Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019


Croatia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song “The Dream” performed by Roko Blažević. The Croatian broadcaster Hrvatska Radiotelevizija organised the national final Dora 2019 in order to select the Croatian entry for the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Background

Prior to the 2019 Contest, Croatia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-four times since its first entry in. Croatia's highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been fourth place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 1996 with the song "Sveta ljubav" performed by Maja Blagdan and in 1999 "Marija Magdalena" performed by Doris Dragović. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Croatia had featured in seven finals. In 2018, Croatia failed to qualify to the final, placing 17th in the first semi-final with the song "Crazy" performed by Franka.

Before Eurovision

''Dora 2019''

Dora 2019 was the twentieth edition of the Croatian national selection Dora, which selected Croatia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The competition consisted of up to 16 entries competing in one final on 16 February 2019. Participating entries for the selection must be in either English, French, Italian, or Croatian.

Format

Unlike in most other Dora editions the format of the competition includes one final night. 16 songs competed in the final. The combination of points from a viewer vote and ten regional jury groups determined the winner. According to the competition rules, in the event of a tie for the first place, the winner was the entrant ranked highest by the public televote.

Competing entries

Artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 20 November 2018 and 10 January 2019. 162 entries were received by the broadcaster during the submission period. An expert committee selected sixteen artists and songs for the competition from the received submissions. The competing artists were announced on 17 January 2019. 4 Tenora withdrew on 29 January 2019, due to a previously scheduled concert. As a result of this, Kim Verson and her song "Nisam to što žele" participated in the national selection instead. The running order was revealed on 4 February 2019.
ArtistSong 'Composer
Beta Sudar"Don't Give Up"Predrag Martinjak, Malin Johansson
Bernarda Bruno"I Believe in True Love"Duško Rapotec Ute, Bernarda Brunović, T. Bon
Bojan Jambrošić & Danijela Pintarić"Vrijeme predaje" 'Ante Toni Eterović, Leonardo Čeči Baksa
Domenica"Indigo"Tonči Huljić, Vjekoslava Huljić
Elis Lovrić"All I Really Want"Elis Lovrić, Olja Dešić
Ema Gagro"Redemption"Andreas Björkman, Adriana Pupavac, Kalle Persson, Ema Gagro
Gelato Sisters"Back to That Swing"Tvrtko Hrelec
Jelena Bosančić"Tell Me"Jelena Bosančić
Jure Brkljača"Ne postojim kad nisi tu" 'Miroslav Drljača Rus
Kim Verson"Nisam to što žele" 'Kim Verson
Lea Mijatović"Tebi pripadam" 'Igor Ivanović, Marko Vojvodić
Lidija Bačić"Tek je počelo" 'Denis Dumančić, Fayo
Lorena Bućan"Tower of Babylon"Tonči Huljić, Ivan Huljić, Vjekoslava Huljić
Luka Nižetić"Brutalero"Branimir Mihaljević, Mario Mihaljević
Manntra"In The Shadows"Marko Matijević Sekul, Maja Kolarić, Boris Kolarić
Roko Blažević"The Dream"Jacques Houdek, Andrea Čubrić, Charlie Mason
4 Tenora"Brod bez imena" Eduard Botrić, Matko Šimac

Final

The final took place at Opatija, on 16 February 2019, and was hosted by Mirko Fodor, Jelena Glišić and Iva Šulentić. The winner was determined by a 50/50 combination of points awarded by regional juries and from the public televote.

Promotion

Roko made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "The Dream" as the Croatian Eurovision entry. He performed at Moscow Eurovision Party on 26 April.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Croatia was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.
Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Croatia was set to perform in position 10, following the entry from Austria and preceding the entry from Malta.

Semi-final

Croatia performed tenth in the second semi-final, following the entry from Austria and preceding the entry from Malta. At the end of the show, Croatia was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Croatia placed fourteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 64 points: 38 points from the televoting and 26 points from the juries. With the old voting system, Croatia would have ranked 14th with 25 points.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results will be released shortly after the grand final.

Points awarded to Croatia

Points awarded by Croatia

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Croatian jury: