After his runner-up finish at Eurovision 2024, Croatia’s Baby Lasagna donated €50,000 he received from the Croatian government to various charities.
Baby Lasagna’s charitable efforts
At Saturday’s grand final of Eurovision 2024, Croatia achieved its best-ever result as an independent nation (2nd). Following this, the Croatian government gave Baby Lasagna 50,000 euros as a cash prize for his success at Eurovision. However, in a statement posted on his Instagram, he said that he did not feel like he could accept it. Instead, he called upon the Croatian government to donate half of that in his and the government’s name to the Mladen Zavepulic Hospital Pediatric Oncology and Hematology institute. He will donate the other 25,000 to the Institute of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Transplantation of Blood Cells KBC Zagreb.
Croatia’s Eurovision History
Croatia has been a part of the Eurovision family since 1961, as part of Yugoslavia. Ten Croatian artists went on to represent Yugoslavia in the Contest – the most famous of which being Riva, who gave Yugoslavia its only win in 1989. The 1990 Contest was held in Zagreb as a tribute to their Croatian heritage.
Croatia debuted in the Contest as an independent nation in 1993 with the band Put and their song “Don’t Ever Cry”. Since then, Croatia has gone on to score as high as 2nd place in 2024. For 2024, Croatia chose Baby Lasagna to represent the nation in Malmö with their song “Rim Tim Tagi Dim”. Performing in the first semi-final, Croatia qualified for the Grand Final, winning the semi-final in the process. In the Grand Final, Baby Lasagna finished in 2nd place, with a total of 547 points – 210 of which coming from juries, whilst another 337 came from the televote. This was the highest televoting score in the Grand Final of the 2024 contest.
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News Source: Baby Lasagna
Photo Credit: Corinne Cumming / EBU
Rory Gannon