Croatian broadcaster HRT have officially confirmed Croatia will participate at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023, due to be held in the United Kingdom. Details of their 2023 national selection have also been revealed by HRT.
HRT confirms participation
Croatia’s national broadcaster, Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT) confirmed that Croatia will once again compete at Eurovision in the United Kingdom next year. So far, the number of confirmed countries stands at 33. HRT also confirmed that Croatia will use their national selection, Dora, to choose their 2023 representative and provided details of the selection rules.
Dora and the 2023 selection rules
Croatia has used a variety of different selection methods over the years, ranging from internal selections to The Voice winners. However, ever since 2019, they have used the Dora pop festival held in Opatija to select their representative. This is expected to continue until at least 2024.
Recently, HRT released the rules for Dora 2023. The submission windows for songs officially opened on 20 September and will remain open until 20 November. Some of the rules of Dora are below:
- Competitors must be Croatian citizens
- Songs cannot be longer than 3 minutes
- Competitors must be a minimum of 16 years of age when applying
- Songs must not have been performed or distributed publicly before
A full list of the Dora 2023 rules can also be found here.
An expert jury will select between 14 and 28 songs from the official submissions to compete in the final stage of the competition. The jury will also select 4 reserve songs as a backup in case of any issues with the jury’s initial selection. HRT has emphasised that the songs will be chosen based on a holistic assessment of the lyricism, musicality and artistic value of the work.
It is expected that the Dora 2023 final will take place in February 2023, with a date still to be confirmed. It will be broadcast live on HTV 1 as well as on HRT’s website. Participants willing to submit a song to Dora can do so by filling out the official submission form linked here.
Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest
Croatia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest as an independent country since 1993, and was only absent in 2014 and 2015. They received their best result in 1996 and 1999 where they placed 4th overall in both years. Croatia has not qualified for the Grand Final since 2017, where Jacques Houdek participated with song ‘My Friend’, which was in both English and Italian. It received 128 points in total and placed 13th overall. In 2022, Mia Dimšić won Dora and represented Croatia with the song ‘Guilty Pleasure’. She participated in the first semi-final and placed 11th with 75 points, narrowly missing out on a place in the Grand Final.
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