Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Croatia
Member station	HRT
National selection events	Dora
Appearances
Appearances	19
First appearance	1993
Best result	4th: 1996, 1999
Worst result	SF 16th: 2007
External links
HRT page on Dora
Croatia's page at Eurovision.tv

Boris Novković at Kiev (2005)

Kraljevi ulice and 75 cents at Belgrade (2008)

Feminnem at Oslo (2010)

Croatia has participated at the Eurovision Song Contest 18 times, participating every year since their debut in 1993. Together with Sweden and Malta, and the 5 countries that are for financial reasons entitled to take part every year, Croatia is one of the few countries that has not missed a contest since 1993, when the lowest scorers each year got relegated. It is also only one of two countries, along with Spain (excluding recent debut countries) that has not missed a participation since their debut.

The Croatian representative in the Eurovision Song Contest is selected at the pop festival called Dora, an annual event organized by the national public broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT).

History of Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest

Croatia had previously been represented at Eurovision between 1961 and 1991 in the form of Yugoslavia. Croatia was the most successful republic of Yugoslavia at Eurovision, with 13 of the 26 Yugoslav entries being Croatian, and Yugoslavia's only winner, Riva with "Rock Me" in 1989, being Croatian. The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was held in Zagreb as a result.

After the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991, Croatia took part as an independent nation for the first time in 1993. The Croatian national public broadcaster, Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT), had organised a festival to select a Croatian representative for the 1992 Contest. Had HRT 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".^[1]

Croatia's first entry was in 1993. The country was represented by the band Put, with the song "Don't Ever Cry" which was, despite the English title, performed in Croatian. The song came third in the "Qualification for Millstreet", thus enabling the participation in the contest. Croatia's best position, as of 2010, has been 4th, having achieved this position in 1996, when Maja Blagdan represented Croatia with "Sveta ljubav", and in 1999, when Doris Dragović sang "Marija Magdalena".

Famous Croatian singer Tereza Kesovija represented Monaco at the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 and the famous Croatian group Feminnem represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with "Call me".

In 2000s, Croatia has only once qualified in the top 10, in 2002. Croatia has failed to qualify in recent contests, most notably in 2007 with Dado Topić, which is also the worst Croatian result on the ESC, but also in 2010 and 2011.

Contestants

For contestants prior to 1992, see Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Year	Artist	Title	Final	Points	Semi	Points
1993	Put	"Don't Ever Cry"	15	33	X	X
1994	Tony Cetinski	"Nek' ti bude ljubav sva"	16	27	X	X
1995	Magazin & Lidija	"Nostalgija"	6	91	X	X
1996	Maja Blagdan	"Sveta ljubav"	4	98	X	X
1997	E.N.I.	"Probudi me"	17	24	X	X
1998	Danijela	"Neka mi ne svane"	5	131	X	X
1999	Doris Dragović	"Marija Magdalena"	4	118	X	X
2000	Goran Karan	"Kad zaspu anđeli"	9	70	X	X
2001	Vanna	"Strings of My Heart"	10	42	X	X
2002	Vesna Pisarović	"Everything I Want"	11	44	X	X
2003	Claudia Beni	"Više nisam tvoja"	15	29	X	X
2004	Ivan Mikulić	"You Are The Only One"	12	50	9	72
2005	Boris Novković feat. Lado	"Vukovi umiru sami"	11	115	4	169
2006	Severina	"Moja štikla"	12	56	X	X
2007	Dragonfly feat. Dado Topić	"Vjerujem u ljubav"	X	X	16	54
2008	Kraljevi ulice & 75 Cents	"Romanca"	21	44	3	112
2009	Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea	"Lijepa Tena"	18	45	*13	33
2010	Feminnem	"Lako je sve"	X	X	13	33
2011	Daria	"Celebrate"	X	X	15	41
2012

• In 2009, Croatia qualified through the back-up jury selection.

Voting history (1993-2011)

Croatia has given the most points to...

Rank	Country	Points
1	Bosnia and Herzegovina	134
2	Malta	82
3	Slovenia	64
=	United Kingdom	64
5	Macedonia	49

Croatia has received the most points from...

Rank	Country	Points
1	Slovenia	105
2	Bosnia and Herzegovina	101
3	Malta	62
4	Macedonia	56
5	Turkey	50

NOTE: The totals in the above tables include only points awarded in Eurovision finals, and not the semi-finals since 2004.

Hosting

Year	Location	Venue	Presenter
1990*	Zagreb	Koncertna dvorana Vatroslav Lisinski, Zagreb, SR Croatia, SFRY	Helga Vlahović and Oliver Mlakar

*As Socialist Republic of Croatia (Yugoslavia)

Commentators

Year(s)	Commentators
1961-1964*	Gordana Bonetti
1965-1969*	Mladen Delić
1970-1989	Oliver Mlakar
1990-1991*	Branko Uvodić
1993-2000	Aleksandar "Aco" Kostadinov
2001-2002	Ante Batinović
2003	Danijela Trbović
2004-2005	Aleksandar "Aco" Kostadinov
2006-current	Duško Čurlić

*Competed as Yugoslavia between 1961 and 1991

References

1. ^ Croatian Contest for the Eurovision Song Contest - Grand Prix '92

External links

• "Dora" - Croatian ESC Pre-selection
• Points to and from Croatia eurovisioncovers.co.uk
• Povijest Dore (Croatian)