We’ve had almost four weeks to familiarise ourselves with the 14 finalists (and four reserve acts) of Croatia’s Dora 2021.
So while we count down to the days until the iconic national final on 13 February, we want to know which of the artists you are most excited for. Yes, the songs are yet to be released but that hasnât stopped us from checking out the vast back catalogues of all the competitors.
Who are you most excited for?
Dora 2021: Notable Names
Of course, the name on everyone’s lips is Nina KraljiÄ. The The Voice winner represented Croatia at Eurovision 2016 with “Lighthouse”. She was an early favourite with the bookies and successfully took Croatia back to the final for the first time since 2009. However, the entry stalled during the Saturday night show, finishing 23rd. Since then she’s released her debut album Samo and a slew of singles.
Eurovision fans from the 1990s should also recognise Tony Cetinski. The veteran crooner finished 16th with “Nek’ ti bude ljubav sva” in 1994. He remains a big name in the Balkans and even released a duet with Zeljko Joksimovic in 2014. He’s teamed up with Kiki Rahimovski for Dora 2021.
Dora 2020 runner-up Mia NegovetiÄ is also in the running. The then 17-year-old tied with Damir KedĆŸo for first place. However, despite topping the jury vote, Mia’s “When It Comes To You” lost out by less than 300 votes with the public. Linnea Deb is one of the songwriters on “She’s Like A Dream”. Deb has co-written many national final and Eurovision favourites, including Sweden’s 2015 winner “Heroes”.
Nina won’t be the only The Voice alum in contention for the Dora crown. Both Filip Rudan and Albina competed on season three of the Croation edition of the singing show. They finished second and third respectively. Albina’s entry for Dora 2021 — “Tick-Tock” — is co-written by Max Cinamon, a finalist in France’s 2018 selection Destination Eurovision.
Speaking of notable songwriters, Dora 2019’s Bernarda BrunoviÄ is back with a song co-written by Borislav Milanov. “Colors” is rumoured to have previously been considered for internal selections in Bulgaria and Malta. Bernarda was also a co-writer on Destiny’s “All Of My Love” (Malta 2020).
Unlike most other national selections, Dora also has a reserve list. In the event that a shortlisted act has to withdraw, one of the back-ups will take their place. And even this list has names to watch. “Megaloman” was written by Eurovision 2017 singer Jacques Houdek. The attached performer is ENDI â one of Rokoâs angels at Eurovision 2019.
Or maybe you’re excited for someone else entirely! Vote in our poll and then let us know who you’re backing in the comments. The poll will close just before the competing songs are released.
Poll: Which Dora 2021 act are you the most excited for?
[crowdsignal poll=10705680]Who did you vote for? Let us know below.
Mia Negovetic, Filip Rudan, Nina Kralji?, Bernarda and Albina my top 5. l think be good songs.
Well, everyone knows here how I feel about ENDI (except maybe the man himself). But ignoring my long-time crush, Filip, Albina and Nina are all very strong artists that should do well. I have never before been able to directly tune into Dora, so assuming that the transmission is available, this might be my very first time viewing it properly.
Artists seem good…. all depends on the songs. Looking forward to it. Want Croatia to do well ??
As a Croatian, I think that Mia, Albina and Filip will be the best.
wiwi please do something so these fraud votes stop
filip, endi, jacques and cambi all shared this poll on their insta story and facebook so only their followers are voting for them. I am actually ashamed as a Croat that we have to go through this every year đ it all started with jacques and spamming my friend on polls, then with roko and we all know how our image DROPPED drastically because of that… it hurts to watch us get hated on by the esc community every year.
The real top 4 are Nina, Albina, Mia and Bernarda
How are these fraud votes if they shared this on their insta story? What’s so “fraudulent” about it? Albina also shared it. It’s completely legitimate way of mobilising your fans to vote for you. It seems to me some people are willing to push their agenda and personal motives to create some kind of narrative here. On which basis are real top 4 Nina, Albina, Mia and Bernarda? “Real top” ? You’re funny. I am not saying these results are valid, but boy there are some bitter people here.
Current leader of the poll won’t even perform at Dora unless 2 acts give up by the end of the month which is very unlikely. Sorry, but you can’t deny that title – “Endi is the act you are most excited for” will be ridiculous in a few weeks…
Yes, for sure it is ridiculous, I agree, but EuroNeeuro implying that those are fraud votes is wrong because everyone has right to engage their fans to vote for them. Moreover, I struggle to understand why he/she is saying that Filip is a part of that fraud and that the “REAL” top 4 are Nina, Albina, Mia and Bernarda (whatever his “real” means), when looking him up I see that he’s currently by far the most popular from this list and for sure there are many people waiting for his song. I understand and actually agree that it’s surprising that… Read more »
Mia looks and sounds like she has real potential but she’s stuck with a lot of the same songwriters that she had last year. So, she’s probably getting another song that wasn’t good enough for this year’s Melfest again.
Also, I saw the name of Jacques Houdek right alongside “Megaloman” (…iac) and chuckled. đ
I follow Filip’s career since his amazing performances in the Voice the year before. This kid is crazy talented and sings in English like he was born for it. STAR QUALITY.
Judging by the poll results, the decision not to put Houdek’s new project into the main 14 acts is the best decision HRT ever made. Otherwise we would have the same horror scenario like in 2019. Maybe even worse. Sorry, not sorry.
This would be also my 1st DORA ever too, since last year songs were kinda interesting (Mia, Elis, Indira…) and “Divlji vjetre” was growing on me during the contest cancellation.
Trying to discover some new names, I’m just curious about Brigita Vuco. She comes from a folk music background and a title such as “Drunk nights” sounds promising.
The 2nd name to mention would be Ella Oreskovic. Being so well connected, and bringing some international authors to DORA, I’d expect some effect like “When it comes to you” last year. Hope she’ll deliver.
Brigita’s style is supposedly trap mixed with turbofolk…Also, this will be Ella’s first bigger public performance, so I don’t expect much from her, even though she lived in Canada so she might bring more international sound.
Do you know when ENDI gets turned on?
In the main photo above, he is on the top row in the right-side corner.
ENDI. Heâs so beautiful. đ
I just watched an interview with Filip Rudan (made before they announced the finalists), where he said that he follows ESC since 2012 and that he’s a fan, which is great to know. He also said that if he would apply for Dora (which we now know that he did), he’d sing in English and he’d likely go for a mid-tempo song (which remains to be discovered). In any case, he is a really likable guy, I hope that his song is good and I wish him all the best. đ
A week earlier we will hear one minute of each. As the finals is set to be on the 13th of February, I guess we can expect these longer snippets around the 7th.
I voted for Filipe because his voice is Incredibly beautiful
Not Jacques’ trolls spamming on the poll again. :'( Glad they are alive and well though….
I would say Nina because of her nice performance at Eurovision, she deserved better!
Bernarda has that beautiful jamala kind of voice. Very soulful, so I hope her song slams.
For me, Mia and Bernarda are the standouts.
MĂa had a fresh song last year who could have battled for a good position at ESC, plus, we have a ‘Heroes’ composer behind this.
And Bernarda, well, it’s a Borislav song
Nina K đ
Nina Kraljic my number one next Albina and Mia Negovetic
This year’s Dora will be amazing! level of excitement:
the way that I thought that was Emily blunt in the top row second from left
You are so right.
Mia Negovetic. I loved “When it Comes to You” and was gutted how harrow it came to winning Dora last year, hopefully “She’s Like a Dream” is equally good or even better! Been 20 years since Croatia last finished Top 10, that drought has to end this year or asap.
Also, Croatian HoD Ursula Tolj revealed that they are going to release a 1 minute of each song a week before the show!
Better than nothing, I guess. A minute still is a lot more than those dire 15 second snippets which were released a day or two before the show. However, this is just a step forward, still without going the needed distance. When will HoDs see that releasing the songs early helps with hyping people, as well as getting preliminary constructive comments. It (kinda) works for Melodifestivalen, but they have six weeks to run that hype. Dora is only one evening. Oh, well… still an upgrade. đ
Well, they have a majoritary croatian audience who doesn’t wait until the songs get released to hear them all, so this time ‘building hype’ would work less. Just as Eurovision, the majority who watches it don’t take the time to listen to songs. With Melfest is different, as the audience of it tends to be more arranged to the show
I often hear this argument, but the majority wouldn’t be searching for those songs online anyway and their first impression would still be the one on the night of the festival. Fans would be thrilled to hear the songs earlier and that is the perfect way to get some feedback. In any case, almost all national finals see the importance of an international feedback.
Definitely Nina Kraljic. She will have an ethno/film music type of song. Also, yesterday she revealed on instastory that she will be joined by pole dancers on the stage. That should be interesting.
Other than her, favourites will probably be Albina, Filip, Mia and Bernarda.