Croatia’s HRT has released the 24 songs in the running to sing at Eurovision 2025. And one very big hurdle stands in front of all of them: Dora 2025, the country’s national selection contest.
Two among these 24 were not in the original mix. That’s because in recent weeks Lara feat. LSQ withdrew from the contest (paving the way for the group Swingers to replace them).
And Natalie Balmix – a veteran of last year’s contest – was disqualified after delivering the final version of her entry “Život Ide Dalje.” Apparently it was “more than 50 percent musically and lyrically” different from the song she originally submitted, so basically a different song. That was a step too far for the judging panel. Her blunder means that Fenksta come off the reserve list and jump into the competition.
The 24 Dora 2025 songs in Croatia
You can listen to all of the Dora 2025 entries in the playlist below. Then vote for your favourites. You can vote for as many songs as you’d like, but you can only vote one time.
Be sure to check the box next to each act you want to support before hitting submit. Let Croatia know who YOU think would do the best as the Eurovision Song Contest 2025 in Basel.
Poll: Who should win Dora 2025 in Croatia?
So who is winning this thing? Let us know your favourites in the comments section.
I think the song poison cake will be 2nd again but IDK maybe it’s his 2nd chance to win.
Everyone ready? I mean… It’s awfully quiet in here.
My top 2 are POISON CAKE & WELCOME TO THE CIRCUS.
I just love the Gothic and sinister songs for Dora 2025
Strongest DORA ever. So many amazing entries: Monopol, Daj Daj, AaAaAa, Poison Cake, Soul of my Soul,… Just… Wow.
So, yeah…
MAGAZIN FOR THE WIN!
AaAaAaaaaaaaaaaa!
I heard Daj Daj back to back with RTTD the other day… I sorta changed my mind. Apart from a hyptnotic instrumental, this is one big nothing of a song. Plus, it lacks everything that was magical about RTTD and BL.
I’m afraid people/jury will fall for it. 🙁
MONOPOL is my clear winner, love it
I don’t like Poison Cake its like a migraine
Wait until people realize that Lelek is singing about Palestine
Znak 100%
I’d pick “Aurora”, it’s a vocal feat for sure and a very nice fusion. And superveryselfishly I’d love to see how they’d stage it, Kate was somewhere very up, and Elina too was somewhere very up.
Magazin for the win!
HEAR, HEAR!
MAGAZIN FOR THE WIN INDEED!
I heard it on the radio the other day, and it was such a great listen among all the usual radio fodder.
It’s catchy, it’s over the top, grandiose in style…and Lorena ia such an amazing vocalist. It’s all rather irresistible.
Amd quite frankly, the only song that I see reaching a wide audience…
Lelek could be a very strong contender if the song was in Croatian.
I don´t like “Poison cake”. My favourites are “Monopol”, “Juzina”, “Daj Daj” and “Welcome”.
Aaaaaaaa! It’s so powerful !!
Monopol is copied from Mariette’s A Million Years a bit too much.
Eh, nothing that good. I guess Poison Cake will win.
What’s the point of “Judah’s kiss” in the AaAaA lyrics?
The point? Rhyme, for one hehe. But it seems Ivan, Tonci and Vjekoslava’s son, also likes to play around with biblical motifs.
Hectic lyrics. And they are also drawing a line.
At worst, some of it is clumsy, but I assume it’s on purpose… It NEEDS to be over the top. ?
It indeed follows the pattern of Tonci’s previous Dora/ESC contenders such as Marija Magdalena, Noah, Nazaret, Tower Of Babylon… and also Ne Zovi Me Marija, maybe to a lesser extent.
You call that “lyrics”?! “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”. Could be that the lyricist is one of his grandchildren. One is, I believe, 2 years or something and the other a couple of months old.
That’s generally a thing of the Huljics. They wrote Croatia’s 1999 entry “Maria Magdalena” (also had a lot of “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”), then in the Horror Festival of Dora in the early 2000s they had a song called “Nazareth”, sung by Jelena Bezmozga.
It’s AaAaAa *different* song, for sure. LOL.
Yeah, well, they like their vowels for sure.
I will never, EVER get over the fact that Nazaret didn’t go to ESC.
The story behind the lyrics in AaAaA points to the threat of modern technology and the fact that humanity always creates things and systems that destroy us (“Is that how it’s always been, the enemy lurks within”) and in that process we are selling ourselves (our souls), our humanness, our future and future of the generations to come for material wealth and “prosperity” the and that’s why we are our own betrayers (“We were touched by Judas’ kiss”). That’s why there are these creepy AI generated “children” in the video. (possible pointer at the JESC controversy with AI) https://pledgetimes.com/criticism-of-junior-eurovision-2024-for-using-ai-in-their-countries-presentations-children-with-four-fingers-no-pupil/ But Lorena… Read more »
The topic is relevant but “Judas’ kiss” is totally unnecessary #changethelyric
BETRAYAL doesn’t sound as dramatic, come on now…
Nipplepeople nipplepeople nipplepeople!! Finally, after years of listening to them, a chance to see them in Eurovision 😀
Magazin has the best song, but I think Ogenj will win because it is most similar to Rim Tim Tagi Dim, the catchy upbeat song with rural vibe and ethnic elements in music video.
Which could risk it being unfavorably compared to Baby Lasagna. I like countries to send songs that are different to the previous entries to keep things fresh.
Exactly! Thus Marko Tolja would be a perfect representative with his warm ballad. I love love his voice! Please vote him! ??
Their song is mediocre.
I really like Monopol and AAAAA.
Bye, Bye, Bye and Welcome to the circus too!
Croatia serves imo.
Also shout out to Jelena for singing in French, the lyrics are very cliché but her voice is amazing.
Not cliché, these lyrics in French don’t make any sense to me.
Lol you’re well known to be allergic to everything that is French though…
It’s cliché cause she mentions the Eiffel Tower etc…and she uses French expressions that are cliché.
Lelek will be the biggest Eurovision stage hit of them all. It has presence. The rest are just pop songs with no chance of charming a jury at Eurovision
They are just a poor version of Czech 2023’s Vesna
Fully agreed. Lelek are incredible, with the right staging this would be incredible to see
MAGAZIN!
EOT BYE BYE BYE The only one that stands out
Time to learn the most important Croatian word when it comes to Dora – UŽAS!
Greek soungs are out wiwbloggs!
As expected, two of the names I was most excited about delivered two of the best songs. Magazin! Tonci ain’t screwing around. He knows how to masterfully create/compose a fabulously kitchy and highly addictive crowd pleasers, and this is no exception. Hopefully, there will be a Croatian version as well. Nipplepeople! A slick portion of electro pop that wouldn’t embarrass at the ESC stage. They always perform masked, so that is a plus. Unfortunately, they don’t stand a chance. This mysterious duo has been churning out f****** amazing music for such a long time now and you can find their… Read more »
I’d like Magazin for Croatia, and Justyna for Poland. A 1995 reunion.
No
Yes
Please stop eating up Marko Bosnjak just cuz he is queen with a good voice. The song sounds like it’s written by chatgpt
Queer*, not queen lol
Written by cats
Or written by manatees, like the jokes from Family Guy.
Back to reality, I guess… Baby Lasagna was just a very lucky and fortunate coincidence. The “experts” from HRT are preparing another Festival of Horror, called “Dora”. It’s really time to get the International Court of Justice involved – Dora is a crime against humanity!
I disagree, I think this year is much better than it usually is.
Everyone saying how this year’s Dora is strong. I agree, compared to last years. But for me it still a completely miss. Our artist unfortunately don’t know what eurovision is and are making songs for eurovision 2007 not 2025. We won’t have another Baby lasagna for 20 more years.
In alphabetical order my top 5 would be: Fenksta, IVXN, Matt Shaft, Ogenj and Petar Brkljacic
Luka mi je najbolji, zarazna je pjesma, na hrvatskom je, a sigurna sam da ?e mu nastup biti odli?an uz to dobro izgleda što je još jedan plus. Ima još ok pjesama, ali ne nemaju ono nešto.
Zajebajes…
I honestly don’t know! I can’t decide when none od the songs stand out. I probably don’t see or hear anything in at least 16 songs. And then 8 other songs that have potential are on the same level (and not in a good way). I can see that people put Marko, Lelek, Monopol and Magazin as favorites. But I just don’t have a clear Winner. I just hope someone brings it and does something WOW on stage and makes my decision easier. Hope to see Croatia in the finals this year too. They were so close to winning last… Read more »
I think you are wrong. It is definitely Top 5 material – bottom 5 in the semis!
I’m 1000% with Lelek here. It’s possible that the live will be a complete fail like for Harmonija Disonance 2 years ago but The Soul of My Soul remains by far the best song in this selection!
Monopol is interesting too but it doesn’t catch my attention as much as Lelek’s song.
Who the hell is voting for Poison Cake lmao, it’s like a reddit weeb wrote a song. So cringe.
Well actually there is a song by a redditor – just not this one. 😉
Perhaps the people who like Kant for Malta
Just a wild guess. Maybe those are idiots?
Filomena or Lelek or Marko Tolja for me
stick with english entries from now on please
Magazin, Matt Shaft and Ananda are my favorites. Also like Luka Nizetic and Lelek. IVXN and Marko Bosnjak are overhyped in my opinion.
Ananda <3
The only song that still intrigues me and gives me chills is Lies lay cold…and I’m not even a ballad type of person.
Quite a good selection from Croatia. I really like Luka’s and IVXN’ songs.
Only Luka Nizetic, the rest is cringe. Poison Cake is horrible, 3 minutes of noise:)
I guess you don’t understand Croatian. Otherwise, you would see how cringe the lyrics of Luka’s song are.
What is cringe about them?
As expected,Croatia has learned nothing from last year. What kind of jury chooses snoozefest songs like Strong? Or have a field where half are boring clean ballads?
Only Bye Bye Bye, Extra and Poisonous Cake stands out and any of these should win..
Next year I hope the entire ESC delegation gets fired and replaced with people with more knowledge
In order for the jury to choose good, creative and worthy songs, songwriters and artists need to submit them first.
Bruh. This is literally by far the best selection of Dora songs ever.
If I keep my biases out of it, then we have 10 great entries which could win Dora: Magazin, Lelek, Luka Nizetic, IVXN, Marko Bosnjak, Matt Shaft, Ananda, EoT, Ogenj and Petar Brkljacic.
Only to end up non qualifying…
2021 was the best Dora. I thought after last year they would continue on that rather than returning to nothing. Who in Europe gets excited over another generic ballad from Balkans?
90% of the 2021 fan favorites were the so called snoozefest generic ballad songs you’re talking about.. Majority of the songs this year aren’t even ballads..
No they weren’t, the fan favourites of 2021 were Italy, Ukraine, Malta, Finland, Switzerland, Iceland and France. Only 2 of those were ballads.
Read. I meant fan favorites of Dora 2021..
2021 was awful, absolutely generic and awful. This is by far the best year we’ve had. You have 2 or 3 generic ballads and a nice selection of various genres and songs that have potential for killer staging and performance.
GenZ’s are not the only audience of the ESC, nor is your “taste” the one that decides anything.