After it was announced Natalie Balmix had been disqualified from Croatia’s national selection, Dora 2025, it has been revealed that Natalie would challenge the disqualification from HRT.
Natalie to submit an objection to HRT’s decision
In a statement on Instagram, Natalie mentioned consulting with their legal team and highlighting that they could not find a percentage that would decide if a song is too altered, with the full statement as follows:
Dear audience, thank you for your support!
Your support, love and hundreds of messages forced me to react and submit a complaint to HRT. the decision
The song was disqualified because it was “more than 50 percent changed musically and lyrically” from the version submitted for the competition.
My legal team read the rulebook and nowhere could they find any percentage that would decide if a song is too altered.
We refined the song in order to make it as high quality as possible and make it as good as possible at this year’s Dora and potentially at Eurovision.
Love you and your Žigica loves you.
Natalie Balmix is the second participant to be changed in this year’s selection following Lara and LSQ’s withdrawal from the competition on December 24th. Natalie had been due to perform at Dora 2025 with her song “Život ide dalje”, which was reported to be released on January 9th.
As we previously reported, ahead of the formal release of the songs, a seven-member jury selected by HRT found that Natalie’s song was significantly different to the version she had initially submitted to the selection. As a result, on January 5th, Natalie was disqualified from the competition.
According to the broadcaster, HRT determined that the song had been changed by over 50%, with the arrangement and lyrics being changed dramatically. Balmix already has experience in Dora, having participated in Dora in 2024. She will now be replaced in the line-up by Fenksta singing the song “Ekstra”.
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 the latest developments in Croatia? As always, let us know what you think by commenting below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Threads, tumblr, and Bluesky for more information about Eurovision 2025!
News Source: Natalie Balmix
Photo Credit: Natalie Balmix
Rory Gannon 
Giwrgos Oiko