In a completely new and fresh format for Dora 2011, Croatian broadcaster HRT invited 24 artists to compete for the Croatian ticket for Düsseldorf. Week by week, 22 artists have been eliminated leaving only Jacques Houdek and Daria standing for the final tonight. The presenters for the evening were Aleksandar Kostadinov and Leona Paraminski.
Three composers were invited to write songs for the final by HRT, they were Boris Djordjević, Ante Pecotić and Lea Dekleva. Jacques and Daria got the chance to perform all three songs in tonights show. The song titles were as follows :-
Još Ima Nas (Lea Dekleva)
Lahor (Boris Djordjević)
Stotinama Godina (Ante Pecotić)
In the first vote of the evening, split 50% televoting public and 50% jury, two songs progressed to the final round. The idea of the first round of voting was to establish the best combination of singer and song that could achieve success in the Eurovision Song Contest.
This content is unfortunately no longer available
Familiar faces in jury
The professional jury all have vast experience working with Europe's Favourite TV Show. Tonči Huljić composed the 1999, 2001 and 2009 Croatian entries, Severina represented Croatia in Athens in 2006 with Moja Stikla, and Andrej Babić composer of no fewer than five entries for the Eurovision Song Contest, most recently in 2009 for Slovenia with Love Symphony.
As a result of the first round of voting, the choices for the super final round, after a tie break between Stotinama Godina and Lahor, decided on countback by the jury votes were:
Jacques Houdek - Lahor
Daria - Lahor (English title Celebrate)
The televoting public had the final say and voted for Daria with Lahor.
Feminnem, Boris & Petar guest performers
If the line up of judges was impressive tonight, the guest performers list was equally so, the audience were treated to renditions from Feminnem, last years Croatian representatives in Oslo who opened the show singing Lako Je Sve, 2005 Croatian representative Boris Novković and famous Croatian singer songwriter Petar Grašo.
Croatia will compete in the First Semi-Final of Europe's Favourite TV Show in Germany on Tuesday 10th May.
