Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999

Eurovision Song Contest 1999
Country	Croatia
National selection
Selection process	Dora 1999
Selection date(s)	7 March 1999
Selected entrant	Doris Dragović
Selected song	"Marija Magdalena"
Finals performance
Final result	4th, 118 points

Croatia competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999, held in Jerusalem, Israel. The Croatian entry for the contest was Doris Dragović with the song "Marija Magdalena".

The Croatian broadcater Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT) held a national final, Dora, to select the Croatian entry for the contest.

Dora 1999

The 1999 edition of Dora was held on 7 March at the HRT TV studios in Zagreb, hosted by Oliver Mlakar and Vlatka Pokos. 24 songs competed, with the winner decided by 21 juries, 20 regional juries and a 21st jury made up of televoting results.

The winner of the contest was Doris Dragović with "Marija Magdalena". Dragović had previously represented Croatia, then part of Yugoslavia, at the 1986 contest with the song "Željo moja".

Dora 1999 - 7 March, 1999

Draw	Artist	Song	Points	Place
1	Teens	"Miris ljubavi"	28	14
2	Kristina	"Da zora zna"	0	21
3	Alen Nižetić	"Samo ti"	23	16
4	Andy	"Samo nebo zna"	49	9
5	En Face	"Kad prestane kiša"	0	21
6	Giuliano	"Dobro mi došla ljubavi"	87	6
7	Josip Katalenić	"San"	106	4
8	Nikita	"Kraljica noći"	5	19
9	Magazin	"Kasno je"	105	5
10	Sanja Lukanović	"Jos jednom"	8	18
11	Turbo X	"Cijeli svijet je između nas"	0	21
12	Goran Karan	"Nisam te vrijedan"	122	3
13	Joy	"Uzalud"	11	17
14	Mandi	"Lako je reći zbogom"	2	20
15	Marina Tomašević	"Ja sam tvoja žena"	28	14
16	Đani Stipaničev	"Jos jedno jutro budi se"	38	12
17	Branka Bliznac	"Dajte ljubavi"	0	21
18	Zrinka	"Jednom u životu"	55	8
19	Zorana Šiljeg	"Nije te briga"	38	12
20	Renata Sabljak	"I kako sada ići dalje"	39	11
21	Doris Dragović	"Marija Magdalena"	207	1
22	Mladen Grdović	"Mama Marija"	74	7
23	Minea	"U ponoć pozvoni"	40	10
24	Petar Grašo	"Ljubav jedne žene"	153	2

At Eurovision

On the night of the contest Dragović performed 4th, following Spain and preceding the United Kingdom. The song received 118 points at the close of the voting, placing 4th of 23 countries competing. This was, and still is as of 2008, Croatia's joint-best placing at the contest, sharing with Croatia's 1996 entry, "Sveta ljubav" with Maja Blagdan.

After the contest, the European Broadcasting Union (BU), the organizers of the contest, were forced to reduce Croatia's score to 79 for the calculation of the country's five-year average score, used to relegate country's from the next contest. This was due to the use of synthesised male vocals on the backing track, which the EBU said broke the "spirit of the rule" in which no live vocals could be featured on backing tracks. However, overall, the original score remained the same.

See also

• Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest
• Eurovision Song Contest 1999

External links

• Croatian National Final 1999