Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Updated on Sep 26, 2024

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Appearances 22 (17 finals) Best result 4th: 1996, 1999		First appearance 1993 Worst result 16th SF: 2007

Member station Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) National selection events Dora 1993–2011 Internal selection 2012–2017

Croatia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 times since making its debut at the 1993 contest. Between 1993 and 2011, the Croatian entrant was selected at the Dora pop festival, an event organised by the national public broadcaster Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT). Croatia's best result in the contest is fourth-place finishes in 1996 and 1999.

Croatia first reached the top ten 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 Martinović (who had previously participated as a member of Magazin) was fifth in 1998, Doris Dragović (who 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 to 2013. Croatia then withdrew from the contest in 2014 and 2015. On its return in 2016, Croatia reached the final for the first time in seven years.

History

Croatia participated at Eurovision ten times as part of Yugoslavia, in 1963, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1990. 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.

After the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991, the Croatian national public broadcaster Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) had organised a festival to select a Croatian representative for the 1992 Contest. If HRT had 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".

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, also partially performed in Croatian. The song came third in the "Qualification for Millstreet", which allowed their participation in the 1993 contest. Croatia's best position, as of 2016, 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.

Also it was further revealed that Croatia would not return to the contest in 2015, 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. However, on 5 May 2015, HRT announced that it won't broadcast the 2015 contest. 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. Nina Kraljić with the song "Lighthouse" qualified to the final, making it that Croatia qualified for the first time since 2009. After the successful return in 2016, Croatian national broadcaster Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) confirmed on 17 September 2016 that they would also participate in 2017. Jacques Houdek, the coach of Nina Kraljić in The Voice - Najljepši glas Hrvatske, was internally selected to represent the country on 17 February 2017, exactly five months after they confirmed the participation.

Contestants

Yugoslavian entries in 1963, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1972, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989 and 1990 are Croatian entries that competed for Yugoslavia.

Table key

NOTES:

1. ^ Spain originally gave its 12 points to Israel and 10 to Norway. After the broadcast it was announced that Spanish broadcaster wrongly tallied the votes and Germany should have got the top mark - 12 points - instead of being snubbed, as it happened. The mistake was corrected and so Germany was placed 7th over Norway. Israel and Norway both received 2 points less than originally and Croatia, Malta, Portugal, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Estonia and Turkey all received one point less than indicated during the broadcast. 2. ^ In 2009, Croatia qualified through the back-up jury selection. 3. 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 2016, Croatia's voting history is as follows:

Hostings

Croatia has hosted the Eurovision Song Contest only once, in 1990, after Riva's victory for Yugoslavia in 1989. This makes Croatia the only country that hosted the contest and didn't participate in it, and the only country which hosted the contest and has never won.

Commentators and spokespersons

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.

References

Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest Wikipedia

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