HRT, the Croatian national broadcaster, has announced today that circa 150 songs were submitted for Dora 2019.

The 2019 Croatian national final – Dora 2019– will be held on Saturday 16 February at the Marino Cvetkovic Sports Hall in Opatija, Croatia. Dora will be back on Croatian screens after an eight year hiatus.

Last November HRT opened the submission window for artists, composers and musicians wishing to compete at the 2019 Croatian national final and eventually represent Croatia in Eurovision 2019 to submit their entries. The deadline for submission concluded 10 January 2019. Now a special jury will evaluate all submitted entries and will shorlist them to sixteeen songs along with two reserve songs.

The jury is expected to make its final verdict and release the list of the 2019 Dora competing entries by next week.

A total of 16 acts will battle for the golden ticket to Tel Aviv at Dora 2019. The 2019 Croatian Eurovision entry and act will be determined via a public televoting/ jury deliberation.

Croatia in Eurovision

Croatia debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993 with the six member group Put and their entry Don’t ever cry, and is yet to win the event. The Balkan country’s best results in the competition were achieved in 1996 (Maja Blagdan) and 1999 (Doris Dragovic), when it placed 4th in the Grand Final.

The country has competed 24 times in the contest and has not been very lucky in the competition in recent years, with its last top 10 finish in 2001.

In 2018 Croatia opted for an internal selection and selected Franka Batelic to fly the Croatian flag at the Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon with her entry Crazy. Despite a magnificent performance she failed to qualify to the Grand Final.