What is Mama Šč! by Let 3 about? Find out the meaning of Croatia’s 2023 Eurovision entry 

This is an art protest performance, well thought in every detail, even Croatians didnt understand it at first , but after solving the puzzle that this performance is , i have to say its a masterpiece....lots and lots of hidden meaning , visual , music and in any other possible way.....its satire at its best.the first part of the music references the soviet greyness and hopless monotony, the next part its about chaos...and so on...wery well thought in every detail....

Trajna Nina Amargedonona = "Trajna Nina Nena" is a popular croatian lullaby for children, here is the part "Nena" changed with Amargedonona, alluding to an Armageddon lullaby. Pure genius by Let 3!

Even we - croats, who understand the language had hard time understanding the message and full meaning of this song. At the first hearing we all said what a rubish but after just few hearings we noticed that there is a huge twist! Members paid attention to every small detail - scene, cosplay, music, lights and lyrics. It is fckn masterpiece because you hate this song at first but you cannot not love it at the end! They are actually playing with our minds on provocative and satirical way and send strong message to stop this madness and war! And the rhytm is very catchy! "Some could compare this song with a bohemian rapsody or monthy pythons" The hidden message is #stopthewar - but on very satirical and provocative way. Let3 is "special" band They have more votes against them in croatia because of their provocative way of singing (they are always singing naked, with roses in their rearparts, rude words in their album's titles...funny thing is that they have been selling completely empty albums - and even sold 350 copies of empty cd :D or publishing only one copy of an album...so as you can see...not an ordinary bend at all). 1. In this song, tractor is a reference to Lukashenko's birthday present to Putin. Belarus is also manufacturing tractors. 2. Mama ŠČ is a metaphor for Mother Russia. ŠČ is a russian letter. 3. Putin is described as a "vile little psychopath". But Mother Russia or russians support him (mama loved a moron). 4. He is crying crocodile tears (boris johnson's words) for russian dead soldiers - meaning he doesnt care about them. Or it could be about russian drug called crocodile meaning that this psychopat is on drugs. 5. The vocalist represents Stalin, and the guy with rockets has NINLE on his forhead (wordplay:Nin-Le=Lenin). 6. The meaning of the lyrics is kinda obvious now: "Mama bought a tractor" "Mama (meaning Russia) loved a moron (meaning Putin)" "That little psychopath (W-w-war, war) Little, vicious psychopath (W-w-war, war) Crocodile psychopath (W-w-war, war) Mama, I'm going to war" All in all - this song is trolling Putin and russians but also asking for a world peace. 7. BUT what makes this song perfect is that it doesnt stop on lyrics...they have full performance! As you noticed they have cosplay like soldiers...at the beginning at "bohemian rapsody" part the vocal is turning around like a doll enjoying madness (putin) while his fellows are lying dead on the floor (his countrymans). Also the end with a roses in their bums sends powerfull message about peace, but again, on the only possible way for let3 - provocative way! After all, the thing i like the most about this song is that is jumps from the worst song ever to one of the most powerfull songs! And maybe it is just me but i love when someone tricks me this way :D #Stop.the.war! #hope.we.wont.see.another.bomb-drone.in.croatian.capital.after.this 😅

important fact - they didn't wrote this song for Eurovision competition, it is just part of their new album, and they come on the stage as 4 riders of apocalypse (Plague, Death, War, Famine) with fifth called HDZ (Croatian most dominant political party).They are founded in 1987. and from the beginning were very loud and explicit political and social criticis in Croatia. Almost as a proof (check point) that we really live in democratic society.

I am from Rijeka, Croatia, and are Let 3 fan for the last 20 years....so I can tell you that your explanation is really really accurate, awesome work!

Great job, now hopefully people will bump into this video to clear the air. I've seen so many people saying it's just chaos and no meaning, then few even saying it's transphobic... You did a great job on explaining how that is not the case.

Great analysis. As a Croat who understands lyrics, I would also like to provide an additional interpretation of the first two verses. So the first verse goes "Mama kupila traktora", and it actually doesn't literally decode to Lukashenko buying a tractor to Putin, but to Russia "buying"/bribing Belarus and establishing control over Belarus. That's because "kupila" translates to "she bought". Also, беларус (=Belarus) is the best selling model of tractor in Belarus, and this makes the parody more apparent. This interpretation is important for understanding the second verse "Armageddon nona", which is harder to understand. "Nona" in Croatian means grandmother. So if "mama" = Russia, then "nona" = "Soviet Union". This makes more sense if you consider that Russia "bought" Belarus, and has now transformed itself into new Soviet Union who wants to be an empire (armageddon nona). Finally the nonsensical spelling of alphabet letters in the middle of the song actually represents unification of (Soviet) states into new Soviet Union, which is now represented with a new symbol "ŠČ". Also "ŠČ" is parody of letter "Z" which you can now see on Russian tanks deployed in Ukraine. Despite being punk rockers, Let 3 are known in Croatia and ex-Yugoslav states for their unique punk rock style and deep symbolism. Their main member Mrle also writes texts for theatre plays, which is also worth pointing out. So the whole performance must be taken into account while interpreting it, because this isn't a song you can listen to on radio, but a mini opera that makes a parody of horrors of totalitarianism.

As an English speaker, the first time I heard this, the "shch" sounded like "sh*t". I got the war references, so I thought they were saying something like "I'm going to war...sh*t". Hilarious. From RU-vid comments I was able to understand the real meaning hidden in the song. Genius song, creative and surprisingly catchy. Happy it qualified for the final!!!

Let3 experience usually entails shock and confusion at first. Then comes research and realization there is truth behind their madness on stage. By that time you would have heard the song so much, you actually start to like the sound of it. And then in the end comes enjoyment in their art.

I love how open to interpretation the lyrics are. The guys from the band confirmed on TV that it is an anti-war song and the official art for the song really drives that home. I like a different tractor theory. Belarus is the biggest tractor exporter in the world (every 10th tractor is from Belarus) and their most famous model is caled "Belarus". So I think "mom bought tractor" means Russia bought Belarus.

Let 3 are from Rijeka, the most tolerant town in Croatia. It"s a rock opera song against the war.

Hello from the UK. Thanks for this. So interesting.

I liked the makup/style reference to Charlie Chaplin"s "Dictator"

Super objašnjenje cijele fame oko ove pjesme...✔️Idemo LET 3 ♥️💥👁️👁️🇭🇷🇪🇺

Konačno nešto kako treba na Euroviziji i od nas ! Dosta je bilo sladunjavih, uvlakačkih pjesmuljaka na engleskom da bi se nekome udvorili za sitne bodove ! Ajmooooooooooooo LET 3 !!!

Good job. Glad you made this for non Croatian speakers. It's a masterpiece that needs to be understood.

Thank you!!!! Now we Croats don't have to explain to everyone in comments what it is about.. and I've actually learned few new possible meanings of our song so great job 👍

This one is a winner, talks about everything what's goin' on in the world right now!!!

Dodala bih da je kritika militarizacije, jednoumlja, stvaranja kulta ličnosti i slijepog pokoravanja režimu (vidljivo u pokretima članova oko frontmana, svi se kreću istim pokretima i pozdravljaju). Vaša interpretacija je poprilično detaljna i dobra. Hvala.

Album "Nečuveno" which was just empty CD was sold in quite a lot of copies. It was great marketing trick played by Dallas records. If you buy one "Nečuveno" for free, as a gift you'll get "Bridges to Babylon " by Rolling Stones

Let 3 could have made literally any kind of song and they would win because they are legends and they rarely participate in competitions 😁

This days it is very rare and very nice to see on RU-vid someon educatead and well spoken. Very rare but nice. Congratulation.

This song, the meaning, and the last SC give me goosebumps

Very good reaction and interptetation! 🎉 an important factor in this song is that the group Let3 comes from the city of Rijeka, which is an important carnival city. The whole city lives and has a tradition related to the carnival, where it is very important that you have a tractor that can pull the parade float, the stronger the tractor, the bigger the float. I think that this detail also shows the Eurovision competition itself in a satirical way.. Also he is singing “trajna (permanent)Nina armagedon nona(granny)” “trajnanina” is phrase from folk songs, mostly lulabys..

Drugačiji, svoji, rokeri... Kreativni. Aktualna tema, avangardni promišljeni tekst i izričaj. Dosta je kazališna... nije sladunjava. Prava stvar u pravo vrijeme. Bravo!

This was excellent. I don't have any interpretations to add. The song itself is actually amazing to listen to without the accompanying show too. You notice many layers that are missed when you are distracted by the visuals, like the opera choir voices in the background singing cheerfully: "war, war, war", like it's a game and an adventure. Which reminds me, this wasn't written for ESC. It is part of their war opera. Makes even more sense when put into that context.

This video deserves to be widely viewed. What a well researched, thoughtful explanation.

Thank you for finding out and translating the lyrics. I now Love the song and performance even more. It is perfect. 12 points!!!

I'm from croatia and i wouldn't describe and explain it better! Great job! Everyone should see this, especially those who have never undestood and appriciate a band like Let 3. Excellent job!

I'm 100% certain that I'm not the first person to compare them to the Monty Pythons, but it is possible I was the first one to make that comparison on the first video. This song reminded me of a fantastic chapter from one of MP biographies. I think it was the "Lawyer's cut". They describe how one of the members had a criquette game on a Sunday, right after the show had been broadcast on Saturday evening for the first time. During the game, his friends kept coming back to him. The first comments were along the lines of "you know, I watched that thing you did last night... It was a bit weird". Then during the next break "now that I think about it, it was kind of funny", until it became "that was bloody brilliant" by the end of the game. This is the effect this song, and a few others by Let 3 had on me. Something surreal, tickling your imagination. But the "gag reflex" is also there, I see it on a lot of reflection videos. The infamous "triggering" that for one reason or another causes too much shock in some people and they can't forgive that, no matter everything else. And that's perfectly fine, because just like Pythons, Let3 doesn't look for anyone's approval to show the middle finger to bullies with rockets

Hvala vama...🇭🇷🇪🇺🙋

Thank you! Great job! Armagedon nona also refers to Russian general Surovikin who was known in Syria as general Armageddon.

It is an anti-war song. Anti Putin. The song refers to dictators in general, which are described as "little vile psychopath". Tractor is a reference to Lukashenko's birthday gift for Putin. The singer is portrayed as this big dictator, and the psycho guy represents Rasputin and has written LENIN on his forehead, just spelled backwards. Mother is a metaphor for mother Russia. Mother Russia groomed a Psychopath and ŠČ is a letter from the russian alphabet (Щ). It is all a satire, it's a multi layered song. The costumes represent how much Putin tries to ban LGBT in Russia

This performance hit me for a six, WOW, this has to win by a land slide

Hello from Croatia! Well done! Great job explaining this to the crowds! It is for me unbelievable that this song raised such an interest among people. Let 3 is out of this world. Thank you again and thanks to the UK also for a great show...

It is worth mentioning that their Album "Outrageous!" was originally titled Nečuveno, which can also be translated as "Unheard of!". Well... you guessed it, the CD was completely empty, bu the promotion of the empty CD was a spectacle.

Let 3 we love you!!Amazing as allwas!!GO CROATIA!!!

Short best description of what LET3 is for all of u non Cro people... Sacha Baron Cohen in punk version. Either u love it or hate it. ŠČ!!

Winner alert! Eurofans love politics intead of music. Браво, браво Хрватска!

Thank you so much! I'm from Croatia and I didn't known the meaning behind the lyrics and I can say that you really helped me💗 Btw you are actually really good talking Croatian!

Thank you .Loving Croatia Song it had me smiling now that i know what they are singing about its even better .Cheers.

I can imagine, that the chaotic part in the song represents armageddon itself. In the case of nuclear war, everything is destroyed in a few seconds. All of it. People, as well as all kind of art. In their performance, it is demonstrated with a mix of very different music styles accentuated with a Croatian alphabet and visualized through the fast rotation of very differet pictures. Strong message!

Croatia was for a long time under Austrian rule, we do have the phrase "Krokodilske suze"(Krokodilstranen), so you are spot on in interpreting that verse(in my opinion). I love the word-play of Let 3 since I was in high school, 30-ish years ago.

This is an amazing dissection and clarification of the song that has more layers than anyone can imagine!

So much effort put into analyzing a poem that is difficult to understand in a foreign language... Respect

From the first time that I watched the performance, I knew it had a strong protest message, and this video only made it even more clear. Thank you for explaining the lyrics!

His outfit is like from Charlie Chaplin movie, The great dictator.

I think this is a winner....Eurosong2023

Among a lot of internet musical 'gurus' you really did you homework! Respect! My two cents about choreography - why hands over eyes and mouth? Don't look, don't ask! Rings any bell? With Let 3 *everything* is well thought in advance! And why roses in their backs? As far as I remember in one of their interview a long time ago (I think, might be wrong) - everything is a fart except human life.

Great job, great analysis! Bravo! Excellent!!! Hvala❤

Just to add another layer. "Trajna nina" as a phrase means permanent or perpetual sleep. Trajna = permanent; ninati (as a verb) = to sleep (but in a baby talk), nina = she sleeps. Coupled with Armageddon... well, it's obvious.

You forgot metnion tekst on the missels. One missiel says NJINLE that you already explaind but on the other is "PAJČU" and if you rearangde letters it is ČUPAJ that woul be "PULL OUT" and oposite of that is PUT IN. Well, there you go :)

The best analysis of ŠČ song! Great job! One more thing! During the song they pronounce the whole Croatian alphabet. While hyper speed saying the whole alphabet, all group members fall down and have big convulsion! I think they would like to tell us that uneducated low IQ people have problem to spell whole alphabet!

Hi @eurovisionhistories, as a croatian native speaker, I really love your (up to the point & no BS) analysis of these rather Dadaistic lyrics! P.S. - Let 3 are an absolute professionals; doing a fantastic job for almost 30 years - conveying "simple" truths in a satirical and uttermost entertaining manner. Cheers

"mom bought a tractor" could be a reference to a song by "Шао Бао" band from late 90s There was a line "kupyla mama konyka, a konyk bez nogy" (mom bought a horse, that didn't have a leg)

Bravo for your perfect analysis of song ❤

GOOOOO CROATIAAA

Bravo

TRAJNA NINA is Croatian song to lulling children to sleep, it symbolizes state of mind before war. Armageddon is war that woke up Europe. Nona is granny on Croatian. Before Mama Russia was SSSR and little psycho tried to return Mama to SSSR. ŠČ are 24 and 5 letter from Croatian alphabet. 24+5=29. 29 letter of Croatian alphabet is Z.

The song is awesome.😍 Greetings from Ukraine 💛💙

This was awesome video! Thank you

Great explanation! Well done👏❤️🇭🇷

i just realised, in Croatia we say Car je Gol( Emperor is naked) as a phrase that we use to debunk some kind of false system, it sums up the whole opinion about a person or thing without unnecessary explanations ......so at the end of song they are naked!

4:45 The song says "krokodilski", not "krokodil". "Krokodilski" is an adjective which translates into "crocodilian". They only used it to imply size, like really big or massive.

Absolutely loved this performance, such an artistic and conceptual way to show a message. Thanks for your analysis, very helpful!

Thank you for breaking this down. I’m soo curious about their performance and I just wanted to learn about the band.

All well interpreted ! 👍 greetings from Croatia 🇭🇷😎

Thanks 💕

I would add the interpretation of the musical structure. It reflected the whole development of the current conflict. A childish repetition during the first part, until the first act of war: dissonants, people on the floor. Stronger continuation, more layers are added, the odd disturbance… i think it is very interesting as a work of art.

Wow mean, you did a great job... What an excellent elaboration end explanation.. Thanks for your effort.. The song is great, you need only to listen to it..

Great explanation... Greetings from Serbia!

Great analysis, you picked up a lot of the content meaning and artistic performance layers on offer by Let 3. BTW, Rijeka, home city of Let 3, is a birthplace of torpedo.

Well done, muss ich sagen. Selbst für Muttersprachler war hier einiges zu entdecken. Let 3 hat ein Meisterwerk geschaffen und Kroatien den Mut bewiesen so einen Song ins Rennen zu schicken. Spannend

Vielen dank for this video. Very enjoyable. 👍🇭🇷

Exelent analyisis 👍👏

Very good analysis, agree with you, thanks🙏 Hvala Vama😊

Hvala!

Wow 😮😮😮

I LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH ! EPICCC !!! ŠČ ! 😍🔥 btw. You did great job for all of those who saying , " WHAT IS THIS CROATIA " and they are not able to understand on their own ... this must be a WINNER !

Excellent explanation about song::)))))Niceeeee!!!!

Great interpretation. Being Polish I understood some 80% of the lyrics but you made me connect the dots. By the way, we also have crocodile tears in Polish so I expect the Croats have this idiom as as well.

i am sooo happy you made this video! You did your homework frrr keep it up!

Thank you! Let's hope we don't get disqualified 😅

Thank you VERY MUCH for great explanation

Thanks for this vid ;)

Congrats.. Best explanation ever.

Great job, thanks. What is funny about this performance: Let3 used Dora to promote their rock opera, and this song is part of it. They were not planning to win. Also, they are extreeeeemly unpredictable so we do not know what are they going to do there in ESC. Because they are artists first, i assume they are probably going to use it to show the world their art. It is going to be interesting 😁

Great explanation! Thank you! ŠČ👍🌹

The album "Nečuveno" ("Unheard of") was (sold) a blank CD.

great ! you get topic ! greetings from cro

Хорватія, - дяка, 🎶🇺🇦✈️

Id also add that it seems that the person on the screen behind is a drag queen named Jovanka Broz Titunka, named after Titos wife. She is known for her eccentric and wild performances so she might be there just for fun, but it also could be alluding to Titos and Stalins rocky relationship. Also if im not wrong on one rocket its written put out(again alluding to put/in)

Thank you. Now it makes sense.

Fantastic explanation but I would say you missed one not less important part, before he says 'Mama idem u rat' he also says 'Mama ja se idem igrat' meaning 'Mum I'm going to play'. Could be understood in many ways but actually brutal truth how someone is playing games with other people's lives...

great videos! thanks

Hvala, Danke ,👍😊👏

ŠČ❤️👍👍👍

Maybe people recognized well that the song is about Putin. We want to send a message to those who think that the planet is their toy and control everyone like puppets, and at this moment Putin pointed out a mannequin of that style, so it was our turn to dedicate a song to him", said Mrle from LET 3. This is an anti-war song

Bravo!!!

Thx and great job!