Croatia will choose an artist and a song for Eurovision 2023 via “Dora 2023”.
The selection process was confirmed on the 20th of September 2022
- HRT will ordain a professional jury committee that will evaluate the submitted songs.
- The submission window will close on the 20th of November 2022.
- “Dora 2023” will be held in February 2023, in the city of Opatija.
- The exact format will be determined by January 2023.
- The winner of “Dora 2023” will be determined by a combination of national jury and public vote.
Tomislav Štengl, Head of Delegation for Croatia, gave an interview to the Croatian website Eurosong.hr and here are the main takeaways:
- Shortlisted acts will be required to supply an official music video or at least lyrics video.
- The shortlisted songs will be revealed to the public at a very early time, compared to recent years.
- There’s only a possibility that the songs will be presented in a television show (before “Dora”).
- The number of songs that will be part of the “Dora 2023” line-up is yet to be decided.
- Main change: “Dora 2023” will probably include 12-28 songs. If the number of songs is suitable, then the plan is to have 2 semi-finals and a grand final
Tomislav related to the efforts of HRT to encourage Croatian artists to participate in the national selection:
“As HRT, we are trying to motivate as many people as possible to contact us. We spoke with the composers’ society, the music union, and Croatian publishers to motivate their performers and authors to submit as many songs as possible”
HRT considers giving financial rewards to participants:
“This year we are in negotiations to find ways to motivate performers and authors. That there are also some kind of financial rewards . That their performance at Dora, if they win, will be financially covered, their stake, in everything they have to invest in order to perform”
Tomislav sees “Dora” as a tiny version of Eurovision.
He wants to stick to the principle of knowing the songs beforehand as a key for success:
“Our idea is to spin these videos through some television shows, which will be dedicated only to Dora. Another thing is that people are simply informed. We go by the principle that if the Eurosong works in such a way that for two and a half months we all know those songs, hear them, then the Eurosong is a success”
Mia Dimšić represented Croatia at Eurovision 2022 with the song “Guilty Pleasure“.
She finished in 11th place in semi-final 1.
The last time Croatia qualified for the grand final was in 2017.
In particular, the country ended up 1th in the semi-final 2 times in a row.
Will the country change its luck following the format changes?
