Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022

Eurovision Song Contest 2022
Country	Croatia
National selection
Selection process	Dora 2022
Selection date(s)	19 February 2022
Selected entrant	Mia Dimšić
Selected song	"Guilty Pleasure"
Selected songwriter(s)	Mia Dimšić Vjekoslav Dimter Damir Bačić
Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2021 • 2022

Croatia will participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy, with "Guilty Pleasure" performed by Mia Dimšić. The Croatian broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT) is organised Dora 2022 on 19 February 2022 to select the artist and song which will represent Croatia at the contest.

Background[]

Prior to the 2022 contest, Croatia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-six times since its first entry in 1993.^[1] Croatia's highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been fourth place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 1996 with the song "Sveta ljubav" performed by Maja Blagdan and in 1999 "Marija Magdalena" performed by Doris Dragović. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004 contest, Croatia had featured in seven finals. In 2021, Croatia was represented by Albina and the song "Tick-Tock". The country ended in eleventh place in the first semi-final with 110 points, not progressing to the final.^[2]

Before Eurovision[]

Dora 2022[]

The national broadcaster HRT organised Dora 2022 in order to select the nation's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. The competition consisted of fourteen entries competing in one final held on 19 February 2022 at the Marino Cvetković Sports Hall in Opatija^[3] and hosted by Duško Ćurlić,  [hr] and Croatia's 2018 representative Franka Batelić.^[4] No live audience was allowed to attend the event as a measure to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, with HRT reserving to change the dispositions if they deem it appropriate. For the same reasons, any artists who tested positive for the disease did not perform live and the recording of their dress rehearsal were used instead.^[5]

Voting[]

On 2 February 2022, the voting system which would be put in place in the contest was revealed.^[6]

The winner of Dora 2022 was determined by the votes of ten regional juries and of the public, each accounting for 50% of the result. In case of a tie, the public vote would take precedence. The juries consisted of three members each (one HRT music employee, one member of the Croatian Composers' Association and one member of the Croatian Music Union), in representation of the following regions:

On the dress rehearsal, held on 18 February, each jury member ranked the songs from 1st to 14th, with the three rankings of each jury being summed into one. The first ten songs in each jury ranking were then respectively awarded 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2 points and 1 point.

The public was able to vote by phone call or SMS, with a maximum of 10 votes allowed per voter. The percentage of votes received by each entry was applied to a total of 580 points to be distributed accordingly.

Competing entries[]

On 27 October 2021, HRT opened a submission period for artists and composers to send their entries to the broadcaster until 25 November 2021, later extending the deadline until 12 December 2021.^[7] 184 entries were received by the broadcaster during the submission period. Unlike in 2021, the winning song may no longer undergo a major revamp following victory, with only minor modifications allowed with permission from the broadcaster.^[8] The 14 selected songs were revealed on 17 December 2021, along with 4 reserve songs to compete if one or more of the 14 already selected songs could not: "3AM" by Karlo Vudrić, "Gladiator" by Vlatka Burić Dujmović Vyan, "What If" by Totalni Optimizam, and "Ghost" by Stella Scholaja.^[9] The songs were released on 10 February 2022.

Final[]

On 24 January 2022, the HRT hosted the running order allocation draw on the local TV show Kod Nas Doma with  [hr] and Barbara Kolar as hosts.^[10][11] The final took place on 19 February 2022. The winner, "Guilty Pleasure" performed by Mia Dimšić, was determined by a 50/50 combination of votes from ten regional juries and a public televote. The viewers and the juries each had a total of 580 points to award. Each jury group distributed their points as follows: 1-8, 10 and 12 points. The viewer vote was based on the percentage of votes each song achieved through telephone and SMS voting. For example, if a song gained 10% of the viewer vote, then that entry would be awarded 10% of 580 points rounded to the nearest integer: 58 points. Ties were decided in favour of the entry ranked higher by the public televote.

At Eurovision[]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 25 January 2022, an allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Croatia has been placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 10 May 2022, and has been scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.^[14]

References[]