Croatia: No internal selection for Damir Kedzo; HRT to select ESC 2021hopeful through 'Dora'

Croatia: No internal selection for Damir Kedzo; HRT to select ESC 2021hopeful through 'Dora'
Tuesday, 23 June 2020

  • The Croatian national broadcaster has revealed that the country's Eurovision 2021 hopeful will be selected through the national selection format of 'Dora', which means that Damir Kedzo, the ESC 2020 act, will not be selected internally for next year.

    One more country has decided to hold a new national selection for Eurovision 2021 instead of selecting internally this year's ESC representative. Croatia will stick again with its traditional national final format, 'Dora', and will be holding the national final in  Opatija next February. Ms. Ursula Toj the Croatian Head of Delegation will be in charge of Dora 2021.

    Therefore, this year's Eurovision act, Damir Kedzo, will not be invited to return in Rotterdam next year, but he will have to compete with a new song and win Dora 2021 in order to represent the country in The Netherlands in May 2021. 

    The Croatian act reated to the decision with mixed feeling and shared his thoughts through his facebook account: 

     

    Damir Kedzo says in his post: 

    "The whole DORA 2020 experience was a full circle. From happiness to sadness, from winning Dora to cancellation of Eurovision because of Covid 19 and at the end canceling me as a direct representative for Rotterdam 2021. Thank you everyone, my band, my girls who shared the stage with me in Opatija and a virtual one while we sang “Divlji vjetre” online to people all over Europe and the world. Huge thank you to all the people from my team and all of those who gave their hearts and souls in these few months with the intention that our song and performance is seen and heard in the best possible light. We solely wanted to represent our music and country the best way we knew.

    Thank you all for your support and support in the last 24 hours since we know that HRT decided to have a new competition and that i will not directly represented Croatia in Rotterdam in 2021. This roller coaster of emotions and change is not easy to survive, so thank you all once again. I'm happily waiting to go with you through everything that the future will bring us. You can expect the best possible music and emotions that I will bring to you, and I belive you will be with me. I don't need anything else. I love you people."

    Damir has won this year 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. 

     

    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 2018 Croatia selected internally Franka Batelic to represent the country in Lisbon with her song Crazy. Despite her dynamic performance she failed to qualify to the Grand Final.

    In 2018, Croatia determined its Eurovision act through the return of national selection “Dora”.  Roko won Dora 2019 and represented Croatia at the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest with his entry The Dream. Despite his amazing vocal performance the Croatian artist didn’t make it to the final.