The time has come for Croatia to begin its selection for Eurovision. Dora 2024 kicked off with semi-final 1 on Thursday evening.
Night one of the competition saw 12 acts competing for eight spots in Sunday’s grand final.
The lucky finalists include last year’s winners Let 3, who brought Eurovision 2006 star Severina onto the stage for an appearance towards the end of their performance.
Dora 2024: Semi-final 1 results
The decision of who qualified to the grand final was entirely down to the public. They chose eight acts to progress, which were:
- Eugen – “Tišine”
- Let 3 – “Babaroga”
- Lana Mandarić – “More”
- Mario Battifiaca feat. Robert Ferlin – “Vodu piti trizan biti”
- Pavel – “Do Mjeseca”
- Saša Lozar – “Ne plačem zbog nje”
- Stefany Žužić – “Sretnih dana dat’ će Bog”
- Vinko – “Lying Eyes”
Non-qualifiers
- Noelle – “Baby, Baby”
- Misha – “One Day”
- Erna – “How Do You Love Me”
- Barbara Munjas – “Nepobjediva”
Who were your favourites from semi-final 1? Can any of these acts go on to win the grand final? Let us know in the comments.
my favourites of last night were Sasa Lozar – Ne Placem Zbog Nje (am a sucker for oldschool balkan ballads, very lovely melancholical ones especially) Mario & Robert – Vodu Piti Trizan Biti (it is a good bop, bit of a male konstrakta vibe in its own way especially with the chorus) Let 3 – Baba Roga (i have a weak for little people, this looked like such a cute performance, reminding me kinda of Pierre Kartner/Father Abraham with his Smurfs song but then more crazy and uptempo, also kinda reminding me of the oompa loompa’s in willy wonka and… Read more »
These two elderly chaps somehow managed to be better than Konstrakta.
Choices.
Horrendous semifinal 1. Disgusting! I feel so ashamed how the national broadcaster HRT represents, humiliates my wonderful homeland of Croatia. One would say that our people cannot sing at all, which is not true. They just tend to select mediocre songs and, even worse, horrible singers. Shame eon you, HRT! 🙁
Don’t worry, it takes only one good song to win the whole thing.
Disgusting is taking it to far I think
I swear to god, if Let 3 wins again…
Croatia would have done the most scandalous thing this Eurovision season before Eurovision season even starts 😀
Baby Lasagna will win, 110% sure about that
Hopefully you are right for once
I do not get it. They invested in stage, they invested in bringing Slimane and tomorrow Raiven. And yet they keep male host who, despite being good in general, has been outdated for thisnkind of show. Girl was actually nice, but not very experienced. Also, audience… they should have done something to boost the atmosphere a bit. Lastly sound and graphics….
Overall it is a bit of improvement, but just half way…
Duško is a legend, you should hear him swoon over his favourites and diss anything remotely interesting while commenting ESC
I think there was no need to do semis this time. That Misha (One Day) act was soooo amateurish, to mention one example.
And is it possible that the “back up” instead of Jaja situation was a publicity stunt?
I am sorry if this seems ignorant, I am just trying to understand the situation. My mind can’t comprehend 😀
Never been this invested in the Croatian selection, though 😀
I get where you are coming from… but seeing yesterday show, do you really think HRT would be capable of pulling something like that off??
I liked most of the songs, but the sound quality waan’t great. That woman’s voice crack being doubled because of the sound mixing problems, that’s just too much. Also, wrong songs qualified. Sasa Lozar and Let3 – with all due respect, you didn’t deserve to be anywhere near the final if Barbara or “Baby baby” singer don’t make it first.
Okay, I am getting a tad worried for Baby Lasagna.
If the broadcaster managed to chose these songs over his, god knows what the jury might pull on Sunday.
I read that the jury accounts for 50% of the result, along with an international jury??
Can anybody, croatian perhaps, can help me understand, what is the vibe, how likely is the scenario that Baby Lasagna wins the televote but not the whole thing??
Most of the years juries agreed with voters so you should not worry.
Last year people thought Let 3 would be let down by juries but they won the juries too
not worried for Baby Lasagna at all, LOL
landslide win here
The jury is split in half, so the televoters have the biggest share at 50%
That’s good news. I think the international jury + public will do the job
Yeah, I reckon the international jury might like Marco. Hopefully someone from Wiwi was involved because THEY LOVE HIM
As Baba Roga fan I think Baby Lasagna will still win, but Let 3 will get lots of points too.
As a Croatian I sincerely apologize to everyone that had to witness that last night.
Croatia should get over their fascination with this lot!
MY GOD, that was awful
I want to hear songs in Croatian, NOT English. Terrible!
Some countries should not do national finals… period. Everything about this is tragic.
why is Croatia doing semifinals? The quality is so bad…
exactly
And they know it. But this is a cheap way of having a show streched over three days. The hype is real and this is probably the most this show’s been talked about in forever. The ratings will be good.
Overall, there’s half a dozen songs with at least some replay value, the rest totally skipable and/or embarrassing.
Slimane randomly getting to sing 3 songs in another country ‘s nf ?
It’s very smart. People who watch Dora will watch Eurovision and remember hime and subsequently vote. Countries who send their acts to perform at other countries selections are doing the smartest thing.
Unless you are Anggun who in 2012 managed to visit almost every country and got zero points for it.
So there is overexposure
Her song wasn’t as good and I think Slimane has way more potential.
This song is classic French song, I don’t see why it would be different, or do better than others. He is a good singer, but this is boring and already seen so many times, it is not memorable at all.
Her song was excellent, she only didn’t come across live.
Among the qualifiers this evening my favorite song is that of Vinko.
In all that, bravo to the Coatie for their fair play and for inviting Slimane to sing “Mon amour”, especially since he gave an impressive performance. Suddenly the audience was with him, it was quite funny.
At one point, when asked who should go to the finals the audience shouted “Slimane”
Lmao. That’s iconic.
It was a very dire show. But I still enyoed it and the best songs went through. Let 3 was best and brought the show to life.
I at least appreciate the effort of having semifinal and increasing the interest for ESC in Croatia
barbara was robbed as hell
not the voice crack during lanas permormance
I’m surprised Erna didn’t get through based on vocals but then again it mostly went as planned with the qualifiers. Yeah I agree we shouldn’t be having these semi finals. Who even is picking the songs to go through?
the public
Is it just 100% public for the semi finals?
Yes
Mario Battifiaca & Robert Ferlin as well as Sasa Lozar are well-known in Croatia. Erna is not, that’s why she didn’t qualify although she was better.
Friendly reminder that all of these songs were picked over Baby Lasagna who was a backup. HRT, get some help.
Slimane what the voice ommggggg , the final is amazing ?????
This was one disaster of a show. The only positive thing was Slimane.
Alumnae was a let down too with that shaky performance. I mean the vocals were not found…
Who even watched it all? I switched it off straight after Let3, even their performance was bad as f. Sucha bad show, bad hosts, bad production and the songs cant even be called that – songs…
LOL…. Before the last finalist announced… hosts asked audience who they want to see in final and they screamed Slimane
And then the worst vocalist of the evening qualified.
Severina looks like she hasn’t aged a day. Love her.
She is like good wine 😀
The majority of songs qualifying makes the semis even more unnecessary.
I’ve lost interest now, to be honest.
Which is not to say I do not appreciate all the effort put into this final, the staging, the acts, the songs etc. It is better than a lot. I’m just having an off night. Even Slimane didn’t do it for me. See you next time, Croatia.
This semi had an off night, too.
The best is yet to come.
Slimane’s revamp is breathtaking. What a performer… Especially after Croatian disasters.
If he does at Eurovision what he did today at the end of the song… Watch out for Paris 2025
Wishful thinking. For me and several other people watching that stepping down from the microphone was a complete cringe moment.
Return of The Troll. Every year’s remake. Snore.
Croatia should actively target its best songwriters and biggest singers again, really try to get the Dora glory days back. They host three shows on prime time, so clearly, they care at least a little bit about Eurovision. It’s gotta be hard to maintain public interest with such a dire bunch, though. Glad Pavel made the final.
Nah, they don’t like being pitted against each other and they especially don’t like losing, so they just don’t bother with inviting famous/most prestigeous names. I mean, it’s a public thing and anyone can participate.
All you need is two or three songs worthy of ESC and this year didnt’t disappoint. We have Baba Roga and Rim Tim and hopefully the latter gets to go to Malmo.
Croatia, I need an hour of my life compensated… please explain yourself
Why his Slimane performing his song twice?
Or maybe my stream has just gone backwards. I don’t know.
Yep, seems I missed the results because I was watching Mon Amour twice. I am smart.
DON’T SLEEP ON SLIMANE THIS YEAR. Damn!
Honestly, I almost fell asleep. Was expecting better vocals from hime. Snooze fest for sure
They are definitely getting their money’s worth from Slimane.
The interview with Slimane is not riveting. Ask him about Israel. Just kidding.
Slimane came to this weak Semi listening this awful songs…. So embarrassing.. helppppp
He was polite and said he couldn’t pick one. (Translation: they were all horrific).
He said they all deserved to win. What a liar.
I believe it’s called being diplomatic.
I wasn’t serious. Honesty is not always the best policy, I know.
Audience was more engaged with Slimane 😀
Slimane was kinda boring tonight, I’m sorry. I’ve always liked it up to now.
You mean when he literally stepped 2 metres away from the microphone and sang his bloody soul out with no backing track? Yeah…
His vocals are passion were not the problem.
It just fell kinda flat and empty.
And your point is..? The production team just turned the volume up of the microphone. His voice was really shaky and the intonation was off. A massive let down for me
Very weak voices from most of the singers here apart from two or three.
I hope Baby Lasagna can school ’em tomorrow. It would be SOOOOO satisifying.
What if they suck live too?
Croatia. Semi finalists all leave the building after hearing Slimane lol.
Severina is the biggest star in Croatia and ex-Yu, her appearance in Let 3 performance is BIG
OMG Severina was iconic!
Does Let 3’s song have a social message, if so, what?
i think its about ai
Such a good singer ?
Slimane is sublime
Omg I didn’t know Slimane is coming! So happy I’m watching! My winner this year.
Let 3 ¿comino Backstreet Witherspoon triste? I can t Believe
Well, let3 to the final but the rest, I have no clue. Extremly weak semi to say it soft.
For final:
Stefany, Erna, Eugen, Vinko, Barbara, Let 3, Lana, Pavel
That is by running order.
But best Vinko for sure!
no, vinko is overrated af
This is the worst line up I have ever heard. Even Let 3 let me down. I am Croatian and I switched this show straight after Let3. It is painful to watch…
San Marino 1st semi on Monday was worse ))
Eugen’s song was a nice Balkan ballad – I wish he would have been vocally better.
Misha to win.