Interview with Devin, Competing at Croatia’s Dora 2026 with “Over Me”

ES: You started your career as a dancer and reached the final of a Croatian talent show as a teenager ten years ago. After studying at the Institute for Contemporary Theatre in Brighton, you showed all your talent in the show “Your Face Sounds Familiar”. You are acting in several theater plays. Besides, you are the contestant of this year’s Dora. But who is Devin? In which of these areas do you feel at home artistically?

Devin: Artistically, the most defining thing about me is that I’m a storyteller. I’ve always been in love with fairy tales and the aspect of dragging people into my world, or any world, as a matter of fact. For me, the ability to tell a story has always defined me the most. Everything that I did, everything that I do today, usually revolves around a narrative: main character, side character, villain — it’s always a bigger picture. Artistically speaking, that’s why it’s so hard for me to create music that isn’t centered around a topic. It’s easier for me to write a song like “Over Me” than a simple pop song, because I don’t think that way — I think in a narrative-driven manner. Everything that builds me artistically would be a heavy background in theater, dance, imitation, and music with a national focus on folklore. As long as there’s a story to be told — that’s where Devin is.

ES: Describe your Dora 2026 song “Over me”, the song you wrote and produced. Your mother is to “blame” for you applying to Dora?

Devin: Yes, my mother was the reason why I even got a chance to send my song. Dora is a very difficult topic for a lot of artists here in Croatia: it’s the biggest opportunity you can get, but it’s also a chance for you to get rejected professionally, so it’s always scary to send your song. I told myself: the next song I send has to be the one that goes through, because if I send a song I am not happy with, I’m making a compromise. When my mother asked if I wanted to go on Dora, I said, “Ok, I can try to make the best song, I can”, and that’s when thinking about “Over Me” started.

The song is about a social issue — what I call the problem of today. It feels like we are very much isolated in our own world. The song is about how we, as individuals, can be better for our community — create a better atmosphere around ourselves. When I had the topic and the sound, I said, “Okay, I have the song — let’s go to Dora”.

This is a victory for my mother as much as for me. She’s been my biggest support since I started dancing, let alone making music. So, to be able to tell her, “Listen, all the years of you believing in me paid off”, for now, the first step is there, it’s just a blessing.

ES: This song is so different from your Eurovision 2021 experience in Rotterdam with Albina, where you performed as part of Croatia’s team — now it’s a deep rock ballad. The video has Frankenstein- and Dracula-esque energy. Is this style closer to you?

Devin: Absolutely. This is where I feel at home. It has to have a story. Sound-wise, I’ve always been more intense. I love pop music — I was raised on it — but what made me fall in love with music were artists like David Bowie and Queen in terms of rock and theatricality.

In the future, my sound will be centered on something operatic, which has choirs, guitars, but I’m also very electronic. That hasn’t been showcased in my past work, but in the future, I have a few demos that lean more toward an electronic, heavier sound. So it’s very much how I am feeling in that very moment. But it’s also very true to me because I’ve never wanted to be one thing, a one-trick pony. I’ve always been more into what I am in general than what I am in that very moment. This might be the vampire phase, but tomorrow you might get something completely different.

ES: You always pay attention to the first impression; you like the theatricality that, for example, David Bowie had. So, what can we expect on the stage of Dora?

D: My performance is definitely going to be the reflection of the music video. What we set up for the video was very limited, and we didn’t have much time to prepare everything. But I had an idea, and that is just everything that “Over me” is gonna represent in my career. From “Over me” onwards, this is a braver, bolder approach to music that I’m gonna have, and a storyline that I intend on building from that point onwards. The storyline that’s gonna also be transitioned onto the Dora stage. So Devin, as a musical artist right now, is a persona who has a story that people are eventually gonna find out, and they’re gonna understand what I’m singing about. But not yet. So that’s gonna take a little more time; it’s not given to you immediately, it’s more like the more you wait, the more you follow, the more you’ll understand what I’m trying to convey. The video holds so many beautiful moments that I said, “You know what, we already have a staging, it’s right there”.

ES: We heard that blue color will be important in your performance?

D: It’s more like royal blue, which I associate with strength and royalty. The idea is that I am a general, a prince, a holder of something higher, that I really want to build in a storyline. Because I’ve always been all black, black is my natural color, I decided to step away from my private self and go into something that’s more out there. Let me try to put myself in a position where something different needs to happen around me, so I can internally change everything I perceive when it comes to music.

ES: You are performing on Dora on Friday the 13th! Is everything ready? Are you superstitious?

D: I actually didn’t realize it’s Friday the 13th! My grandma is Italian, and Italians are superstitious as hell. My girlfriend would not allow me to wear purple on TV. If I had a bad dream, I’m not supposed to say it out loud before noon. So, she is super superstitious! And then, when I saw Friday the 13th, I was like: omg, here we go, like something’s gonna fall on stage, someone’s gonna fall into the fire. If we survive, that’s gonna be the victory.

ES: If you win, who will you dedicate your victory to?

D: One person that I would have to thank the most would definitely be my mother, and my entire family, including my girlfriend. My mother has seen me develop as an artist since I was 12, when I started dancing. She had a lot of “balls” to let me be who I am. For a single mother in 2012, letting her son dance was brave because she knew it would lead to many problems for me. I faced bullying, harassment, and discrimination; it was always difficult for me to fit in. And no matter how hard everything seemed, my mother never told me not to be myself. She always said: “Be you, be who Devin is!” She put me in a position where, at no point in my life, have I felt like I couldn’t be completely myself in this world. I realized only later in my life how rare that is. Not everyone has that support.

And later, in 2020, when I was really establishing myself as a dancer (I had already done Eurovision, which was a huge step for my career), I turned to her and said, “I wanna focus on music now. I wanna become a singer”. I’ve never done music before. She went pale, but at the same time, she said: “You’ve been right before, you are right again. Go!” So everything that makes Devin – Devin, goes back to my mother. For me, victory on Dora would not be my victory; it will be hers.

ES: Do you have a favorite at Dora this year?

Devin: Me — of course. Myself. (laughs) But honestly, I think Dora this year is the strongest it’s ever been: dynamic, different styles, genres, performers. People forget it’s not all about the song — it’s about who sings it and how. I think this year will be stronger than 2021. This is Dora’s year.

ES: Do you think that after Baby Lasagna, more artists are attracted to Dora?

Devin: Of course. I actually think Dora developed after Albina — that was the moment the Croatian audience realized we have artists who love the music we love. Then, Mia and Let 3 were already famous locally. But Baby Lasagna in 2024 reignited everyone’s passion: to go from first reserve to winner to second place at Eurovision — wow! I call it the “Justin Bieber effect”: from the small town to the world stage — impossible, and yet it still happens.

Winning a national selection is one thing, but winning the European selection can be almost a curse. With Måneskin, they went worldwide — amazing — but then everything you do after has to meet a standard. It’s like you’re not allowed to mess up. You need to ride the wave. If I won Eurovision, I’d go into panic: “I need to go home and sleep”. (laughs) In this job, you have to be ready for the best and the worst at the same time. The nerves are the first thing to go. It’s important to know when to shut up. (laughs)

ES: How does it feel for an artist to be in this competition system? Art is not a competition. Many participants later go to a psychologist or therapy — it’s really hard. Are you ready for this?

Devin: Oh my God, that’s the curse of the contest! For me, everyone should just be in the final — one night, everyone gives their everything. The semi-final is the hardest part. It was incredible to be a part of it. The worst thing was not the fact that we didn’t go through — it was knowing that I won’t be able to perform with Albina on that big stage again. When I realized that was the last time we did the song and I got to dance “Tick-Tock”… it was so weird.

When I started making music in Zagreb in 2020, I asked a producer, “Should we try Dora?” She told me, “No, because Dora is the place where young artists go to die”. Meaning they do Dora and then stop making music. And I understand why.

Art will never be a competition. The beauty of everything in life is that you have a favorite thing, and it’s the best thing to you. And that’s the only thing that matters. But when you put wonderful artists with such creative careers and ideas into a points system, people start thinking: “If someone prefers someone else, my art is less valuable”. That’s so damaging.

It’s hard to send a song to Dora because you put so much love and effort into it. Then you see the audience cheering for someone else, and you start doubting yourself. You stop enjoying your work. That’s the eternal question: why do we focus on the negative instead of focusing on the positive?

When “Over Me” was released, I got an overwhelming amount of love. So many new people discovered my music, and I’m growing a fan base. But whenever something negative happens, I focus on it too much. I have to remind myself to appreciate the people who love it — for someone, this is their new favorite song. I’m mentally prepared to give myself a slap if I start spiraling into something that is not important.

And I’d tell every new artist: at university in Brighton, they told us, “Comparison is the thief of joy”. You try so much, and you compare yourself, and you are not happy. I will never be Freddie Mercury, Michael Jackson, Damiano… I will be Devin. And I want to be Devin for the rest of my life. So, as soon as you realize your best is the only thing that matters, you start enjoying the process.

Even if I win Dora, I’ll give everything I have — and people will still say “you could have done this or that”. But after it all fades, you still have to get out of bed and make more music. If you stop, you failed.

ES: You have participated in the show “Your Face Sounds Familiar”, where you impersonated some local and world-famous stars, including several Eurovision stars such as Angelina Mango, Marco Mengoni, Elena Tsagrinou, and Damiano from Måneskin. How was it, especially impersonating women?

Devin: It was a really challenging part of the show. People told me, “Don’t stress, you can’t really do women’s songs properly, so make it funny”. I thought that was disrespectful. Why would I go on stage and sing, for example, Cher, and make it a joke? These are wonderful artists who, objectively, face a much harder path in the industry just because of their gender. They went through so many challenges, especially back in the 80s and 90s, and you want me to make a fool of them on stage just because I am a man and I can’t do the show? So for me, the female singers were a special tribute; I really tried harder with them. When it comes to the Eurovision acts, Angelina Mango broke me! “La noia” is such a difficult song; I was sick that day, and I was going on stage shaking.

I think my favorite Eurovision song I had to perform, aside from Marco Mengoni “Due vite”, was “El Diablo”. That piece is so powerful, the dancers, visuals. I had these beautiful girls dancing with me; I was in heels, and I felt like I was all over the place. But you know what, from being in the audience at Eurovision and seeing that song performed live, to having to do it, I almost got to make the connection from that stage to the other. I was like: Wow! This woman had to do this in front of the whole world! Wow! This is heavy! I loved it!

“Your Face Sounds Familiar” is, just like Eurovision and Dora, a tv show. It’s not based on the audience in front of you, unfortunately, but it is more centered toward the cameras. I gained a lot of experience, almost mapping out my performance. I think I’ll be drawing on that experience and transitioning it to Dora because it’s a “blessing in disguise”; you have to get used to not performing for the people in front of you, but for the people behind the little screen.

ES: With all these projects and talents you have, where do you see yourself in the future? Which direction do you want your career to go?

D: I see myself always and forever in music as my anchor point. I’m not a musician from the start; I started making music on my own five years ago. I still have so much to learn, but I feel it in my soul. It’s what gives me confirmation that I am doing what I was meant to do. I love theater, I love acting, I love television, I would love to be a journalist… There are so many things that I love to do, but as soon as I try to think of myself in another career full-time, it always shuts down because my soul literally belongs on stage. Singing is where I see myself career-wise in the future, and hopefully, I really want to bridge Europe and North America. I have Canadian roots, so I definitely want to go over and try my career over there. I feel like I know what I wanna do and I know how I’ll get to it, but I wanna bridge it, I wanna do it here and there at the same time because, the hell, it’s 2026, we can do whatever we want!

ES: Are you a Eurovision fan?

Devin: Absolutely! I’m a big Eurovision fan. But I’m not a part of fan communities because it’s very difficult for me as an artist to follow anything music-related in a way that’s not from a musician’s perspective. I envy the fans who aren’t in the music industry, because they just get to see the final product. I am overthinking everything (rehearsals, writing), and it almost takes away the magic of the art. It’s more technical in my head. I’m a fan of the artistry, but I prefer to watch it the last week before Eurovision. Then I really get into it; before that, I keep it casual so it doesn’t take over my life. I would say I am a loyal Eurovision fan to the point that I hope I’m gonna represent my country, that’s it.

I didn’t realize in 2020 how much of a community Eurovision was. I always thought people just watch Eurovision in their own countries, and maybe the national selection. When I realized people from outside watch Dora, Sanremo, everything — I thought: “Wow, this is huge!”

ES: Who are your Eurovision favorites?

Devin: Måneskin’s “Zitti e buoni” is close to my heart. 2021 was an incredible year — I can listen to the whole playlist and remember how each song made me feel. It was such a year for music in general. It’s like the year that, since 2020, didn’t happen, gave everyone extra motivation, and everyone delivered. Also, Conchita: “Rise Like a Phoenix”, Rasmussen: “Higher Ground”, Mahmood: “Soldi”, Mahmood & Blanco: “Brividi”, Marco Mengoni… in general, Italy always. I love Eurovision because it makes me feel human, a lover of music. A lover of what the music makes me feel, that would be the best description.

ES: Do you have a message for Eurovision fans?

Devin: To the Eurovision fans who are following Dora and me: thank you so much for your time and attention. In today’s world, it’s very difficult to share something with someone; it’s even more difficult to get their time, so thank you for giving me a moment of your day and for following me.

To those who don’t know me: I’m really just super dedicated to everything I do. If I had a choice, I would die on a stage — perform till the last day.

So I promise you that I’ll give my absolute everything and try to deliver the most powerful performance of “Over Me” in front of the entire European audience. Hopefully, you’ll see me in Vienna — and after Vienna, hopefully somewhere else in the world.

Thank you for being part of this wonderful community, and for all the support — in my name and in the name of all the artists at Dora 2026.

Thank you, Devin. And thank you for your sincerity. We wish you a lot of love. Good luck with your dreams. Because, for those who believe their dreams can come true, only the sky is the limit. And the sky is blue. Royal blue…

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