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Croatia: Artists divided for brand new format

13 January 2011 at 17:28 CET

In the past, the singers and songs for the Dora festival were always chosen by the broadcaster HRT and record companies and composers received invitations to submit entries. In a complete departure from that format, it has been revealed that there will be a completely fresh approach to the selection of Croatia's 2011 entry.

There are 24 artists and songs which have made it through from the initial submissions, these were chosen by an expert jury. The artists were presented just before Christmas to the Croatian public, and they have now been divided into two semi-finals and given one song each. The 24 acts are divided as presented below.

First semi-final, 22nd of January:

• Artemija Stanić
• Damir Kedžo
• Ivana Brkašić
• Tina Vukov
• MIro Tomić
• Mila Soldatić
• Valentina Briški
• Jelena Vanjek
• Sabrina Hebiri
• Mario Sambrailo
• Dora Benc
• Jacques Houdek

Second semi-final, 29th of January:

• Darija Kinzer
• Renata Holi
• Mijo Lešina
• Marija Rubčić
• Manuela Svorcan
• Katica Marinović
• Doris Teur
• Mirko Švenda
• Diana Heraković
• Ana Eškinja
• Filip Dizdar
• Saša Lozar

There are also two back up artists in the event of any other act pulling out. These are Maksim Hožić and Marina Đurović.

Seven live shows

The selection process will span no fewer than seven shows all of which will be shown on the main TV channel, broadcast by live web stream and also broadcast on Croatian radio. The first show will be screened on Saturday January 22nd 2011. The Croatian public will solely choose the songs to progress through each of the first six shows. In the final show on Saturday 5th March, there will be a 50/50 split between public televoting and a special jury.

In each of the first and second programmes twelve acts will compete, and six of them will be eliminated. In the third programme, the twelve acts who got the most votes in the first two programmes will compete, and six will be eliminated. In the fourth programme, six acts will compete, and two will be eliminated. In each of the fifth and sixth programmes one act will be eliminated until this leaves only two acts remaining.

The last two acts remaining will perform in the final show on Saturday 5th March. The winner will ultimately represent Croatia in Europe's Favourite TV Show in Düsseldorf in 2011.

Full support from HRT

Dora project manager Aleksandar Kostadinov gave his support to the 24 competing artists during the launch of Dora 2011 and said "It is our wish to present you to the audience in the best possible way. You will have our entire support, you will have our voice trainers and our choreographers who will help you to prepare for the live shows. The entire team of people will be behind you during this contest. Dora is not a reality show in which you will being eliminated but rather a number of shows who's purpose is to find the best Croatian representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011."

Despite being one of the early favourites in Oslo this year, Croatia's Feminnem failed to qualify from the Second Semi-Final with their ballad Lako Je Sve. Croatia's biggest successes in the Eurovision Song Contest were in the late 1990's when they achieved 4th place twice, in 1996 in Oslo with Maja Blagdan's Sveta Ljubav and again in 1999 with Doris and Marija Magdalena.

 

Article originally published by Glen Webb on the 29th of December, updated by Gustav Dahlander.