Croatia: Changes for national selection 'Dora 2023'

• The Croatian broadcaster, HRT, has revealed that the national selection format of 'Dora 2023' will be facing changes next year. 

  According to what the Croatian Head of Delegation, Tomislav Štengl, mentioned in an interview to Music Pub Zlatka Turkalja on HR 2 and as Eurosong.hr is reporting, next year's national selection event will go through some changes. 

  Namely, the first change will concern the way and the time the participating entries will be released. Next year the entries will be released earlier and all participating acts will have to accompany their song with a lyric or music video. 

  The second change will concern the layout of the competition with two semifinals added in the selection. Stengl says specifically: 

  “The intention is to have more evenings, to have more songs in this selection, a maximum of 28. We would therefore have two semi-finals and a final.”

  Also the broadcaster intends to introduce the competing acts and entries throughout special shows on public television ahead of the shows. Tomislav Štengl explains their decision saying: 

  “Our idea is to play these videos on some television shows, which will be dedicated only to Dora. Another thing is that people are simply informed. We go by the principle that if the Eurovision works in such a way that for two and a half months we all know those songs, hear them, then Eurovision is a success. That can also work for Dora.

  It is always interesting to see how a team of composers will work out their song for a performance on a big stage, so it can be the same at Dora. We hope that all this together creates some kind of path that should take us from the semi-finals to the final.”

   

  Dora 2023 will take place in Opatija in February 2023. In present time the submission window is open and will remain active up to November 20, 2022. 

   

  Croatia in Eurovision 

  Croatia debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993 with the group Put and their entry Don’t ever cry.  In 1996 Maja Blagdan and in 1999 Doris Dragovic, finished in 4th place in the Grand Final, marking the country’s best results so far in the competition.

  In 2020 Damir won the national final with his entry "Divlji Vjetre" but never had the chanece to perform on the Eurovision stage in Rotterdam as the contest was cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic. For 2021 HRT opted again for 'Dora' as the country's national selection format, which saw Albina triumphed with her song Tik-Tok. Despite her energetic performance on stage in Rotterdam in the 1st semi final , Albina didn't make it to the Grand final show. 

  This year Mia Dimšić represented Croatia at Eurovision 2022 with the song “Guilty Pleasure” missing out the final for one spot, as she finished 11th the 1st semi-final. 

   

  News Source: Eurosong.hr/ eurovoix

  Image: EBU/Nathan Reinds

   

   

   

   

AUTHORS

Angelos D.
Loyal follower of the Eurovision Song Contest since 1987, I've made the competition one of the stories of my life. After attending as accredited press the event for 13 consecutive years along with the 2017-2024 JESC editions, I also enjoy the last three years sharing more Eurovision music through the Eurofans radio's project.