Sadly, Crotian Directioners didn’t get a chance to enter the Take Me To 1D competition but they hope that they will be able to enter other competitions in the future. Superfan Petra Styles created a great video for YouTube, which sums up how Croatian fans like herself feel. The text accompanying the images she has chosen reads:
‘Dear One Direction, you are more than just “that boy band”. You’re more than just “five hot guys”, you’re more than “the boys who almost won a TV music competition”, you’re more than what people think you are, you’re a big inspiration, a motivation and a dedication, in you, we see what people don’t see, we see talent, courage, power and hope. In you we see the most beautiful unbreakable friendship, you’re proof that dreams do come true. You make us realise that even if you are just a small town person you can become that big time sensation. You make us cry, laugh and, most importantly, you make us realise that it is okay to be yourself.’
At the end of Petra’s video are photographs of Croatian fans asking 1D to visit their country.
Gabriela is 15 and from Zagreb. She says, ‘There are 40,000 Directioners in Croatia. In June 2011 Liam noticed Croatia and tweeted “LP loves Croatia”. That was the beginning of everything. Since “What Makes You Beautiful” and their album Up All Night came out, their popularity has just grown and grown. Up All Night became number one, but the boys didn’t visit Croatia. The media started reporting One Direction news every day, on TV, radio, magazines. I think Croatian Directioners are different to Directioners in other countries; our specialty is that we’re crazy and creative. There are also lots of boy and adult fans.
‘Our biggest dream is to have a chance to hear and see them live and thank them for everything. It’s impossible to not know about them. They’re everywhere here in Croatia. All the people know how much we tried to bring 1D here and they say that they’re proud of us. It’s nice to be a Croatian Directioner because we’re full of power, love, faith and hope. We hope that one day we will be so happy that our biggest dreams will come true.’
Gabriela and her friend Asja run the Official 1D Street Team (follow them on Twitter @1DTeamCRO). They have held many 1D events. In April 2012, they made a big Bring 1D To Croatia video. It had almost 20,000 views and appeared on all major Croatian sites, on TV, on the news and on the Croatian celebrity programme Exkluziv Tabloid!
And that wasn’t all. In July 2012 they organised a 1D summer fan meeting and two months later they organised a BIG 1D fan meeting and a 1D flash mob. This was shown on TV and the boys themselves got to see it. At Christmas they organised another fan meeting, which was shown on TV.
Gabriela is so proud of Croatian Directioners and the work they have done to try and get Liam, Louis, Niall, Zayn and Harry to visit them. She is proud of the boys too because to get Up All Night and Take Me Home to number one is a huge achievement as ‘it’s hard to be number one here’. She thinks, ‘if they ever came here, their concert would be the biggest ever!’