Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Croatia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 21 times since making its debut at the 1993 contest.

Croatia's first top ten result at the contest came in 1995, when Magazin & Lidija Horvat-Dunjko finished sixth. This would be the first of six top ten results in seven years. Maja Blagdan was fourth in 1996, Danijela Martinovic, who had previously participated as a member of Magazin, was fifth in 1998, Doris Dragovic, who had finished 11th for Yugoslavia in 1986, was fourth in 1999, Goran Karan was ninth in 2000 and Vanna was tenth in 2001. Since then, Croatia has failed to reach the top ten.

Since the introduction of the semi-final round in 2004, Croatia has failed to reach the final on five occasions, including four years in succession from 2010–2013. Croatia then announced its withdrawal from the 2014 contest^[1] and didn't participate in 2015 either.^[2]

On 26 November 2015, it was announced that Croatia would return to the contest in 2016.

The Croatian representative in the Eurovision Song Contest was selected at the pop festival called Dora, an annual event organised by the national public broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT).

History

Feminnem at Oslo (2010)

Klapa s Mora at Malmö (2013)

Croatia participated at Eurovision ten times as part of Yugoslavia, in 1963, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972 and 1986–90. Apart from being the most successful Yugoslav republic in the contest, it gave the socialist republic its only win, "Rock Me", sung by Riva in 1989, that was held in Lausanne. The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was held in Zagreb as a result.^[3]

After the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991, the Croatian national public broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT) had organised a festival to select a Croatian representative for the 1992 Contest. Had HRT been a member of the EBU in time for the contest, the first Croatian entry at Eurovision would have been the band Magazin with "Aleluja".^[4]

Croatia's first entry as an independent state was in 1993 with the band Put, performing "Don't Ever Cry" which was, despite the English title, performed in Croatian. The song came third in the "Qualification for Millstreet", which allowed for their participation in the 1993 contest. Croatia's best position, as of 2013, has been with Maja Blagdan's 1996 entry "Sveta ljubav", and Doris Dragović's 1999 entry "Marija Magdalena".

Along with Malta and Cyprus and Portugal, Croatia was never relegated in the 1990s, and (unlike Cyprus and Portugal) it was never relegated in the beginning of the 21st century. Croatia and Malta are the only countries that have never won the contest and that have never been relegated either

Croatian singer Tereza Kesovija represented Monaco at the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 and the Croatian group Feminnem represented Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with "Call me".

Withdrawal

Croatian broadcaster Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) announced on 19 September 2013 that they were withdrawing from the 2014 contest, citing the European financial crisis, as well as a string of poor results between 2010 and 2013 influencing their decision to take a year's break. The last time Croatia qualified for the grand final was in 2009.^[1]

Also it was further revealed that Croatia would not return to the contest in 2015,^[2] but there were plans to return to the contest in 2016, with the entry possibly being the winner of the first season of the Croatian version of The Voice.^[5] However, on 5 May 2015, HRT announced that it won't broadcast the 2015 contest.^[6] It was the first time since 1992 for HRT to not broadcast the contest.

Return

On 26 November 2015, it was announced that Croatia would return to the contest in 2016.^[7]

Contestants

Table key

NOTES:

1. ^ In 2009, Croatia qualified through the back-up jury selection.

2. If a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. In addition from 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. If, for example, Germany and France placed inside the top ten, the countries who placed 11th and 12th were advanced to the following year's grand final along with the rest of the top ten countries.

Voting history

As of 2013, Croatia's voting history is as follows:

Most points given in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  Bosnia and Herzegovina 144 2  Malta 82 3  Slovenia 64  United Kingdom 64 5  Russia 59 Most points received in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  Slovenia 105 2  Bosnia and Herzegovina 101 3  Malta 62 4  Macedonia 56 5  Turkey 50

Most points given in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  Bosnia and Herzegovina 178 2  Slovenia 118 3  Macedonia 109 4  Serbia 106 5  Malta 96 Most points received in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  Slovenia 164 2  Bosnia and Herzegovina 145 3  Macedonia 97 4   Switzerland 74  Malta 74

Commentators

• From 1961 until 1991 Croatia competed as part of Yugoslavia

NOTE: In 2014, HRT screened only the grand final. The semi-finals were not screened.

See also

• Croatia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest.

• "Dora" - Croatian ESC Pre-selection
• Points to and from Croatia eurovisioncovers.co.uk
• Povijest Dore (Croatian)

Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest   Participation 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 to 2015 2016   Artists 1990s Put Tony Cetinski Magazin & Lidija Horvat-Dunjko Maja Blagdan E.N.I. Danijela Martinović Doris Dragović 2000s Goran Karan Ivana Vrdoljak- Vanna Vesna Pisarović Claudia Beni Ivan Mikulić Boris Novković feat. Lado Severina Vučković Dragonfly feat. Dado Topić Kraljevi ulice & 75 Cents Igor Cukrov feat. Andrea Šušnjara 2010s Feminnem Daria Kinzer Nina Badrić Klapa s Mora 2014   Songs 1990s "Don't Ever Cry" "Nek' ti bude ljubav sva" "Nostalgija" "Sveta ljubav" "Probudi me" "Neka mi ne svane" "Marija Magdalena" 2000s "Kad zaspu anđeli" "Strings of My Heart" "Everything I Want" "Više nisam tvoja" "You Are The Only One" "Vukovi umiru sami" "Moja štikla" "Vjerujem u ljubav" "Romanca" "Lijepa Tena" 2010s "Lako je sve" "Celebrate" "Nebo" "Mižerja" 2014 (Note: Entries scored out are when Croatia did not compete)