Croatia In The Eurovision Song Contest

Their entry has since 1993, excluding from 2012 to 2018, been selected at the Dora festival, an event organised by the national public broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT). Croatia's best result in the contest is a fourth-place finish in 1996 and 1999.

Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest
Participating broadcaster	Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT)
Participation summary
Appearances	28 (19 finals)
First appearance	1993
Highest placement	4th: 1996, 1999
Participation history 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
External links
HRT page
Croatia's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024

Croatia achieved six top ten results in seven years, with Magazin and Lidija sixth (1995), Maja Blagdan fourth (1996), former Magazin member Danijela Martinović fifth (1998), Doris Dragović (who was 11th for Yugoslavia in 1986) fourth (1999), Goran Karan ninth (2000), and Vanna tenth (2001). Since then, Croatia has failed to reach the top ten.

Croatia failed to reach the final for four years in succession (2010–2013), before choosing to not participate in 2014 and 2015. Croatia returned and reached the final in both 2016 and 2017, before again failing to reach the final for four consecutive contests (2018–2022). This non-qualification streak was broken in 2023, when Croatia advanced to the final. In total, Croatia has failed to reach the final in 9 of the last 14 contests it has entered.

Ten representatives of Yugoslavia came from Croatia in 1963, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1990. Apart from being the most successful Yugoslav republic in the contest, it gave the socialist republic its only win, "Rock Me", sung by Riva in 1989 in Lausanne. The 1990 contest was held in Zagreb as a result.

1990s

After the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991, the Croatian national public broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT) had organised Crovizija, a festival to select a Croatian representative for the 1992 contest. If HRT had been a member of the EBU in time for the contest, the first Croatian entry at Eurovision would have been the band Magazin with "Aleluja".^{[citation needed]}

In February 1993, HRT organised HTF - Hrvatski televizijski festival (Croatian television festival), which was to select the country's debut entry as an independent state for the 1993 contest. The band Put won performing the song "Don't Ever Cry" which was, despite the English title, also partially performed in Croatian. The song came third in the Kvalifikacija za Millstreet pre-selection event, which allowed their participation in the 1993 contest. HTF was also held in 1994 for the 1994 contest, until being renamed to Dora in 1995, the name which is still to this day used for the Croatian pre-selection event. The new name for the contest was inspired by the Croatian composer Dora Pejačević. Croatia's best placing to date has been with Maja Blagdan's 1996 entry "Sveta ljubav" and Doris Dragović's 1999 entry "Marija Magdalena", both of which came in fourth place.^{[citation needed]}

Along with Cyprus, Malta, Norway, Portugal and Sweden, Croatia was never relegated in the 1990s, and, unlike Cyprus, Norway and Portugal, it was never relegated in the beginning of the 21st century. Relegation meant that the country would have to sit out the subsequent contest due to poor placement.

2000s

Croatia continued selecting its participants through Dora for the entirety of the decade. After Vanna's song "Strings of my Heart" finished 10th at the 2001 contest, the country has not achieved a Top 10 placement in any subsequent editions of Eurovision. The 2007 edition of the contest saw Croatia failing to qualify for the finals for the first time ever. The country qualified for the finals again at the 2008 and 2009 contests, achieving their lowest placements at the time, placing 21st and 18th respectively.

2010s

Both 2010 and 2011 Dora winners, Feminnem and Daria Kinzer respectively, failed to quality for the finals at the 2010 and 2011 contests. In 2012, Dora was cancelled, and for the first time ever since the country's debut in 1993, no pre-selection contest was held. An internal selection was made by HRT instead, with Nina Badrić and Klapa s Mora selected to represent Croatia at the 2012 and 2013 contests respectively. Both entries ultimately continued Croatia's non-qualification streak.

HRT announced on 19 September 2013 that they would not participate in the 2014 contest, citing the financial difficulties, as well as a string of poor results between 2010 and 2013 influencing their decision to take a year's break. The last time Croatia qualified for the grand final at the time was in 2009. Croatia would not return to the contest in 2015, and on 5 May 2015, HRT announced that it wouldn't broadcast the 2015 contest either. It was the first time since 1992 for HRT to not broadcast the contest.

On 26 November 2015, it was announced that Croatia would return to the contest in 2016. It was also reported that the entry would possibly be the winner of the first season of The Voice – Najljepši glas Hrvatske. Nina Kraljić won The Voice and was selected to represent Croatia with the internally selected song "Lighthouse". The entry qualified for the final, making it the first time Croatia had made it to the final since 2009. After the successful return in 2016, Croatian national broadcaster HRT confirmed on 17 September 2016 that they would also participate in 2017. Jacques Houdek, the coach of Nina Kraljić in The Voice, was internally selected to represent the country on 17 February 2017, exactly five months after they confirmed the participation. Franka Batelić was internally selected to represent the country at the 2018 contest.

On 30 October 2018, it was announced by HRT that the national final, Dora, would return in 2019, traditionally taking place in Opatija, a famous summer resort. Roko won the first renewed edition of Dora with "The Dream", ultimately failing to qualify for the finals at the 2019 contest.

2020s

In March 2021, it was confirmed that HRT and Opatija had signed a three-year long contract regarding the organization of HRT Music Days and Dora, meaning both of these events were held in the city annually until 2024. Damir Kedžo won the 2020 edition of Dora with "Divlji vjetre", but did not represent Croatia due to the 2020 contest's cancellation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Albina and Mia Dimšić won the subsequent Dora editions, both failing to qualify for the finals at the 2021 and 2022 contests. Let 3 won Dora in 2023 and went on to secure the country's first finale qualification since 2017, ultimately finishing 13th. The following year's 2024 edition of Dora was held in Zagreb through two semi-final shows on 22 and 23 February, and the final show on 25 February 2024. Baby Lasagna won with "Rim Tim Tagi Dim" and is set to represent Croatia at the 2024 contest.

Prior to Yugoslavia's dissolution, artists from the Croatian federal unit represented Yugoslavia in 1963, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1990.

Barbara Dex Award

Year	Performer	Host city	Ref.
2016	Nina Kraljić	Stockholm

Conductors

Heads of delegation

The public broadcaster of each participating country in the Eurovision Song Contest assigns a head of delegation as the EBU's contact person and the leader of their delegation at the event. The delegation, whose size can greatly vary, includes a head of press, the contestants, songwriters, composers and backing vocalists, among others.

Commentators and spokespersons

For the show's broadcast on HRT, various commentators have provided commentary on the contest in the Croatian language. At the Eurovision Song Contest after all points are calculated, the presenters of the show call upon each voting country to invite each respective spokesperson to announce the results of their vote on-screen.

From 1961 until 1991, Croatia competed as part of Yugoslavia and broadcast the contest with Croatian commentary during its span of participation.

•  
  Dragonfly feat. Dado Topić in Helsinki (2007)
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  Kraljevi ulice & 75 Cents in Belgrade (2008)
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  Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea in Moscow (2009)
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  Feminnem in Oslo (2010)
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  Nina Badrić in Baku (2012)
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  Klapa s Mora in Malmö (2013)
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  Nina Kraljić in Stockholm (2016)
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  Jacques Houdek in Kyiv (2017)
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  Franka in Lisbon (2018)
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  Roko in Tel Aviv (2019)
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  Albina in Rotterdam (2021)
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  Mia Dimšić in Turin (2022)
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  Let 3 in Liverpool (2023)

• Croatia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
• Croatia in the Eurovision Young Musicians

Notes