croatia franka eurovision 2018 first rehearsal
Andres Putting

Back in October, with Croatia’s participation at Eurovision 2019 having just been confirmed, the country’s broadcaster HRT revealed that they would bring back their national selection Dora. And this morning — during a press conference streamed live on social media — the broadcaster confirmed a few more details.

It was a star-studded affair and a show of unity between the broadcaster and the country’s Eurovision alumni. Past Croatian participants — including Franka, Jacques Houdek, Tony Cetinski, Feminem and Kraljevi Ulice — all turned up and turned out. Get it, guys!

The broadcaster has formally made an agreement with the resort town of Opatija to host the national selection there. It will be held in the Marino Cvjetković Sports Hall on February 16, with two themed nights before that date. The organisers from Opatija have stated that they hope the contest will continue taking place in the stunning town, as they fought hard to woo HRT.

Currently, the broadcaster is accepting song submissions with the deadline of 10th of January 2019. The act must be a citizen of Croatia but the songwriter(s) can be of any nationality. The lyrics must only be in Croatian, English, French or Italian. Sorry to all you Thai and Tagalog speakers!

Furthermore, sixteen songs and two reserved entries will be shortlisted from the list of submissions by a professional jury to participate in Dora 2019. The jury will include representatives of HGU (the Croatian Musicians Union), HDS (Croatian Society of Composers), HRT, music critics, singers with experience at Eurovision, composers and songwriters selected by HRT. They will judge the submissions based on their merits and artistic value.

During the live broadcast, the winning song will be chosen by the televoting public and a jury.

Dora and the Eurovision Song Contest

Dora was launched in 1993 to select Croatia’s first Eurovision entry as an independent nation. The national final was used consistently from 1993 to 2011 and gave Croatia six top-ten finishes.

Croatia’s best Eurovision results came from the Dora years. In 1996, Maja Blagdan placed fourth with “Sveta ljubv”, then in 1999 Doris Dragovic also placed fourth with “Marija Magdalena”.

From 2012 onwards, Croatian acts have been internally selected by the broadcaster, with mixed results. While the five internally selected acts have qualified for the grand final only two times, they have delivered good performances.

Nina Kraljic made it to the grand final in Stockholm and placed 23rd, while in 2017 Jacques Houdek took home an impressive 13th place — Croatia’s best Eurovision result in more than a decade.

Houdek had competed at Dora six times previously, but ironically the year he finally went to Eurovision was as a result of internal selection.

Earlier this year in Lisbon, Croatia was represented by Franka. With her song “Crazy”, she finished in 17th place in the semi-final.

Do you like that Dora will be held in Opatija? Who do you think will participate in Dora? Let us know in the comment section down below!

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josh
josh
5 years ago

They shouldn’t allow non-Croatian language songs… smh

Denis
Denis
5 years ago
Reply to  josh

Why not? Diversity isn’t to restrict singers to only sing in one language, it is about letting them sing and perform in whatever language and style they feel comfortable doing. What good can come out of restricting to one language?

beccaboo1212
5 years ago
Reply to  Denis

The rules say that the competing entries have to be in one of the following languages: Croatian, English, French, or Italian.

voix
voix
5 years ago

Its nice to see that they try to improve their results, and i would really like to see the contest going to countries who havent won before. My top 3 wishes are Romania, Croatia,Cyprus

Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago

Oh wow legend Claudia Beni’s hometown!

Gobio
Gobio
5 years ago

I don’t get what is it with broadcasting unions restricting the songs’ languages. I mean there probably won’t be many songs in other languages then English and Croatian, so why leave them out anyway is what I’m wondering.

Weißbrot
Weißbrot
5 years ago
Reply to  Gobio

Maybe so that something like “Wo sind die Katzen?” won’t happen.

James
James
5 years ago
Reply to  Gobio

It wouldn’t be much of. Problem if the songwriters are fluent in any of the languages specified. The issue I have is of songs written by those who clearly aren’t fluent at all.

Hrvatska
Hrvatska
5 years ago

I hope that it will be better than in the old days and that Croatia will return to its form, as it was from the 90s, I am waiting the most for the list of Kedzo and Zsa Zsa and I would like to have a beautiful Croatia in Tel Aviv in Croatian

Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago
Reply to  Hrvatska

Croatia was robbed so many times in the 90s! Maja, Danijela and Doris are such a TRINITY.

Briekimchi
Briekimchi
5 years ago

Should be interesting to see what voting process they’ll use. What has appealed to Beovizija and Montevizija televoters might not appeal to the general European audience!

123
123
5 years ago
Reply to  Briekimchi

they said 50% televote and 50% juries…in case of a tie, result is decided by televote

Polegend Godgarina
5 years ago
Reply to  123

As it should be. Make notes Lithuania!

123
123
5 years ago

jury was breaking the tie in previous editions
..that’s why we had a song Celebrate in 2011 instead of Stotinama godina which was 10× better :'(

Loin dici
Loin dici
5 years ago

We still don’t know how the show will turn out, but I feel this will turn out better than expected.