Introduction

• Participant(s): Roko
• Song: "The Dream"
  
• Writer(s): Jacques Houdek, Charlie Mason, Andrea Čubrić
• Composer(s): Jacques Houdek
• Broadcaster: HRT
• Social media:         
  
• Team review: 

This year the Croatian broadcaster HRT has organized another national final called DORA. Out of 16 participant Roko Blazevic could receive the highest votes from the jury as well the telovotes. Roko will represent Croatia with the song “The Dream” in Tel Aviv.

Roko Blazevic was born in Split in 2001. He grew up in family where everybody is involved in music, his parents are singers as well. Roko started to play the piano in the age of seven. In 2017 he could win the reality show Pinove Zvezdice. By now Roko is the named the “Croatian Michael Bublé”. With his victory in the DORA 2019 Roko can show is talent to a worldwide audience.

The song “The Dream” has been composed by the former ESC participant Jacques Houdek, who is also the mentor of Roko. The Croatian entry is drama ballad, very well sung by Roko. Unfortunately, Roko had to wear angel wings on stage which put the song into the Kitsch corner. The outfit can kill a performance. In this case Roko should be advised to wear something else in Tel Aviv, otherwise he won’t be taken seriously. Roko sings about dreams and angels, and the lyrics are nice.

History

• Debut: 1993
• Participations: 25
• Victories: 0
• Finals: 18 (7 since 2004)
• Top 10: 6
• Chances for Top 10 placing: 24%
• Chances for Final: 50%

This year Croatia will have its 25th entry in the Eurovision Song Contest. As a former part of Yugoslavia, Croatia immediately participated in the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest with the debut entry “Don’t Ever Cry” sung by Put and made a good 15th place. In that year Croatia had to enter an international pre-contest, which was held in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Only Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Slovenia could qualify on that special occasion for the ESC in Millstreet, Ireland.

The former Yugoslavia has joined the ESC in 1961, there were 27 contributions and one victory “Rock me” by Riva in 1989. In the following year the ESC has taken place in the now Croatian capital of Zagreb which was hosted by Oliver Mlakar and Helga Vlahović. A truly memorable contest with very nice intro, postcards and interval act.

With all the new countries in the ESC since 1993 not only the number of the participating countries has increased, also the variety of music has grown. The ESC gives a lot of artists a great opportunity to step on an international platform. It has often been criticised that the ex-Yugoslav countries vote for each other in a preferred way. It should not be forgotten that all these countries have singers which are popular all over the Balkan so it’s more than natural that such a singer gets votes from the whole region.

The most successful Croatian entries were: “Sveta Ljubav” by Maja Blagdan in 1996 (4th), “Neka Mi Ne Svane” by Danijela in 1998 (5th) and “Marija Magdalena” by Doris Dragovic in 1999 (4th). Since 2004 Croatia has qualified seven times for the Grand Final, but no Top10 place could be achieved anymore. Croatia has officially paused from 2014 - 2015 due to financial reasons. Last year in Lisbon Franka Batelic did not pass the Semi Final with the song “Crazy”.

Biggest successes

2x 4th place

• Maja Blagdan - "Sveta Ljubav" (1996)
• Doris Dragovic - "Maria Magdalena" (1999)

Video Nostalgia

• “Don't Ever Cry” | Put , Rank 15, 1993, Millstreet
  
• “Vie Nisam Tvoja“ | Claudia Beni , Rank 15, 2003, Riga
  
• “Lako Je Sve” | Feminnem , Rank 13 (Semi Final), 2010, Oslo