It’s the Eurovision down season, and don’t you for a second think we’re going to stop speculating, arguing, and pushing our heated opinions. Our latest series will look at the national finals of Eurovision, and discussing how we would reform the national finals of Eurovision. Today we’re having a look at Croatia’s Dora.
In part four of this series Daniel, Kittens, and Rory discuss what changes they’d make to Croatia’s NF.
What is Dora?
Dora has taken place 25 times since its inception in 1992, and has selected the majority of Croatia’s Eurovision entries, except for a hiatus between 2011 and 2019. Since its return, the competition has usually consisted of a single final of around 14 to 18 songs, but the format has changed in 2024 to include a semi-final stage for the expanded amount of 24 songs. The winner will be decided by a 50/50 split between a televote, and four national and four international jury panels.
Do we like what the NF does so far, and do we think there’s a chance of it producing a winner?
Rory
Dora is a tried and tested national final for Croatia, and it has produced a number of bangers for fans to get stuck in with. However, this year’s edition exposed a rather large plothole for the selection, as the public could not hear the reserve songs – one of whom finished second at Eurovision 2024. Dora has a tendency to go for pop, pop and more pop in its line-up. But now, this year’s result could really bring the country back to some musical variety and show what Croatia’s music scene is really like.
Daniel
Well it very nearly just did, but that was despite Dora, not because of it. Truth is there was some complete and utter dross in this year’s edition, and Baby Lasagna was very much an exception to the rule. That’s not to say there isn’t talent in the country, as there is, but they got very lucky that Zsa Zsa had other plans or I sadly think they were back to NQing this year.
Kittens
Realistically, as the others have said, the fact that their winning song this year was a reserve needs to be a wakeup call. The selection was incredibly poor this year. The rest of the actual show I feel like isn’t such an issue at all. Some sort of luck was the only real reason they got so close this year.
What changes would we make to the National Final?
Rory
Personally, I liked the idea HRT had of splitting the competition into two semi-finals. With that being said however, we need to slim down the number of competing songs. We want quality over quantity; yes, saying you have 28 songs in national selection sounds great, but it can burn out the competition and the viewership easily. Having say six songs per semi-final, with six progressing to the final would be best. Also, let’s inject a little bit of fun into the selection; it’s a national final for God’s sake!
Daniel
I originally said “burn it to the ground” but on reflection, that’s harsh because there’s a lot of good here. What I will say is HRT should sack every single person involved in song selection, nobody who was part of the team that left ‘Rim Tim Tagi Dim’ off the original roster should remain involved in the selection, replace them with people who actually know what they’re talking about. Maybe even get Baby Lasagna involved if he’s up for it, because you’d have to be either hard of hearing or genuinely insane to genuinely believe the likes of ‘Vody Piti Trizan Biti’ are worthy of literally any song contest in the world. let giving it a slot ahead of a future Eurovision televote winner. Beyond that point, I think from a voting standpoint Dora is the best around, (Myself and Angus both mentioned it as our winner in the ‘Voting Format’ section of our NF awards video!) A mix of national regional and international juries competing with a proportional televote would be the norm across Europe if I had my way. The only thing holding Dora back is the song quality in my eyes, but with heightened interest in a post-Lasagna world I think that could sort it out, providing the better songs actually make it through the selection panel.
Kittens
I don’t so much mind a long list of songs but would prefer, if you’re going to table 20+ songs, to split it up more. You don’t need to go quite as far as to have 6 song semis à la Mello, but fewer songs in more semi-finals, with fewer tracks going through to the final would be my suggestion. 16 in the final feels like quite a lot – so maybe pulling it down to 8-10 through a larger number of semis would be better. If the song quality is better, having to get it down to fewer songs will also mean a bit more drama/competition to bring viewers in.
Do we think any reforms are likely to happen to this NF?
Rory
HRT have been known to tinker with the format for Dora before, so I wouldn’t fully rule out some tweaks or reforms to the show’s format. But especially in the wake of the furore of Baby Lasagna’s potential exclusion from Dora, HRT will want to show it has listened to the people – so I would be surprised if nothing changed going forward, as Croatia will want to build on their momentum in the hopes of winning next year.
Daniel
If HRT don’t make changes to the way songs are selected for the contest, then they’re braver, bolder, and impressively even quite a bit dumber than I am. The broadcaster almost robbed themselves of a best post-independence best Eurovision placement and a new national hero, they’d do well to make sure that never happens again. I’m optimistic that, even just to save face, changes will be made.
Kittens
I’d hope that somewhere in HRT towers someone has been making at the very least some rather stern faces about song selection. Honestly, if that was the only thing they actually reformed about Dora, I’d be happy, because I don’t think it needs too much of a change.
Croatia’s Eurovision Journey
Croatia has been a part of the Eurovision family since 1961, as part of Yugoslavia. Ten Croatian artists went on to represent Yugoslavia in the Contest – the most famous of which being Riva, who gave Yugoslavia its only win in 1989. The 1990 Contest was held in Zagreb as a tribute to their Croatian heritage.
Croatia debuted in the Contest as an independent nation in 1993 with the band Put and their song “Don’t Ever Cry”. Since then, Croatia has gone on to score as high as 2nd place in 2024. For 2024, Croatia chose Baby Lasagna to represent the nation in Malmö with their song “Rim Tim Tagi Dim”. Performing in the first semi-final, Croatia qualified for the Grand Final, winning the semi-final in the process. In the Grand Final, Baby Lasagna finished in 2nd place, with a total of 547 points – 210 of which coming from juries, whilst another 337 came from the televote. This was the highest televoting score in the Grand Final of the 2024 contest.
What do you think about our reforms? As always, let us know what you think by commenting down below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Bluesky for all the latest Eurovision news!
News Source: That Eurovision Site
Photo Credit: HRT
Tim J