The 14 competing acts for Dora 2021 were released back in December. Now, Croatia’s HRT has published the running order for the grand final.
And it’s set to be bookended by two Eurovision legends — Nina Kraljić and Tony Cetinski.
Kraljić will open the show under a new moniker Alkonost of Balkan. She, of course, 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. She’ll open the show with “Rijeka”.
Meanwhile, Tony Cetinski & Kiki Rahimovski will sing “Zapjevaj, sloboda je!” from spot number 14, closing the night’s proceedings. Eurovision fans from the 1990s should recognise Cetinski.The veteran crooner finished 16th with “Nek’ ti bude ljubav sva” in 1994.
Elsewhere in the running order, the much talked-about The Voice alums Filip Rudan and Albina can be found at seventh and 13th respectively. Last year’s runner-up Mia Negovetić will sing 12th while Bernarda Brunović will perform the Borislav Milanov-penned “Colors” fourth. Cambi — the act which is currently second in our Dora poll — are ninth.
In 2020, Damir Kedžo won the competition from the final position. He had been tied with Mia who performed one spot earlier. The televote broke the deadlock.
Speaking to eurosong.hr, Uršula Tolj — Croatia’s Head of Delegation — says that the running order is producer-led. “When composing it, one had to take into account the complexity of individual performances, the rhythm of each song, the language and some special television requirements. In general, we believe that the order has been carefully arranged and will meet the television rhythm and rules”.
Dora 2021 running order
- Nina Kraljić (Alkonost of Balkan) “Rijeka”
- Eric Vidović “Reci mi”
- Ella Orešković “Come This Way”
- Bernarda Brunović “Colors”
- Sandi Cenov “Kriv”
- ToMa “Ocean of Love”
- Filip Rudan “Blind”
- Beta Sudar “Ma zamisli”
- Cambi “Zaljubljen”
- Ashley Colburn & Bojan Jambrošić “Share The Love”
- Brigita Vuco “Noći pijane”
- Mia Negovetić “She’s Like a Dream”
- Albina Grčić “Tick-Tock”
- Tony Cetinski & Kiki Rahimovski “Zapjevaj, sloboda je!”
Dora 2021 hosts
The hosts for the 13 February competition have also been revealed. The all-female presenting line-up consists of Daniela Trbović, Barbara Kolar, Jelena Lešić and Doris Pinčić. This will be Barabara’s first time hosting the Eurovision selection show. She previously worked for HRT on Dancing With the Stars. Jelena and Doris co-hosted the contest last year, whilst Daniela had the gig in 2009.
“This year we decided to rely on female leadership forces, because this Dora will be special in many ways, due to epidemiological conditions, so let it be remembered by women as well,” said Ursula Tolj.
Hope my country choose smart I really hope Filip Rudan represent us
Someone with a bland song is going to win unfortunately, seeing how things went on the last two Doras. But maybe this year they choose a good one. Crossing my fingers for Nina!!
verb: INFORMAL
be positioned at the end or on either side of (something).
“the narrative is bookended by a pair of incisive essays”
I am also on the Filip bandwagon. His voice gives me chills. Tony Cetinski is a joke. Lets see if the new song is really worse than his 94 entry
Filip has potential to be croatia’s own Duncan Laurence <3
but when is it held?
Why do I get the feeling that Cetinski’s song is about corona-pandemic and resistance to restrictions? The title is very “loving your country, loving your freedom type. And he is last. Is it telling?
he already confirmed it is exactly that
It possibly is and, sadly, it wouldn’t surprise me. I love my country, but lately the loudest voices on the portals express sentiments of anti-masker, anti-vaxxer and anti-restrictions variety. They are often not soft-spoken or nuanced. Whenever a Covid-related article pops, the first or second most used emoji on Facebook will be a ”smiley”, even if the article writes about dead and hospitalized people. People are calling out government conspiracies and either denying that Covid exists or that it’s *that* dangerous (”They died with Covid, not because of it and the government is lying”). What is also interesting is that… Read more »
his own family dislikes him, and ignores him basically
Croatia and Norway needs to realise that they are both in second half of 1 semi and so far, there are all girls almost (with 2 groups – Belgium, Ukraine) so if they will thinking clever they will choose boys or groups 🙂
if i was COMPETING and was a woman and had the best song. Then i would be angry if people not voted for me JUST because of that haha. I dont think anyone should think gender voting. I never do
Think of it like this: If both fuego and replay had competed in the same year in the same semi final surely one of the two would receive more votes (probably fuego) while the other (replay) would have a hard time qualifying because the group of people who is into that kind of song already voted for the better one of the two.
Sure, but we are talking about two *very similar* songs, not just two uptempo numbers sung by women. In theory, some gender balance is needed, but in practice, there have been years in which more of my favorite songs have been sung by women (2002 and 2013, for example) or men (2004 and 2019, for example). Of course, those years have their exceptions, but they do tend to gravitate more on one side.
Yes, it was just an example how this kind of thing could have influence 🙂 I really don’t care if croatia sends a male or female.
I agree that similar styles sometimes indeed can take votes one from another. Hence, I would perhaps advice that last among national selections to pick have that in mind. If they have two equally strong songs, maybe the one whose genre is less represented among the existing slot could be prioritized. However, there are exceptions here as well. In 2008, three uptempo female-sung numbers about seduction, ended-up as 2nd, 3rd and 4th. I don’t know would that happen today, though. Maybe…
I agree with u, the best song should win and gender doesnt matter but still, my point was to look already to semi finals 🙂 its not attack or something but just my advice.
Lets see the song first.
In 2018 were 9 girls i think in one semi …not all of them qualified, just few of them …
“In 2018 were 9 girls i think in one semi …not all of them qualified, just few of them …”
That’s how qualification works for everyone, regardless of gender. Not everyone makes it.
The Croatian Delegation really hates Nina don’t they
Not only the delegaton but the broadcaster and composers in general because in 2016 she went against all of them and received huge amount of backlash for taking the song of foreign composers and not domestic.
Roko won from the 11th position and Damir from the 16th, with runner-ups being 14th and 15th, respectively. While the current situation does seem to favor later spots, I don’t think that Dora’s revival has been around for long enough to have a clear pattern. So, Nina as an opener still has a huge chance of winning it, as does Filip from the 7th spot. Still, this indicates that HRT probably has Albina and / or Mia as predicted hit-makers. Dark horses are Bernarda (but only if the song is actually really good, because general Croatian public wouldn’t give 2… Read more »
It’s a nickname Nina has been using of recently, but it’s not a name I was familiar with until searching for it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alkonost
Apparently, it’s a mythological bird-woman.
a varied list and many of my favorite artists are here, but the most I would like Nina Kraljic to win is because I can see how committed she is to Dora and Eurovision we need an ethnic song in Croatian so I keep my fingers crossed for Nina Kraljic .
There are already 5 girls in ESC in second half of 1 semi …i don’t think it would be great send girls from Croatia or Norway as well
I dont see why gender should matter at all but ok
Its not much about gender, but i don’t think ALL gilrs from second part of semi will make it to the final, and 1 semi looks strong 🙂 sorry, just my opinion, nothing more
I will cross my fingers for Nina, too.
Filip on Lucky 7, yup the winner here is Filip Rudan, such a great talent <3