Croatia: HRT to reveal Dora 2021 finalists on December 15

Croatia: HRT to reveal Dora 2021 finalists on December 15
Thursday, 03 December 2020

  • The Croatian national broadcaster, HRT, has announced that it will reveal the finlalists of Dora 2021 on December 15, 2020. 

    HRT has made public that the competing acts of the Croatian national selection will be revealed on December 15. With the submissions closing on December 10, the broadcaster will announce the Dora 2021 candidates just five days after. 

    With the covid-19 pandemic escalating HRT has introduced some changes to adjust to the current needs for security. In next year's edition instead of 16 songs this year 14 songs will compete on Dora. The finalists will be selected by a jury of experts, coming from HRT , compoers and the Croatian Music Union.

    In addition , four entries will be selected as reserves in case their is a withdrawal before the rehearsals kick off in Opatija. After that, if there is a withdrawal, no replacement will take place.


    Furthermore, there can be a maximum of five people on stage (instead of six as before), and all backing vocals must be pre-recorded, not performed live. This is a rule that the Eurovision Song Contest allowed as an option for 2021, and HRT decided to include it in the national final rules.

    The Croatian national final is set to  take place  13 February in Opatija while the voting method will be announced by end of January. 

     

    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.

    Damir Kedzo won this year's 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. 

    News Source/Image: HRT