After a spectacular second place finish in Malmö, Croatia is hoping to go one step further in Switzerland — the home to many Croatian expats. Having won the national selection Dora, Marko Bošnjak will try and make the country proud with his “Poison Cake”.
Despite not winning the televote, the jury of Dora praised Marko’s creativity and boldness and ranked him well above the runner-ups, which eventually was enough for him to win the coveted ticket.
Whilst Marko and his team are busy baking and icing his poison cake, let’s get to know the Eurovision singer from Croatia.
Croatia at Eurovision 2025: 10 facts about Marko Bosnjak
1. No stranger to Dora
He previously attempted to represent Croatia in 2021 with the song “Moli za nas”, where he came second to Mia’s “Guilty Pleasure”. Written by his long-time friend Vlaho Arbulic, his Dora 2021 entry is a 180° shift from “Poison Cake”, due to its religious motifs and pace.
2. He worked in fast food to make music
When celebs need money they usually reach to influencing or property investing. However, not Marko! He worked his fingers to the bone at a local fast food restaurant in order to survive and save money for his music career. Speaking about this experience, he says it was hard as he felt lost and useless after high school and often found himself crying at work. Luckily, the plan worked.
3. He’s originally from Herzegovina
Marko’s family comes from Rama, a small village in the north of Herzegovina. The village belongs to the Prozor-Rama municipality that counts slightly more than 14,000 inhabitants, a large majority of them being Croatians and Roman-Catholic. It is expected Marko holds a Croatian passport, thus securing himself the right to compete in Croatia’s national selection.
4. He won a pan-Balkan kids show
His music career began while he was still a boy. He won the hearts of regional audiences at the age of just 11 by appearing on the popular TV show Pinkove zvezdice, where he eventually won. The same show gave birth to (Junior) Eurovision stars like Roko, Martija Stanojkovic, Mina Blazev, etc.
5. …which resulted in collaboration with a Eurovision star
There he was noticed by Ana Rucner, a dear friend of wiwibloggs and one-fourth of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Eurovision 2016 act. She invited him to play at her annual celebration of the first day of summer in Dubrovnik – and even recorded a Céline Dion cover together.
6. To make one dream true, he had to give up another
Recently, Croatian TV viewers learned that Marko was set to be one of eight participants in the latest season of Your Face Sounds Familiar. However, given he has won Dora and will spend a lot of time prepping for his Eurovision adventure, Marko and his team decided to pull out of the competition party way through. Viewers will still get to see him on their screen up until episode eight.
7. Baby Lasagna’s wife helped shoot the video for “Poison Cake”
His “Poison Cake” video – yes, the one with a snake in it – was recorded by Mrs. Lasagna herself (partner of Croatia’s Eurovision 2024 silver medallist). The video was recorded by Elizabeta Ruzic-Purisic and her family-run Rose Art studio.
8. His dead hang record is 6 seconds!
If you’re in Zagreb on a Saturday morning, the chances are high you will be invited by HRT’s TikTok team to dead hang for the chance of winning 100 euros. Marko, however, only managed to do it for 6 seconds. He does promise to get in shape before Eurovision, though!
9. He’s openly gay
Marko’s brutally honest. He came out to Croatian people live on TV shortly after winning Dora.
He repeats that he is proud of himself, but that his childhood was marked by bullying where he had to carry callipers to fight off at school. Growing up in a rural and religious community did him no favour too, as he felt pressure by the church.
Talking about it on RTL Direkt, Marko says:
“I’m aware of where we live and what kind of environment we’re in. It doesn’t surprise me, but in a way it saddens me that I had to be the first to take the burden on myself. I’m proud of who I am and I want to live it openly and not hide it. “
10. He likes to travel and attend glam events
Marko’s Insta confirms to us that he likes to dress up well, mingle with other celebrities and travel in his free time. Sometimes he also likes to model.
11. He is Croatia‘s worst ESC entry.
12. He is the first Croatian participant to receive zero points at ESC.
He’s got talent, he’s brave, yes…but he’s also an arrogant kid who was put in such a competitive and public industry. He needs to grow up and surround himself with different people – not the ones blowing smoke up his a**.
Good luck!
Vjera I’m sick of you and your shitting for years and years.
You know very well what’s happening since Dora..Marko is hatred by his own country for being openly gay
I’m ashamed where I’m living
Not true. People dislike the song, and his behaviour is only enhancing it. In combination with all the Dora shenenigans (thx, J.Bo!), the media is eating it all up. Also, ESC fans don’t seem to respond to the song very well. We’ll see just how the ESC juries rate it and how it corresponds to Dora juries.
AMEN!!!
Hallelujah!
These bots are nowhere to be seen on the boards. Just crawling from under the rock…
He is definitely not arrogant, just willing to be (sometimes brutally) honest and fight for what is important to him (from music to human rights) and refreshingly aware of the psycological background behind his own and others’ reactions/feelings: https://www.24sata.hr/show/marko-bosnjak-nam-otkrio-ne-ocekujem-nista-na-eurosongu-a-spreman-sam-na-sve-ludnica-1047487
Guess you are one of those people I was talking about huh…
IT IS A F****** COMPETITION WHERE YOU REPRESENT YOUR COUNTRY.
Saying he doesn’t expect much says a lot really.
Another AMEN!!!!
It really pisses me off how some people view this as an oportunity for personal whatever…promotion, pleasure, you name it.
Just don’t get pissed, don’t invest yourself into something so worthless as the Croatian ESC entry this year. On 13 May he will be history anyway, maybe remembered once a year around the ESC as the worst Croatian ESC entry.
He is not the worst Croatian ESC entry at all!
A great vocalist, he deserves to qualify.
Given the competition, yes. I expect him to advance to the final (contrary to the lie in the first sentence lol).