Introduction

• Participant(s): Mia Dimšić
• Song: Guilty Pleasure
  
• Writer(s): Mia Dimšić, Vjekoslav Dimter, Damir Bačić
• Composer(s): Mia Dimšić, Vjekoslav Dimter, Damir Bačić
• Broadcaster: HRT
• Social media:        
  
• Team review: 

This is going to be Croatia’s 27th time in the Eurovision Song Contest. The national final is called “DORA” and a lot of well-known musicians have taken part over the past years and it’s a very important music fest for the Croats. Like last year, the DORA has been held in the city of Opatja.

Out of 14 entries “Guilty Pleasure” sung by Mia Dimšić has been chosen as Croatia’s ESC song for 2022. Both the jury and the Croatian public gave their highest votes to Mia.

Mia Dimšić was born in Osijek, the eastern part of Croatia, in 1992. She studied English and German and has got a MA degree in translation studies. In 2014 Mia went on a tour with a folklore band named Džentlmeni to the USA and Canada. Back to the Balkan she has released her first single “Život nije siv” which means “Life is not grey” , in the same year she released her first album under the same name, which became a real hit in Croatia. The album placed #1 in the Croatian album charts.

Mia also released a Christmas album and in 2019 she released “Sretan put” – “Have a nice trip” . Her music style can be found in the middle of folk and pop. Some of her songs sound like Katie Melua, while her idols are Taylor Swift, Kacey Musgraves, Norah Jones, Willie Nelson and Alison Krauss.

She is always using her guitar on stage, which is Gibson Hummingbird, a very special model which has also been used by Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones.

The song “Guilty Pleasure” has been written by Vjekoslav Dimter and Damir Bačić and Mia herself. It’s a quiet and smooth song, which tells the story of a secret love. Usually Mia reflects her own life in her songs. With this harmonic and appealing song, Mia will not only inspire the Croatians for sure. Maybe such a soulful song is quite right in these crazy times we are all facing.

History

• Debut: 1993
• Participations: 27
• Victories: 0
• Finals: 18 (7 since 2004)
• Top 10: 6

Last year Albina could not reach the Grand Final of Rotterdam with “Tick-Tock”. She just missed the qualification and came 11th in the semi-final. Great to see that the well-established DORA festival has been revived.

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 the group 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. But the big question was, how to integrate all the new countries from the former East and not to overloading the established rules.

The former Yugoslavia has joined the ESC in 1961, there were 27 contributions and one victory “Rock me” by Riva in 1989, which was actually a Croatian band. 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 give their high votes for their neighbour countries. 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 singers from that region gets votes from the entire geographic area and where the taste of music is similar.

The best results for Croatia could have been achieved between 1995 and 2002: six Top 10 places! After that it seems that the interest has decreased massively, both in the quality of the songs as well as the points from the other countries. This has caused a time when Croatia did not pass the semi-final rounds four times after another and was also pausing 2014 and 2015. Only Nina Kraljić (2016) and Jacques Houdek (2017) were able to reach the Grand Finals.

Biggest successes

• 2x 4th place
  “Sveta Ljubav” | Maja Blagdan (Oslo 1996) 
  “Maria Magdalena” | Doris Dragovic (Jerusalem 1999) 
• 1x 5th place
  “Neka Mi Ne Svane” | Danijela (Birmingham 1998) 

Video Nostalgia

• “Nek'ti Bude Ljubav Sva” | Tony Cetinski
  Rank 16, Dublin 1994
• “Kada Zaspu Andeli” | Goran Karan
  Rank 9, Stockholm 2000
• “Vise Nisam Tvoja” | Claudia Beni
  Rank 15, Riga 2003
  
  

First Rehearsal