A bumper week of national selection shows concluded with the grand final of Dora 2025. Croatia crowned their next Eurovision star — Marko Bošnjak, who will now serve up a slice of “Poison Cake” in Basel.
Dora took place in Opatija. Our hosts for the night were Duško Čurlić and Barbara Kolar.
Dora 2025: Grand final
The results were determined by a combination of votes from a jury and the public, each counting for 50%. The jury panel was evenly split between Croatian and international members.
Jury vote
- Marko Bošnjak – 83 points
- Magazin – 62 points
- Nipplepeople – 52 points
- Luka Nižetić – 45 points
- Ogenj – 42 points
- Marko Tolja – 42 points
- Lelek – 33 points
- EoT – 30 points
- IVXN – 19 points
- Fenksta – 16 points
- Petar Brkljačić – 14 points
- Laurakojapjeva – 12 points
- Marko Škugor – 10 points
- Matt Shaft – 2 points
- Natalli – 2 points
- Filomena – 0 points
Public vote
- Ogenj – 78 points
- Lelek – 69 points
- Magazin – 49 points
- Marko Bošnjak – 47 points
- Luka Nižetić – 39 points
- Marko Tolja – 32 points
- Matt Shaft – 26 points
- EoT – 21 points
- Nipplepeople – 19 points
- Marko Škugor – 17 points
- Laurakojapjeva – 16 points
- Fenksta – 15 points
- IVXN – 11 points
- Filomena – 9 points
- Natalli – 8 points
- Petar Brkljačić – 8 points
Overall results
- Marko Bošnjak – 130 points
- Ogenj – 120 points
- Magazin – 111 points
- Lelek – 102 points
- Luka Nižetić – 84 points
- Marko Tolja – 74 points
- Nipplepeople – 71 points
- EoT – 51 points
- Fenksta – 31 points
- IVXN – 30 points
- Matt Shaft – 28 points
- Laurakojapjeva – 28 points
- Marko Škugor – 27 points
- Petar Brkljačić – 22 points
- Natalli – 10 points
- Filomena – 9 points
What are your thoughts on the Dora 2025 results? Do Croatia have good chances going into Eurovision? Let us know in the comments.
Part of me feels bad for Marko being attacked by politicians, priests etc. He does not deserve the hate he gets, because it mostly revolves around his sexuality. In the long run, his bravery will pay off, I think. Another part thinks some of the criticism is well justified because the song is just not good (enough)… It tries to be a lot of things and it’a not clicking with folks. Which makes the jury votes all the more suspicious hmm… I don’t think it will do as badly as the bookies predict as they’ll for sure make the stage… Read more »
Is this the busiest thread of the season so far?
Nope, not anymore. Melfest surpassed this.
I cannot lay this to rest. The corruption and incompetence of HRT and Tomislav Stengl. How HRT pushed Marko to victory? We all know that Marko’s PR agent/fu*k buddy/bff (Luka Grgic) is Dora’s stage director and a person that communicates with the artists in HRT’s name. He prohibited other artists (there are receipts) to release a music video before or on the day of the competition because it is against the rules. Who was the only one that released a music video 7 days before Dora? That’s right, Marko Bosnjak. Lelek asked before Dora to sing in croatian or at… Read more »
Just tell people to Google INDEX JOSIP BOSNJAK and use Google Translator..
On another note, do you serioisly think there was no funny business back in the days of Ksenija Urlicic? And especially back when there were only jiures on ESC?
It’s all one big nasty game.
It’ just that today with all the social media it’s more transperent.
This is not to say that heads shouldn’t roll!
OFF. WITH. THEIR. HEADS!
Of course there was funny business but this is the first time ever that the winner wasn’t a televote winner, or nowhere near.
I want Ursula Tolj back. She was the head of delegation for just one year but in my opinion that year was Croatia’s renaissance.
But yes.. off with their heads!
The public votes wanted something else, eurovision national are so impacted by jury votes to dominate the outcome
How could this have won with this screaming notes at the end ?! The jury did rank this first and the televotes 4th. Did the jury not rank on singing but only on performance?
And this is what HRT didn’t allow thru to even be at Dora 2025. ?
https://youtu.be/FYtWCxmVU14?si=RJvSR51nd_PWWhMH&sfnsn=wa
You should rank studio version because its unfair to judge a singer who is sick on the day and define everything about him beacuse of illness. He won many competitions based on his vocals alone. and Netherlands is placed so high and you havent even hear live version? what if he sings bad how will that change your opinions?
Claude is a huge name compared to Marko with a few of his songs circulating radio stations in the Netherlands. And Marko won the voice when he was like 10. What many competitions. His vocals weren’t just bad in the final but semi too. Was he sick back then too?
Unlistenable
Why is 95% of comments here THIS negative? Half of those are also just rude!!
Here are my opinions of Poison Cake. The song has a great meaning of standing up for yourself. I myself relate to this song. It draws you in to the cute melody of being offered a cake and then it goes dark offering poison instead. The live performance needs a lot of work. I can understand that Marko was sick during the live show, so I will give him a pass for his vocal problems. The staging isn’t all that good, so that’s my only complaint about the live show. Otherwise I think Poison Cake is a fabulous song that… Read more »
In my opinion (and for many in Croatia), this song feels unremarkable and forgettable. The other artists, like Magazin, Ogenj, Nipplepeople, and Luka, have had their own audience in Croatia over the years, while Marko Bošnjak has support from Eurovision fans. Although the song has been well received by the Wiwibloggs jury, it doesn’t seem to generate the same excitement nationally. In any case, this is what Marko Bošnjak aimed for, and this is what he got. We wish him the best of luck!
I like the studio version so the problem is his live vocals and the staging. This song doesn’t need some revamp but the live version is just dreadful.
He was sick.
Absolutely horrible – Croatia 0/12
an overall very good national final with some very good stagings and great visual effects on the screens. Several of the entries could have been very good entries for Eurovision, but my favourite actually won for once. Others that I really liked was Luka, Ogenj, Nipplepeople and Petar Brkljacic. Also the songs by Lelek and Matt Shaft were amazingly staged and with great costumes, but vocally poor unfortunately – and i love the song by IVXN and EoT, but here both vocals and staging would have needed lots of work. “Poison Cake” is a really cool song and I love… Read more »
Can I please have some of what you’re on…!
You mean positivitiy? I know its hard to find these days in this gloomy world we are living in… but it is possible.
Love it! I don’t know where all the hate is coming from honestly and i don’t even care. But i absolutely enjoyed hosting performance
With all this hate towards the song, we forgot to appreciate laurakojapjeva and Matt Shaft being in a relationship and ending up with the same number of points.
Both very much better options than this awfulness!
Matt Shaft absolutely no vocals. Kudos to him for being violinist and music teacher but singing is not his suit.
I expected more from Laura live tbh.
Strong suit*
This is absolutely terrible. I couldn’t finnish it..
It’s like a fever dream… But even cringy. What’s wrong with Ex Yugoslavian countries this year? From “Ramonda” to “Mila”, from “Rim tim tagi dim” to “Poison cake”, from “Veronika” to “How Much Time Do We Have Left”? Like, for real?!
yeah – because you wanted the dated pop bangers to win instead? Right? Lets be honest Magazin was dated as h e l l and had nothing to do in ESC 2025 – and July Jones wasnt really a good pop song either despite her effort on trying to sell the entry with her sensuality… At least “Mila” isnt a truly bad song eventhough I had a different favourite myself in Serbia – but lets be honest: neither Bojana & David (poor vocals), Harem Girls (talk about poor vocals) or Mimi Mercedez had very good performances…only Filarri and Iskaz had… Read more »
I agree with Filarri. He was my favorite for Serbia but Mila is top 5 for me
Personally I don’t like it, but I seriously think that many are now deliberately jumping on the hate train and underestimating its potential.
Nope. It is just not good. And people HOPED that HRT will learn their lesson after baby lasagna and that croatia will be on the upwards trajectory like Switzerland after 2019 but no. And of course people are pissed off because juries F’d up again.
Will learn what? Send Ogenj who are in fact a poor version of Baby Lasagna? I’m glad Croatia is ready now to send something more risky. “Mama Š?” was hated too but finally it did quite well.
Mama SC was hated because lyrics seemed nonsensical, but when we understood the lyrics everyone was behind that song 100%. JESC song is not ”risky”.
The lead singer looks and sounds like Baby Lasagna
HRT DID learn their lesson. This years Dora was 1000 times better than any Dora that have come before it. Last year there were only 2 options in Dora – this year there were many options – and one of the best ones actually won as well. “Poison Cake” is a perfect follow up to “Rim Tim Tagi Dim” without it being a complete rip off of that song – like “Daj Daj” felt like.
He said he will revamp the song. Hopefully that means a whole new song all tohether.
revampyre
Hot take of the day: I don’t mind this and with improved vocals, we might have a top five jury performance in the works here.
Not a chance! Top five JURY?!?!?!
Yes, I also think that, Marko has great vocal ( he was sick on Dora) , I think Jury will love it
Goodbye NeoNoen, One Morning Left and Ogenj. We could have many great groups this year, but they killed it because of jury, replacing or disqualification. Instead we have many extravaganza male singers with cringe songs. Really the weakest year and I say this first time since 2017.
I don’t even really have anything interesting or constructive to say about this song that is also just not really interesting or constructive. This kinda sucks actually.
I can’t with this level of cringe and I won’t.
Unpalatable. Even the zero poi nts of the 2023 semis had better ingredients than this. Easily the wor st Croatian entry I can think of. No offence meant!!!!
Kao heroj, where are you??
Now, now… THAT was one of the worst things in ESC history.
I disagree.
I’ll be honest and laughed at this song in the wrong ways. He’s trying so hard to be edgy and badass and all it ends up being is ridiculous and silly
Lelek got 2nd in televote so I’m happy with that
Poison cake cappuccino macchiato milkshake we are missing some burgers and pizza.
Well there could have been a well fried pizza from Norway back in 2015. LOL!
All that for this! This is simply awful. Ma favorites were ranked on 3 (Magazin -AaAaA), 4 (Lelek – the Soul of my soul)(the best one for me), 5 (Luka – Juzina) and…10 (IVXN – Monopol).Thus, “Poison cake” will be my toilet break. Sorry Croatia. Bad choice
Well this was a waste of my time…I’m sorry but this is just rubbish!
this has no melody. It’s a no from me and this will not qualify. In general, the quality of songs this year is at its lowest for a long time.
Thanks Croatia for joining the semifinal and thank you for not attending the finals ?
OMG this is so not my taste of music .. croatia had so much better options
Right – this has made me pretty angry. What is this?! It’s about 5 songs thrown together and an attempt (a very bad attempt!) at a ‘paint by numbers’ ESC song. Honestly… one of the worst entries ever.
WTF is this?!
I don’t like the song
With so many ingredients its rather difficult to bake a cake which is delicious.
Wishing Croatia lots of succes with their entry ESC 25.
3 minutes of ESC mannerisms without a song.
Exactly this! So well summed up!
Thank God I’m living in the Netherlands so I need to bring just dutch flag to Basel this year and leave Croatian flag home.
0/12 from Ireland..meh..trying to hard to be edgy
…you mean… like Bambie Thug last year? Did she try too hard you think?
So bad and unmelodic 0/12
another very bad song …
I’m developing this fear, the Eurovision final 2025 just isn’t going to be pleasant to sit through ??
Yeah… I’m lowering my standards right now so I can fake a bit of interest for more songs. There are 3 songs that I really enjoy, 5-6 songs that I like and the same number that I appreciate but without much interest. Everything outside of my top 15 are songs that I listened to only once and I probably won’t listen to them until May.
Usually, there are only 4-5 songs that really hate when the line-up is complete, not 40% of them 🙁
Yeah, same here… There are more songs (over 10 already) that I genuinely dislike than the ones I like and I can’t even make a Top 10 of songs that I care about, which is very unusual so late in the selection season.
You’re not the only one. Not since 2011 have I ever heard such a bad collection of songs.
Thanks to the juries for spoiling a decision once again… -.-
The studio version of the song showed promise but did not seal the deal for me. So, I really wanted it to elevate live…but wow!…what a trainwreck. Childish presentation with horrific vocals that kept getting worse. Was that the Dora Horror Show I just watched? Poison cake, indeed. Hvale, ne!
What a catastrophe for ex-Yugo countries this year, all 4 of them are rock bottom of fan scoreboards. I fear none of them will qualify this year. Remarkable.
…and yeah the fact that this was the Jury winner (4th with Public) looks very corrupt…There were many other entrant’s who sang their good songs well.
How was it corrupt? It was mostly the international juries that put Poison Cake first, not the Croatian juries. And who cares about the national televotes when it comes to the international contest? Croatia have several times voted on songs that havent even managed to get out of the semifinals, even when they were first with the national televote. The televote doesnt always vote for the best song.
That screaming at the the end is really an epic fail. Everything about is just bloody awful.
Yes the high notes (screams) at the end needs working or changing completely. It is obvious that Marko is inspired by Bambie Thug – but I think the song would be much better if he looses that shoulder pointy coat, which make the staging look too theatrical.
Hope Croatia revamp their poison cake
Hope we withdraw
Na HRT-u ocito nisu toliko pametni kao u Moldaviji. Uzas!
Treba maknuti Stengela i njegove vern gejcice i vratit Ursulu Tolj.
I hope the performance is better at Euro than Dora
I’m confused. I thought Poison Cake was one of the fan favorites for Croatia, but now that it’s won Dora, people are hating on it?
Dora was a quite open selection and there were like 4-5 fan favorites. People that don’t like Marko are expressing themselves now. I have to say that I don’t like his song either but I guess it’s done so…
Maybe they are just appalled at the presentation of the song. I saw it and it sounded not good.
i think ogenj had the perfect key for a lot rock/ethno/metal fun at basel but somebody has stolen the key.
He is homophobic! So no thank u!
Hé is homophobic? Probably in the closet himself..
He literally said that allowing gay people to foster children would be the same as giving them to animals. Thank God he isn’t representing us.
OMG he said that? well then I thank the lords for the same thing! We dont want that in Eurovision. Marko’s emotional reaction to winning just sealed my approval for him – the most genuine reaction ever.
Ugh, this is trying so hard to be edgy but the cringiness of this is too hard to bear. What a waste, Croatia…
Sorry if you did not know, but Dora is ALWAYS a waste. At least for us in Croatia.