In the last month or two, everyone has spoken out about the phenomenon of tractors, morons and moms šč.

Thanks to this year’s Eurovision, many have heard about Let 3 for the first time, many have listened to some of their earlier hits for the first time, and there are also those, mostly Rijeka residents, who are relatively calmly observing the events – because if anything is expected from Flight 3, this mega show is expected.

 

Both on the Dora stage, and on all the accompanying channels, and with all the accompanying props, but also in Liverpool – if the rules of the Eurovision Song Contest do not castrate their spirit. Because that’s Let 3. For decades. Provocative on stage, smart in serious conversations, fun over coffee and beer.

Personally, what I liked the most in all this fuss was how our guys managed to unite all the far-right in Croatia and the region in their misunderstanding of the grotesque and metaphor. They were unanimously and unsuccessfully attacked by Serbian and Croatian nationalists, conservatives of all regions and uptight puritans. Those who often look at each other “through the crosshairs” have now found a common enemy in Flight 3.

I don’t know if I find it funny or utterly pointless, but in any case – I find it very interesting and fun.

I met Letovci in person about twenty years ago. Before that, I knew who they were and what they played, but I wasn’t a faithful consumer of their discography. When they released “Outrageous” and made “Babin kurac”, I was surprised like some who are still surprised today.

And then I met them, I don’t remember exactly what year, but I remember the impression – unexpectedly normal and smart guys. Artists, performers, musicians who know that without an attractive gig, you can hardly be noticed.

We communicated occasionally, and in certain periods often, mainly when they had performances in Rijeka or when we, as the City, got involved and supported certain actions and projects that they undertook and initiated. I enjoyed most of their concerts in Rijeka, but also outside of Rijeka, of which I especially remember those in Korčula and Lastovo.

Let 3 is in a specific way part of Rijeka’s identity, even though it has long surpassed Rijeka. Damir Martinović – Mrle and Zoran Prodanović – Prlja are the heart of the band, an impulse of courage and deviation from the expected, but it is unlikely that without the other guys from the band they would have been able to do everything they have done so far. First of all, I mean albums that are among the top quality of Croatian discography.

But in fact, I am the least professional and competent to talk about music. However, I can speak of the fascination with the ideas they occasionally presented to me, of the breadth of their views, of the fact that these are indeed artists and performers who have indebted Rijeka because, by presenting themselves on stage, they largely represent the overall freedom and creativity of this city, the lasting potential of Rijeka.

As a mayor, I was sharply criticized by some when I decided to help Mrle and Prlja solve the housing issue and assigned a city apartment for rent. Let’s be clear, I didn’t do it just for them, because many other artists and respected citizens of Rijeka also rented the city apartment.

But given the specific expression of their work, there were those who did not approve of my decision at all. Ancient days. Both Mrle and Prlja have so far justified their position as deserving citizens of Rijeka and respected members of the Rijeka cultural scene many times over.

Somewhere in the meantime, in the second half of the 2000s, after the initial initiative of Simon Dejhalla, a group was formed that gathered people around the Harter Festival. Mrle was among them, but not only him, but also many others.

I will not talk about the organizational problems that accompany each festival and the interrelations of the organizers, because in the broader picture it was several years of awakening the former industrial complex and vividly showing what that space could be. The audience was numerous, super satisfied, and a lot was written and talked about Hartera. Unfortunately, as a City, we have never been able to really arrange this space in terms of infrastructure, but the festival initiative was more than inspiring.

Ten years after the album “Jedina”, and ten years back from this moment, I accepted Ivan Šarar, a former member of Leta 3, one of the organizers of Hartera and the initiator of many other pioneering cultural and social projects in Rijeka, as the head of culture.

He rolled up his sleeves, looked widely, and initiated, and for the most part completed, the construction of the Benčić art district, gathered a team for the preparation of Rijeka’s candidacy for the European Capital of Culture and led us to that title.

The opening of the ECoC on February 1, 2020, in which many participants participated in the organization, and in the audience over 30,000 people, and which was hosted by Prlja on the central stage in the port of Rijeka, was a moment of enormous pride in Rijeka.

– Let’s go, Rijeka, let’s go grinders, we’re busy… – shouted Prlja and filled us with Rijeka’s energy of pride and defiance that was embodied in the “Opera Industriale”.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 very quickly, in less than a month, disrupted absolutely all plans related to the year of the European Capital of Culture in Rijeka. But those are also ancient days. By now, I hope, we have at least partially come out of that coronary PTSD, from the virus that broke our newly spread wings.

And here we are in 2023. The river flows calmly, and Let 3 rides again, this time on a tractor and with his mother šč, puts Rijeka in the focus of Croatia, but also of Europe. The shifted three-minute performance is different from anything we have seen on Dora. But the very idea and decision to apply and perform at Dora – is the new internal madness of Letovci.

I don’t know if they really hoped for Liverpool or if the victory at Dora surprised them, but in any case, the votes of the audience and TV centers, in a symbolic way, show that there is a chance for openness and freedom in the mainstream population.

And that’s good. On many levels it is good, for several reasons it is good. An anti-military song with guys in crazy costumes and heeled shoes, with a carnival arrival in the Opatija hall, with projectiles on stage, with Prlja’s striking vocals… If they hadn’t won, I would have been worried. This way, my heart is in place. As a citizen of Rijeka.

And for all of you who are reading this, I will reveal something else for the end. There is an energetic song on the album “Bombardiranje Srbije i Čačak” – “Kurcem u čelo”. And there are anecdotes about a decent lady from Opatija who, listening to the song and watching the video, was convinced that the lyrics read – Sun in the forehead. I was extremely fond of that story and I borrowed the title of my column from it.

A postcard from Croatia will soon be filmed for the Liverpool Eurovision Song Contest, this time traveling from Rijeka. Thanks to Leto 3 for that.

Endure the preparations, don’t give up, and have a good time in Liverpool, guys, and for me, no matter how it ends, you’ve already won!