We get a double dose of Balkan music this week, with Croatia also selecting their Eurovision act. Dora 2025 began with semi-final 1 on Thursday evening.
There were 12 artists competing in this first show. By the end of the evening, a third of them had to pack up and go home, whilst eight moved on to the grand final.
During the show, we saw Duško Čurlić and Barbara Kolar as hosts. Zlata Mück Sušec will be was with the stars in the greenroom.
Dora 2025: Semi-final 1
The results were entirely in the public’s hands. They chose eight acts to advance to Sunday’s grand final.
Qualifiers
- Matt Shaft – “Welcome to the Circus”
- Nipplepeople – “Znak”
- Lelek – “The Soul of my Soul”
- IVXN – “Monopol”
- Marko Tolja – “Through the dark”
- Magazin – “AaAaA”
- Natalli – “Dom si srcu mom”
- EoT – “Bye, Bye, Bye”
Non-qualifiers
- Jelena Radan – “Salut”
- Swingers – “Ful kul”
- Martha May – “Running to the Light”
- Teenah – “Aurora”
The contest returns on Friday night for semi-final 2, where the remaining 12 singers will perform.
What are your thoughts on semi-final 1 of Dora 2025? Will any of these acts be our eventual winner? Let us know in the comments.
I’m REALLY hoping Lelek improves their vocals by Sunday, I think they were nervous. Seems like every other year Dora has a curse for those groups: Alkonost of Balkan in 2021, Harmonija Disonance in 2023, sadly probably Lelek this year.
One performance I cannot get enough of is Natalli. An old school ballad that is so efortkessly classy. Wonderful performance.
She is now my 3rd fav to win. And that’s including semi 2. :p
Magazin or Ivxn FTW <3
Honestly i don’t get the hype for Magazine (a very dated Song, and i’m not joking when i say that this can Nq in Basel). I don’t get the hype for Monopol too, i’m not sure he will do great things at Esc. My favorites remains Lelek (A good Song and i don’t think the performance was so bad as many people Say) and Nipplepeople (Absolutly loved their clothes and Energy!)
I love Who dislike you only because doesn’t agree lol.
For me Magazin has the very best song of the whole NF season. I don’t care that you label it dated, I simply love everything about it. A 100% qualifier if selected, and I’ve got 54 years of ESC fan experience behind me when I say that!
IVXN had the best performance, despite the technical sound issues…
I just rewatched…and it’s even worse than last night. Technical issues aside, he iis a terrible singer.
EAR BLEED!
But he IS cute!
I think he’s already found his prince charming so… ?
Wow savage
He is a terrible singer but Zagreb’s gay lobby is too strong.
Although IVXN’s performance came across a little cringe at parts, I think it’s the best here. A balkan banger, great staging, he looks good – it’ll do well in Basel.
Magazin’s vocalist is great, she’s super captivating, but the staging and song is awful.
EOT was stunning last night.
EoT, Matt Shaft, Magazin and Nipplepeople were great.
IVXN and Lelek were underwhelming.
EoT was amazing! I hope they or Lelek ends up winning
It’s fascinating that we’ve got something everyday related to Eurovision this week since Tuesday, from national final semi finals and finals to song releases from internally selected artists.
This week is amazingly fun! And what a weekend ahead!
i think the biggest “problem” of croatia this year is that there are not one or two clear frontrunners,they have a bunch of good or very good songs and it is difficult then to the find the right song,maybe not the best song at all but a song who will fits perfect for basel. semi 1 was a quality semi with various music and the only bitter thing is that the best voice not has made the final (teenah) – today there is semi 2 and i’m very excited to see how the metal band ogenj will bring their co-favorite… Read more »
After watching the live performances of the qualifiers I’m not sure what to expect from Dora, since most of the favourites were in this semi. I’m not fond of Magazin’s song – sure the vocals are excellent but I can’t connect either with the song or the performance, since it all feels very cold to me. I like Lelek’s song but oh dear that was a vocal car crash imho – it’s a song that relies on harmonies and the harmonies simply were not there tonight. I quite enjoyed IVXN’s performance and I didn’t think that the vocals were actually… Read more »
I was there in the first rows in front of stage, can 100% confirm it sounds totally different then on TV, everyone actually sounded pretty good even great!! Not sure why there is such a difference.. it almost seems like most of them can’t sing on TV when in reality they sounded pretty great
It always sounds better in the arena – atmosphere in the arena also has an effect on that. I felt the same when i attended 2011 Eurovision live in the audience. Everyone was so amazing that anyone could take the vicotory in my opinion when in the arena – then I came home and watched it on TV and …oops…. well I didnt have the same opinion then.
DORA = ATROCITY!!!!!
so many people complaining about vocals…it’s eurovision, good vocals are no longer required in the contest
Magazin, could it be a surprise winner? I would definitely welcome it, a lovely performance.
Magazin wouldn’t be a surprise winner, it’s a big favourite to win.
Magazin was already the best Dora entry before Dora even started.
Didn’t watch tonight but after seeing all the negative comments about Lelek’s performance I decided to go watch it and draw conclusions by myself. It’s the only performance I’ve seen for now so I can’t compare it with others. I found it was not as bad as people seem to described it even though it’s indeed different from the studio version and definitely not as good. I liked the staging concept but it’s lacking something truly interesting. Voices were shaky but honestly not terrible. The problem for me is their harmony. Their voices don’t mix the same way as they… Read more »
I was gonna complain about Baby Lasagna copycats – in one way or another – but you know what? Let them cannibalize each other. Yummy!
MAGAZIN FOR THE WIN!
They would be great 🙂 in 2005
They were robbed in 2005. Nazaret was/woulda been great!
Lol
This was a good semi
Hope Lelek improve for the final. I love their Song! I Hope we Will se them at Basel
This was much better than the disaster we saw last year. Good job HRT for taking into account the voice of those who complained about the production and music quality.
Sound quality was still horrendous
IVXN – “Monopol” was amazing. My winner.
No matter how cute he thinks he is, he can’t sing.
Haha and there he is next to Lorena at the top of the page. You guys ate predictable lol.
They always are. you only need to have a look and they will go crazy about you. Typical.
Generic bop and a guy who can’t sing. Winner
Says the word Monopol for 90% of the song. ESC fandom: ‘Masterpiece”.
Crazy weekend ahead ! Starts already tomorrow with both Dora semi2 and Pezma almost at the same time 0.0
Good news: EVERYBODY can vote in German final this Saturday !
There is nothing to vote on in that German final…whatever wins will end up last in Eurovision anyways! Lol.
Ha! I bet on UK on that one!
Thank you to everyone who took part. Dora has started off strongly.
Lelek were very lucky to qualify tonight; I hope they are able to sort out their individual vocals at the start of the song in time for the final.
Also, a word on Marko Tolja: Marko sang the song very well, so perhaps the directness of the lyrics connected with viewers somehow? Anyhow, that was my least expected qualifier, so congratulations to Marko.
Have a good evening, and hope to see you tomorrow. (Serbia NF or Dora SF2.)
Gotta set up two screens at the same time tomorrow )
See you tomorrow, Purple and dobroy noche
I want to explain how Marko Tolja connected with the audience. Apart from the fact that he is famous in Croatia and has a wonderful voice, his song has a deeper message and goal. It is precisely for this reason that he wrote a very slow song.Marko dedicated this song to people who have mental health problems. He wants to emphasize how important support is. He was recently a mentor in The Voice kids and there he met with psychologists who introduced him to the mental problems of children, which are huge today, and society still pushes this problem under… Read more »
Thank you so much for explaining 🙂
S*it, Aurora, wich I liked the most tonight didn’t make it(
OK, so… Magazin and Nipplepeople delivered! Lorena could’ve done without the blond Sadako/Samara moment at the beginning, but it didn’t ruin it.
Lelek were off. OFF! Not good.
My next favourite wouod be Natalli. I wasn’t sure aboit this one, but she was f****** great. And on a personal level…the song clicked and…it had me in tears.
Bublice, dom si srcu mom…ZAUVIJEK. I JEDNOG DANA OPET CEMO BIT ZAJEDNO.
In my mind: Just keep singing while we resolve some technical voting counting issues. Thank you. Nope, we’re still not ready yet, keep singing. More singing please. 😀
Well, she is one of the biggest stars in Croatia so it’s ok they gave her this much space. 🙂
If Colin’s still here under another name: Happy Dora! 🙂
Thank you, Purple Mask! I do come here occasionally, but a few of us are mostly on Discord now. I’d be happy to give you a link. I hope you enjoyed the first semi of Dora as well. I thought it was decent. 🙂
Hi Colin. It’s good to read from you. I did enjoy SF1 indeed, thank you. Honestly I was on Discord in 2024, but the platform was too vast for me to cope with, so I deactivated it for 2025. You can send me a link if you like; it probably won’t work now.
Come back! We miss you!
EoT had the best performance by far. Magazin outdated. IVXN bad vocals. Nipplepeople are a definiton of good song and no effort in staging.
Looks like songs 1 and 3 were so much fin! Damn I missed it. Hope both will go straight to the final for me to see !
Song 3 felt flat for me…
I only saw a small piece of it . That’s why I hope it will qualify to see the whole thing on Sunday. It looked intresting)
I think you could see it on HRT youtube page in any case
After the show I will. Soon results!
You could see song 3 during the Final finally 😉
Sad for Jelena…happy for Magazin.
I know I know! And song nr 1 as well!
based on tonights performances I prefer these 8 to go to the final:
Nipplepeople (CLEAR FAVOURITE), EoT, IVXN, Jelena, Teenah, Lelek, Natalli, Matt Shaft – in my preferred order.
I’d love to hear that synth sound in Eurovision, that would indeed be amazing.
It’s been a stronger semi final tonight than I imagined (well done Dora), so let’s see who qualifies.
9: Marko: Vocally good, but what a boring song… the dullest of dullest ballads. The 90s are calling… 10: Magazin: Extremely dated feel to this song, and vocally it started off poor, better in the high notes and the chorus. Costumes and staging also feels very 2006… what is up with Croatia this year? this doesnt convine me… wont qualify from a semi in ESC. 11: Natalli: The Balkan ballad, but not as good as previous ESC-balkan ballads – sounds like “Kruna”. But vocally it is good, and that dress looks amazing, and staging is classy. 12: EoT: Vocally this… Read more »
Lelek has everything. But they were nervous as heeeeeeell. But that can be improved. It’s BoT or Lelek for me
Ok my picks:
1, I loved the vibe
2, loved her vocals
5, it’s a cool song
8, good song, very nice looking and competent performer
10, this song makes me feel something, it’s nostalgic, anthemic, powerful, and modern at the same time
12, same as song 1, I loved the vibe
Magazin, EoT, Matt Shaft & Swingers for me!
EoT – Haha, surely this has to be my favourite. Reject social media, get off my phone and sing bye bye bye. Roll out those flags – I love this concept. I get that not everyone will like the soft rock sound or the distorted vocals, but I think it works for this song. The performance wasn’t perfect, but bravo, you got my attention.
EoT absolute winner of the night! Its giving me Manga vibes! THIS IS THE ONE FOR EUROVISION CROATIAAAAA 10/10
EoT is was fun, the stage, looked great… but not my favourite.
From what I’ve seen today my picks are songs 7,8 and 12 but winner is performing tomorrow and it’s called Poison cake)
Upd 1,3,7,8,12
we’ll see what amateurish staging concept Bosnjak came up with, styling wise he is a flop lol copying Joost as well as a tacky gold colour outfit
Natalli gave 100% with the emotional acting and her vocal there; great camerawork too.
And finally…
Sbe was amazing. I’m always careful about ballads, but this was classy and on point.
Well done!
Magazin – Well done on a great performance. I know nothing about this song or its meaning so can I ask the other commenters for some context (as I’m a bit lost with the staging)? But bravo anyhow.
I believe it is about yearning, waiting for a Romeo that never comes.
So the opposite to Finland’s entry then 😉
Its about Tonci Huljic not knowing english and lyrics being abysmally bad
Oh
Sin, redemption, betrayal…all bundled together in a tale of dehumanization…and spiced with just a pinch of Biblical motifs.
The lyrics may be clumsy in parts, but it all adds to its charm.
It’s what you get when you accidentally put the Bible into a washing machine.
5: Martha May: Shaky vocals all through unfortunately, song doesn’t build well and costume feels a bit dated and cheap (mid-2000s-ish). I’m not convinced. 6: Lelek: Simple and nice staging, very nice costumes, nice harmonies when they sing together – but when doing their solos they all sound pretty poor unfortunately… based on this performance this wouldnt have a chance in Eurovision. 7: Teenah: Vocally good and good song, but her facial expression looks terrified. Outfit doesnt fit the mood of the song – why is she trying to look like Minnie Mouse? I feel sorry for her as she… Read more »
Oh yeah Magazin’s song is my absolute fav of the entire season, and it’s confirmed, I love it.
I need more staging though, the vocals are on point, my Dora winners easily.
Magazin: straight from 2005.
1995, actually. Their entry in Dublin is one Croatia’s all-time best!
I was talking about the sound: it’s a bit outdated.
True, true.
Marko Tolja – Should definitely be performed with the Sanremo orchestra, haha. There’s almost a religious element to how direct the lyrics and the rhythms are. But I feel that it falls totally flat in monochrome, sorry about that.
No, Marko, I am busy. Find someone else.
My standouts so far, songs 1, 2, 5, 8
IVXN – This is straight out of teenage dream of mine. Despite the song sounding a bit dated, they performed well and the vocal sounded good, so bravo.
Monopol: haven’t decided if I like it or just think the guy is hot
Same here