And so it returns! 8 years after its most recent conduct in 2011, Dora, the Croatian national competition which used to determine the country’s hopeful for the Eurovision Song Contest will be back to our screens in 2019! As a matter of course, its winner will fly to Tel Aviv, in the hope of a successful Eurovision result.

Submissions open by 10 January; final in February

Today saw the Croatian national broadcaster HRT publicly release the rules and regulations governing their Eurovision selection format. Dora 2019 will be concluded in a single show, which is scheduled to take place in the first days of February.

Candidate entries which have never been performed before for Dora 2019 may be submitted to the broadcaster from today to 10 January. Here you may find the online application form. All participants must be at least 16 years on the national selection’s day. There are 4 permitted languages for the songs and these are Croatian, English, French and Italian.

Following the submissions’ closure, a total of 16 entries, as well as 2 back-ups will be shortlisted by an appointed jury committee, which will be consisting of music experts, singers experienced in Eurovision, representatives of the Croatian Music Union (HGU), and the Croatian Society of Composers (HDS). The selected acts, as well as the running order will be unveiled by 31 January.

With the participation of 16 acts, Dora 2019 is expected to air live in February. Both the public and an expert jury will have their say on the competition’s final outcome.

You may find the whole document released by HRT here.

Croatia at Eurovision

Croatia made its first Eurovision performance in 1993, where they placed 15th with the pop band Put and Don’t even cry. Until 2000, Croatia has enjoyed five Top 10 placings, with their best outcome being the 4th place, achieved on two Eurovision editions; in 1996 with Maja Blagdan and in 1999 with Doris Dragović. During the 21st century, the country has not managed to enter the Top 10 again.

Last year, singer Franka was chosen internally by HRT to defend the Croatian colours in Lisbon, with the pop ballad Crazy, penned by Franka herself and Branimir Mihaljević. The artist performed at the first semi-final, but failed to go through to the grand final, coming 17th with 63 points.