Croatia has been a part of Eurovision since 1993, and participated a total of 22 times. Out of those 22, Croatia has been in the finals a total of 17 times, making them a fairly successful Eurovision nation. You may say, ‘but most of those years didn’t feature semi-finals?’ and that’s true, most of their participating years didn’t feature semi-finals, however if you look back, Croatia has placed at least within the top 10 no less than 6 times, and in the top 15 a total of 12 times. Croatia’s best placing is 4th in the years 1996 and 1999, and their worst result was in 2007, where they finished 16th in the semi-final. For today’s Best of the Bunch, we’re looking back at the Croatian songs between the years of 2006 and 2013 to decide which song is your favourite! As Croatia did not participate in 2014 and 2015, we cut our journey short, finishing up in 2013.
We start in 2006, where the energetic Severina took to the stage with the interesting song Moja štikla. Despite having some very strange lyrics, including the iconic ‘Afrika Paprika,’ the song still managed to land in 12th place with a total of 56 points.
The following year, Croatia participated in the semi-final with Dragonfly feat. Dado Topić, who performed the song Vjerujem u Ljubav. The song was performed in both Croatian and English, however failed to qualify for the final, and reaching Croatia’s worst result thus far, in 16th place with 54 points.
In 2008, Croatia sent Kraljevi Ulice and 75 Cents who performed a song also in Croatian titled Romanca. The song impressed audiences, qualifying for the final in 4th place. In the final itself, the song ended in 21st place with 44 points.
At the contest held in Moscow, Croatia was represented by the duo of Igor Cukrov and Andrea Šušnjara. Their song, Lijepa Tena was a beautiful ballad, which by the rules used today, wouldn’t have qualified, however in 2009 there was the use of a jury vote which could overrule the televote, and knock another song out. Croatia was lucky, as they placed 13th in the semi-final, however qualified for the final with this backup jury vote. In the final, it finished 18th with 45 points.
In 2010, the luck ran out for Croatia. The act that represented the nation was Feminnem, who had previously represented Bosnia & Herzegovina in 2005 and came back to represent Croatia in 2010 with the ballad Lako je Sve. Following on from previous years, the song was sung in national language, however it just wasn’t enough to push them into the final, ending on 33 points which left them in 13th place.
In 2011, Croatia dipped their toes in the mystical world of magic with Daria, who had two costume changes, a total of 3 costumes through her performance of Celebrate. The song was completely in English, and even though it used some ‘traditional’ Eurovision gimmicks, it just didn’t impact the voters, ending up in 15th place with 41 points.
The following year, Croatia went back to the ballad style of entry, with Nina Badrić performing Nebo. Despite a big voice behind the song, and a stage performance slightly toned down from the previous year, Croatia still failed to reach the final, ending up in 12th spot in the semi-final.
In 2013, Croatia took an interesting approach to finding their Eurovision act, where they searched for six singers who would form a ‘super klapa’ ensemble (Klapa being the traditional form of a cappella singing). The group was called Klapa s Mora, and they performed the song Mižerja, and despite an impressive performance in the vocal department, Croatia once again did not feature in the grand final, finishing in 13th place with a total of 38 points.
As Croatia didn’t participate in 2014 and 2015, we finish the Best of the Bunch journey here today. Although Croatia haven’t quite been as successful in previous years, this is not a certain indicator that the song themselves are bad – as I’m sure many will agree, it’s sometimes the opposite, and luck just doesn’t go their way! Some of these songs are favourites, some not so much, but we want to find out which act is your Best of the Bunch! Vote here: