Rendezvous | Bojan Cvjetićanin

Part 1: welcome to Barcelona

"In a couple of minutes, we will get to know who is going to represent Croatia at this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool."

I was sitting with my team in the green room, waiting for the results of the televote. There were only two songs left - another and mine fellow artist's. Right now, I was third even though before, in the jury voting, I ended up, to my surprise, first. I was losing hope with each second.

"Ana, from the televote, you got...41 points," said the host. I looked at the points table and saw that I fell to 4th place. I felt sadness creeping over me, as in my mind, I started telling myself that there is no way now I could win.

"Now." The host clapped his hands together. "The last but not least - Y/N. You, with your song Rendezvous, from the televote...have received..."

I felt as if all of the air had left my lungs. I was holding my best friend's hand as tightly as I could.

"A hundred and seventy-four points, making you the winner of the National Final for Eurovision 2023!"

I froze. Everyone was standing up and clapping. I felt my friend hugging me. Then it started to hit.

I won.

"Y/N, you are the one who is going to represent Croatia at this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool!"

I'm going to Eurovision.

From then on, the rest of the evening was just a blur.

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I woke up from my alarm ringing. I rolled over groaning. I turned off the alarm and saw what time it was. 6 am.

Today I have a busy day in front of me. Not only do I have to go to some interviews but also I have a flight to Barcelona, where the first Eurovision party of this year is going to be held.

Ever since I won the National Final and was announced as the representative of Croatia at Eurovision, my life has flipped completely. I have been counting the days ever since until the second semi-final. To this day, I can't believe I'm actually going to Liverpool.

I thoroughly checked my suitcases one more time before zipping them up and getting ready.

After a couple of hours of going to interviews and other Eurovision-related activities, I was finally sitting in an airport with my team waiting for my flight. My best friend grabbed her camera and started filming me.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

I laughed, "Nervous and excited at the same time. Is this for the documentary series?" She nodded. "I really can't wait to see others perform. I have a goal to listen to all of the other participants' songs while on the plane and decide which song I would want to cover for Eurovision's "A Little Bit More" segment this year. So yeah," I smiled into the camera.

Lana let down the camera and said, "Perfect."

"What about you? How are you feeling?" I asked her.

"Excited too, and I'm very honoured that you decided to bring me along."

"Well, of course. It would be weird not to have you around for such an important life event. I probably would go crazy without you with the schedule that I have."

"Definitely," she said, and we both laughed.

Pretty soon, both of us were sitting on the plane, headphones in, listening to all of the Eurovision songs of this year.

"Wait, what's this song called?" I asked Lena. She looked at her phone.

"Caaarr...pe Diem? I don't know if I pronounced that right, but it's Slovenia's song. Joker Out is the band's name."

"I like it," I smiled. "I think I'll have to add it to my potential cover playlist."

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It was our second day in Barcelona. Yesterday when we arrived, we were tired. After relaxing a bit, we decided to go explore the beautiful city and eat some dinner at one of the Spanish restaurants in the city.

"We have arrived at the venue," said my manager David.

I quickly got out of the car and headed inside with the crew. The venue was pretty big and empty because we were there for rehearsals. We went backstage to prepare for the rehearsal. While walking through the corridors to go to the stage, I was hearing a familiar song playing on stage.

"Is that the Slovenian song we talked about on the plane?" I asked Lena.

"I'm pretty sure, yes," she said with excitement.

We got backstage, and I peered to see who was on the stage. I saw a band fooling around while the stage crew was checking technical stuff.

"Okay, are you guys ready?" somebody said through the microphone.

The music started playing, and the lead singer started singing. His voice was charming. Lena started dancing behind me and tugged on my hand. I started dancing too. When I looked back at the stage, the lead singer guy was staring right back at me smiling, while singing. I felt embarrassed, so I looked away to look at Lena. She giggled, and I hit her arm with my fist.

"That's a cute boy," she wiggled her eyebrows up and down.

"Shh," I frowned at her.

The boy band finished their song and thanked the crew.

"Y/N, you're up next," said one of the stage managers.

"Hi," he said and smiled as he passed me while he was stepping off the stage.

I slightly smiled, "Hi."

I felt my heart racing, but I had to calm down and focus on my performance. After I rehearsed my song a couple of times and everything was good to go for the performance in the evening, we went to the hotel to get ready for Barcelona's Eurovision party's blue carpet.

While getting ready, I couldn't get the boy band's song out of my head so I ended up listening to it on repeat. I was surprised that, by the time I was ready, I knew most of the song's words.

"Hey, Lena?"

"Yeah?"

"What if I actually cover Carpe Diem?" I turned to look at her. She smirked at me.

"Yeah, go for it. Maybe the Joker Out guys will like that."

"Hey, I like the song itself. I'm not trying to get their attention," I said kind of pissed off at Lena as she raised her hands in the air defensively.

We got to the blue carpet. As I walked down it, cameras were flashing. I posed for some pictures and gave some interviews before heading inside the venue and going straight backstage. There was a small area where I saw most of the artists gathering and talking with each other. A fact about the Barcelona party is that only 13 artists, including me, are here out of the 37 this year. I think it's a good thing. I'll get to interact with the artists more individually.

"Hey, Y/N!" someone shouted.