Croatia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 with the song "Tick-Tock" written by Branimir Mihaljević, Max Cinnamon and Tihana Buklijaš Bakić. The song was performed by Albina. The Croatian broadcaster Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) organised the national final to select the Croatian entry for the 2021 contest in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Fourteen entries competed in the national final on 13 February 2021 and "Tick-Tock" performed by Albina was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from ten regional juries and a public televote.
Croatia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 18 May 2021. Performing during the show in position 10, "Tick-Tock" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Croatia placed eleventh out of the 16 participating countries in the semi-final with 110 points.
Background
Prior to the 2021 contest, Croatia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-five times since its first entry in . The nation's best result in the contest was fourth, which it achieved on two occasions: in 1996 with the song "" performed by Maja Blagdan and in 1999 with the song "" performed by Doris Dragović. Following the introduction of semi-finals in 2004, Croatia had thus far featured in seven finals. Since 2018, the Croatian entries failed to qualify from the semi-finals; the last time Croatia competed in the final was in 2017 with the song "My Friend" performed by Jacques Houdek. In 2019, Croatia failed to qualify to the final with Roko and the song "The Dream". In 2020, Damir Kedžo was set to represent Croatia with the song "Divlji vjetre" before the contest's cancellation.
The Croatian national broadcaster, Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT), broadcasts the event within Croatia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. HRT confirmed Croatia's participation in the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest on 21 March 2020. Between 1993 and 2011, HRT organised the national final in order to select the Croatian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest. In 2012 and 2013, the broadcaster opted to internally select the entry. After missing the contest in 2014 and 2015, the Croatian broadcaster continued the internal selection procedure between 2016 and 2018. Since 2019, HRT has used to select Croatia's entry, a method that was continued for their 2021 participation.
Before Eurovision
Dora 2021
was the twenty-second edition of the Croatian national selection which selected Croatia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021. The competition consisted of fourteen entries competing in one final on 13 February 2021 at the Marino Cvetković Sports Hall in Opatija, hosted by Daniela Trbović, Barbara Kolar, Jelena Lešić and Doris Pinčić Rogoznica. The show was broadcast on HRT 1 and HRT 2 as well as online via the broadcaster's YouTube channel and streaming service HRTi.
Competing entries
On 26 October 2020, HRT opened a submission period where artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster with the deadline on 10 December 2020. Unlike in previous editions, songs submitted could be in any language. 140 entries were received by the broadcaster during the submission period. A five-member expert committee consisting of Andrej Babić (HGU, HDS), Hrvoje Prskalo (HDS), Matija Cvek (HGU), Monika Lelas (HRT) and Uršula Tolj (HRT) reviewed the received submissions and selected fourteen artists and songs for the competition. HRT announced the competing entries on 15 December 2020, and among the competing artists were Tony Cetinski, who represented Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, and Nina Kraljić, who represented Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2016. The running order of the final was determined by HRT and announced on 18 January 2021.
Artist SongSongwriter(s) Albina "Tick-Tock"Branimir Mihaljević, Max Cinnamon, Tihana Buklijaš Bakić Ashley Colburn and Bojan Jambrošić "Share the Love"Ivan Škunca, Ashley Colburn Bernarda Brunović "Colors"Bernarda Brunović, Borislav Milanov Beta Sudar ""Predrag Martinjak Brigita Vuco ""Brigita Vuco Cambi ""Marija Mirković Ella Orešković "Come This Way"Siniša Reljić Simba, Ella Orešković Eric Vidović ""Eric Vidović Filip Rudan "Blind"Filip Rudan, Antonio Franić, Hrvoje Domazet Mia Negovetić "She's Like a Dream"Mia Negovetić, Linnea Deb, Denniz Jamm, Denise Kertes Nina Kraljić and Alkonost of Balkan ""Nina Kraljić, Hana Librenjak, Miki Solus Sandi Cenov ""Siniša Reljić Simba, Fayo ToMa "Ocean of Love"Adriana Pupavac, Andreas "Beemon" Björkman, Kalle Persson, Tomislav Marić Tony Cetinski and Kristijan Rahimovski ""Kristijan Rahimovski
Final
The final took place on 13 February 2021. The winner, "Tick-Tock" performed by Albina, 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. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2002 Croatian Eurovision entrant Vesna Pisarović performed as the interval act during the show.
+ Final13 February 2021 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Phone SMS Total Points 1 Nina Kraljić and Alkonost of Balkan "" 68 3,745 1,575 5,320 77 145 2 2 Eric Vidović "" 29 659 408 1,067 16 45 10 3 Ella Orešković "Come This Way" 26 1,425 336 1,761 26 52 9 4 Bernarda Brunović "Colors" 77 1,131 413 1,544 22 99 7 5 Sandi Cenov "" 5 403 82 485 7 12 14 6 ToMa "Ocean of Love" 64 2,121 574 2,695 39 103 6 7 Filip Rudan "Blind" 65 3,204 460 3,664 53 118 5 8 Beta Sudar "" 8 456 84 540 8 16 12 9 Klapa Cambi "" 47 4,488 393 4,881 71 118 4 10 Ashley Colburn and Bojan Jambrošić "Share the Love" 9 2,237 94 2,331 34 43 11 11 Brigita Vuco "" 7 504 78 582 8 15 13 12 Mia Negovetić "She's Like a Dream" 67 3,143 471 3,614 52 119 3 13 Albina "Tick-Tock" 78 6,609 1,688 8,297 120 198 1 14 Tony Cetinski and Kiki Rahimovski "" 30 2,746 464 3,210 47 77 8
+ Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total 1 "" 6 8 8 8 5 4 10 10 4 5 68 2 "" 1 1 5 6 4 2 3 7 29 3 "Come This Way" 4 2 3 1 5 4 1 6 26 4 "Colors" 7 6 12 12 12 8 6 7 7 77 5 "" 2 1 2 5 6 "Ocean of Love" 10 3 10 4 8 7 3 6 12 1 64 7 "Blind" 12 12 7 5 7 3 12 2 5 65 8 "" 4 1 2 1 8 9 "" 3 10 10 8 8 8 47 10 "Share the Love" 3 1 2 3 9 11 "" 3 4 7 12 "She's Like a Dream" 5 10 6 7 10 6 8 5 6 4 67 13 "Tick-Tock" 8 7 4 6 12 7 12 10 12 78 14 "" 2 5 1 2 5 2 3 10 30 + Jury Members Zagreb Robert Urlić – HRT Željka Veverec – HDS Denis Dumančić – HGU Vukovar Petar Barić – HRT Pero Galić – HDS Branimir Jovanovac – HGU Varaždin and Čakovec Danijela Bratić – HRT Zsa Zsa – HDS – HGU Rijeka Albert Petrović – HRT – HDS Damir Martinović Mrle – HGU Pula – HRT Sandro Pettener – HDS Marijan Jelenić – HGU Osijek Marina Ban – HRT Goran Bošković – HDS Damir Bačić – HGU Zadar Toni Dunatov – HRT Natali Dizdar – HDS Jere Šešelja – HGU Knin and Šibenik Nenad Tisaj – HRT Marko Škugor – HDS Matej Nakić – HGU Split Eduard Gracin – HRT Lorena Bućan – HDS Saša Antić – HGU Dubrovnik Milivoj Kravarović – HRT Sanin Karamehmedović – HDS Tibor Karamehmedović – HGU
Controversy
After the final, Nina Kraljić alleged that there were problems with her rehearsals, where she had to listen to Albina's song in her in-ear headphones instead of her own. She also said that many people couldn't vote for her due to telecommunication problems. Two days later, Kraljić removed her Facebook page as well as her Instagram page.
The next day, the family of another contestant, Bernarda Brunović, also alleged that they received information from Croatian Head of Delegation Uršula Tolj that they could not win because they were on a "blacklist". They also confirmed Nina Kraljić's earlier allegations. Uršula Tolj commented on this a day later, where she confirmed that everything was done right and that there had been no problems with the voting that would have affected the final result. She also dismissed the allegations that a "blacklist" had existed.
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. The semi-final allocation draw held for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 on 28 January 2020 was used for the 2021 contest, which Croatia was placed into the first semi-final, which was held on 18 May 2021, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.
Once all the competing songs for the 2021 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Croatia was set to perform in position 10, following the entry from Norway and before the entry from Belgium.
The two semi-finals and the final were broadcast in Croatia on HRT 1 with commentary by Duško Ćurlić. The three shows were also broadcast via radio on HR 2. The Croatian spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Croatian jury during the final, was Ivan Dorian Molnar.
Semi-final
Albina took part in technical rehearsals on 9 and 12 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 17 and 18 May. This included the jury show on 17 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.
The Croatian performance featured Albina dressed in a leotard outfit and performing on the stage catwalk and satellite stage. Kraljić's outfit was designed by Stefan Orlić and Juraj Zigman. The stage lighting displayed blue and purple colours with the LED screens and transparent panel projecting neon lights and lyrics of the song. The performance also featured several effects including pyrotechnics, a wind machine and a hologram effect that displayed four Albinas. The creative director of the Croatian performance was Marvin Dietmann, while the choreographer was Helena Janjušević. Albina was joined on stage by four dancers performing choreography with the singer: Devin Juraj, Luciano Plazibat, Marko Marić and Stjepan Cutvarić.
At the end of the show, Croatia was not announced among the top 10 entries in the first semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Croatia placed eleventh in the semi-final, receiving a total of 110 points: 53 points from the televoting and 57 points from the juries.
Voting