Last week, Croatian broadcaster HRT closed the song submission period for their national selection, Dora – which has been brought back after eight years. The broadcaster received 150 song submissions and a jury consisting of seven people spent the week listening to all of the songs. And today, after all that buildup, the broadcaster has revealed the songs that will compete in the national final. Sixteen songs will feature in the national selection with two reserved songs.
Who will compete?
While we won’t hear the songs until the broadcast of the national selection, we do know the artists and the titles of their entries. A more detailed list can be found on HRT’s official website but here is a brief list.
- 4 Tenora – “Brod Bez Imena’
- Bernarda Bruno – “I Believe In True Love”
- Beta Sudar – “Don’t Give Up”
- Bojan Jambrošić and Danijela Pintarić – “Vrijeme Predaje”
- Domenica – “Indigo”
- Elis Lovrić – “All I Really Want”
- Ema Gagro – “Redemption”
- Gelato Sisters – “Back To The Swing”
- Jelena Bosančić – “Tell Me”
- Jure Brkljača – “Ne Postojim Kad Nisi Tu”
- Lea Mijatović – “Tebi Pripadam”
- Lidija Bačić Lille – “Tek Je Počelo”
- Lorena Bućan – “Tower Of Babylon”
- Luka Nižetić – “Amorero Brutalero”
- Manntra – “In The Shadows”
- Roko Blažević – “The Dream”
Some familiar names
Looking at this list a little closer, there are some notable songwriters and artists that have taken part in either Dora or Eurovision.
Luka Nizetic competed in Dora in 2007 achieving 11th place. Then there is Marko Skugor, who will compete as part the group 4 Tenora. He is notable for being the main singer in the group, Klapa s Mora, which represented Croatia at Eurovision 2013. Don’t forget Neda Parmac who will compete in the group, Gelato Sisters. She competed as part of the girl group, Feminnem, who represented Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2005 and Croatia in 2010
Songwriter Tonci Huljic is known for composing many songs which represented Croatia at Eurovision. His most recent song was in 2009, ‘Lijepa Tena’, sung by Igor Cukrov. This year, he will be writing songs for both Domenica and Lorena Bucan. There is also songwriter Branimir Mihaljevic who wrote last year’s song for Croatia at Eurovision — ‘Crazy’ sung by Franka. This year he will write a song for Luka Nizetic.
Another person worth noting is Croatia’s representative for Eurovision 2017, Jacques Houdek. He wrote the song, ‘The Dream’ which will be sung by young singer, Roko Blazevic. It is also co-written by Charlie Mason, who is well known for co writing ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’ among other Eurovision songs.
What do you think of the artists that have been announced? Are you excited by the line-up and familiar faces? Be sure to leave a comment down below!
Wiwibloggs should update about Croatian artists & songs. Here is not enough posts about Croatia this year on Eurovision Song Contest. Please more posts about Croatia!
Roko Blazevic, Lorena Bucan or Lidija Bacic will won this competition Dora 2019.
4 Tenora have given up on Dora 2019, so the second substitute Kim Verson will compete instead as the 1st substitute also gave it up in the meantime. Kim Verson is a quality young singer and I do hope she will have a nice song. Best of luck, Kim!
Huljic continues with his Bible themed songs….I am surprised he titled the song “Tower of Babylon” because the correct English name is “Tower of Babel”. It is actually the same city, but Babel comes from Hebrew, while Babylon comes from Greek.
too many useless names here
Yes, her family moved to Switzerland so they could treat her eyes better.
Too much English. They should value their traditional music more.
That’s why we need skinny legends Domenica or Lidija to win this.
Croatians really do value their traditional music and the Croatian language is really strong within the Croatian music scene. It is really positive to see some English language songs here for something international like Eurovision
yup…and 7/16 in own language is more then most of the NF’s have
I like the fact there are songs in both Croatian and English. It gives us more diversity to pick from. I’d like if there was some Italian too, as Southern Croatia has it at some parts as a minority language.
Admin, why was my comment deleted?
I think it came back.
Bernarda Bruno also participated in The Voice of Germany last year.
Also she was 2nd in Swiss eurovision national final in 2011
MAKE A VIDEO ABOUT IT…PLS
This could be good. I honestly know nothing about Croatia’s selection or artists. The show might be worth a look this year.
Very interesting line-up! Luka Nižeti? and Lidija Ba?i? are probably the most hyped names here. He is an established artist for years and she is really popular right now. Usually her songs are not up to my taste, but I don’t know what she has planned for Dora. Ema and Jure are both really good live singers, both from The Voice. Bojan Jambroši? is the winner of one of our first talent shows. I am really looking forward to this!
I was just gonna say…Bojan Jambroši? is a former winner of one of Croatia’s versions of Idol, and there have been two, if I remember correctly: Hrvatski Idol (which produced two winners in the early 2000s) and Hrvatska traži zvijezdu (which produced three winners between 2009 and 2011; Bojan won the 2009 edition of the show). Hrvatski Idol also produced the original lineup of Femminem, whose members all made the top 8 in season 1.
Lidija Bacic has some bops, but unless DORA is 100% televote she will probably be killed by the juries.
Actually Lidija has an amazing voice. Check out her cover of Sweet Child of Mine. It’s just she sing trash so people at first think that she is just hot and without a good voice, but it’s not true.
I am expecting a total trash song. I mean the composer is Boris Djurdjevic (Darija Kinzer – Salad Break anyone?)
Tonci Huljic didn’t just compose the 2009 entry. He also did in 1995, 1999 and 2001. In 1998, he was the producer of the Croatian entry. Please correct the article! 🙂
Thankyou for pointing this out. I knew about this. It’s been updated now!
Roko actually sung Rise like a fenix in a talent show recently – https://youtu.be/2cFLFmthceU
Amazing voice and i think Jacques is preparing something great….
p.s. Huljic also wrote “Marija Magdalena” from 1999.
WTF??? He is 18???? What a voice!! I’m impressed. Can’t wait to her the song. I also listened to his version of hallelujah, I have no words
He’s gonna win Dora and the ESC. Mark my words.
Would love to see countries win for the first time and bring new energy to the contest such as Croatia, Romania, Cyprus
Croatia technically won back in 1989
You raise valid points – Croatia’s entry indeed won the Eurosong contest in 1989 and Zagreb hosted its first ESC in 1990. I cannot escape the feeling Croatia is now prepared for a new ESC victory. Looking forward to the Dora festival…
I think Luka’s song would have been a better choice in 2007 than the one that won. But what language is “Amorero brutalero”? lol I would also like to know what kind of swing those sisters are talking about.
All of his songs are in Croatian, the title is just a word play, kind of, maybe. lol I guess it means brutal love, translated into human language.
I don’t know anything about Croatian, but in Romanian that would be ‘Lovely Baker’, or ‘Baker Lover’. But I guess Skinny Domenica is right.
I assure you, this mean nothing in Croatian. It’s probably a word-play on brutal love and could be in any language unless confirmed.
True. I mean it’s literally “amore brutale” with “ro” as a suffix in both words. So the title is gibberish Italian, but I’m 99% sure the song is fully in Croatian.
His main problem is that he can’t sing. So, I’m guessing he’s playing the brutal-lover-sexy-gigolo card here….
Guys, my question was rhetorical. That’s why I added the “lol”. I know it’s gibberish. 😉