Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Croatia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "The Dream" performed by Roko. The Croatian broadcaster (HRT) organised the national final "Dora 2019" in order to select the Croatian entry for the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel. Background. Prior to the 2019 contest, Croatia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-four times since its first entry in . Croatia's highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been fourth place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 1996 with the song "" performed by Maja Blagdan  and in 1999 "" performed by Doris Dragović. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Croatia had featured in seven finals. In 2018, Croatia failed to qualify to the final, placing 17th in the first semi-final with the song "Crazy" performed by Franka. Before Eurovision. Section::::"Dora 2019". "Dora 2019" was the twentieth edition of the Croatian national selection "Dora" which selected Croatia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The competition consisted of sixteen entries competing in one final on 16 February 2019 at the Marino Cvetković Sports Hall in Opatija, broadcast on HRT 1 as  well as online via the broadcaster's streaming service HRTi and hosted by Mirko Fodor, Jelena Glišić and Iva Šulentić. Competing entries. On 20 November 2018, HRT opened a submission period where artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster with the deadline on 10 January 2019. Songs submitted were required to be in either English, French, Italian or Croatian. 162 entries were received by the broadcaster during the submission period. A seven-member expert committee consisting of Ivana Vrdoljak Vanna, Zlatko Turkalj Turki, Igor Geržina, Ante Pecotić, Antonija Šola, Zlatko Gal and Željen Klašterka reviewed  the received submissions and selected sixteen artists and songs for the competition. HRT announced the competing entries on 17 January 2019 and among the competing artists, Neda Parmac of Gelato Sisters represented Bosnia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 and Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 as member of Feminnem, while Marko Škugor of 4 Tenora represented Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 as member of Klapa s Mora. On 29 January 2019, 4 Tenora withdrew from the competition due to a previously scheduled concert, and was replaced by "" performed by Kim Verson. Final. The final took place  on 16 February 2019. The running order was announced on 4 February 2019. The winner, "The Dream" performed by Roko Blažević, was determined by a 50/50 combination of votes from ten regional juries and a public televote. Ties were decided in favour of the entry ranked higher by the public televote. Promotion. Roko made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "The Dream" as the Croatian Eurovision entry. He performed at "Moscow Eurovision Party" on 26 April. At Eurovision. According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain  and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Croatia was  placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show. Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Croatia was set to perform in position 10, following the entry from Austria and preceding the entry from Malta. Semi-final. Croatia performed tenth in the second semi-final, following the entry from Austria  and preceding the entry from Malta. At the end of the show, Croatia was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Croatia placed fourteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 64 points: 38 points from the televoting and 26 points from the juries. With the old voting system, Croatia would have ranked 14th with 25 points. Voting. Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their  professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury  member as well as the nation's televoting results will be released shortly after the grand final. Detailed voting results. The following members comprised the Croatian jury: