and "Srce Laneta" ("''Deer Fawn's Heart"'' in Croatian) in 1990. Shortly after the success of both albums, the band signed to a Swiss Agency where they started production on their planned 3rd album titled "''Lude Glave, Lude Godine"'' (''"Crazy Heads, Crazy Years"'' in Croatian) with Per Gessle of popular pop rock duo

Roxette Roxette is a Swedish pop rock duo originally consisting of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle, both of whom were already established musicians in Sweden prior to the band's formation. Fredriksson had released a number of successful solo albums, ...

to be featured with whom they were supposed to be opening acts for on a world tour. Disagreements arose when the Swiss Agency misrepresented the validity of Croatia as a then recently independent country, opting for the band to remain as being from Yugoslavia for press purposes as well as the bands performances focusing on humanitarian issues in Croatia to help victims of the

Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place from 1991 to 2001 in what had been the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

. Feeling betrayed by the agency's portrayal of what was happening in their hometown at the time the members cut all ties with the agency, with frontwoman Emilija Kokić stating in a 2019 interview : ''"We come from Zadar, our families are huddled in basements because grenades of the Serbian army are falling on Zadar, and we would act like Yugoslavians How? That would be the biggest betrayal! They would become people to whom a career means more than anything".'' After the resignation, the planned album which was scheduled for release remained unreleased with only 3 songs from the album being available from their performance at the Croatian Eurovision preselection Dora in 1993. During 1991 the band decided to have a hiatus originally planned to be short, which ended up being the end of Riva as members focused on their own personal lives with only very few small reunions taking place between 1993 and 2016.

Personnel

* Emilija Kokić – vocals * Dalibor Musap – vocals, keyboards, establisher and leader of the group RIVA * Nenad Nakić – vocals, bass * Zvonimir Zrilić – guitars, vocals * Boško Colić – drums

Citations

External links

Dalibor Musap's official website (establisher and leader of the group RIVA)

Emilija Kokić's official website
Eurovision Song Contest winners Croatian pop music groups Croatian rock music groups Musical groups established in 1986 Musical groups disestablished in 1991 Yugoslav musical groups {{Croatia-stub