About Croatia...

2005 Result
History (1956 to 2004)
This year's entry
What I predicted...
What you thought...
What actually happened...
What the bookies thought...

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2005 Result

Points in Semi Final: 169
Position in Semi Final: 4th

Points in Final: 115
Position in Final: 11th
More about the 2005 result for Croatia

2006 Contest: Must compete in Semi Final

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History (1956 to 2004)

Croatia's previous appearances: 12 year(s) out of 49 [note]
Years participated: 1993- [note]
Best result: 4th (1996, 1999)

While never challenging for victory, Croatia is a consistently good performer at Eurovision - it is the only one of the east European newcomers not to miss a contest due to relegation, managing a continuous run of entries from 1993 to date. After a dodgy start, Croatia has been in the top ten more often than not, finishing 6th in 1995, 4th in 1996 (after an early lead in the voting), 5th in 1998, 4th in 1999 with the statuesque Doris (though points were retrospectively deducted for using recorded backing vocals), 9th in 2000, and 10th in 2001 - 1997's disappointing 17th place was the only blip in Croatia's form.

The country has slipped a little in the last few years, managing 11th in 2002, 15th in 2003, and 13th in 2004. Nevertheless, 2004's result was better than many had expected, few people rating Ivan Mikulić's chances prior to the Semi Final; securing a place in the Final, ahead of the more highly fancied Denmark and Finland, was certainly one of the night's big surprises. Indeed, Ivan's 13th place in the Contest proper with 'You are the only one' was nearly good enough to secure direct entry to the 2005 Final; unfortunately, tying on points with Malta with only one place in the Final left, Malta went through by virtue of gaining points from a greater number of countries. As a result, Croatia finds itself participating in the Semi Final in 2005; however, with its impressive record and great enthusiasm for Eurovision, it can surely only be a matter of time before Eurovision heads to Zagreb. In fact, it would not be the first time that the Croats have hosted Eurovision - Yugoslavia's 1989 winners, Riva, hailed from what is now Croatia, with the 1990 contest held in Zagreb's Vatroslav Lisinki Hall.
Get 'The Eurovision Song Contest: The Offical History' at Amazon.co.uk

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This year's entry

Position in Semi Final draw: 20
Position in Final draw: 18

What I said prior to the Semi Final:
"For 2005, Croatia has decided to send another serious-looking male soloist to Eurovision, ahead of former entrants Magazin (1996) and Danijela (1999) - both were hoping to come back for another go, but had to be content with 2nd and 3rd place respectively. To be honest, I can't help feeling that Magazin's song 'Nazaret' would have given Croatia a stronger chance of reaching the Final, but alas we have to make do with what we've got. Performed by Boris Novković, 'Vukovi umiru sami' is certainly not a bad song; in fact it's rather nice, with a lovely Željko-like (Serbia & Montenegro, 2004) introduction, pleasant singalong chorus, and instruments in the background that make it sound like, well, a typical Croatian Eurovision entry really. Boris performs it with gusto, while looking a little like a Balkan Frankenstein. Overall, I'm just not sure whether this kind of thing, though undoubtedly popular at home in Croatia, has the broader appeal needed for a Europe-wide audience..."

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What I predicted...

My prediction for Semi Final: 12th to 14th
My prediction for Final: Unlikely to qualify
See all my predictions for 2005

What I predicted prior to the Semi Final:
"...as I keep saying, 15 of the 25 countries in the Semi Final will fail to progress any further, so their songs really do have to be something special to secure that all important place in the Final. Certainly, with Croatia enjoying middling odds of 33-1 at Coral, and 16th place in the Soult.com Eurovision Poll 2005, it looks as if it could go either way. However, I think Croatia will finish mid table in the Semi Final, but narrowly miss out on an all-important top ten placing."

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What you thought...

Final Poll Ranking: out of 39 ()
(Updated 22 May 2005; change refers to movement over final week)

In the run up to the Contest, 27,998 visitors to this site voted for their favourite song in the Soult.com Eurovision Poll (up from 5,000 in 2004!)
See full results of Poll 2005

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What actually happened...

If Macedonia managing to finish top ten was one of the 2004 Semi Final's big surprises, the other was probably Croatia doing well enough to pick up 169 points and 4th place, including high scores from places as unlikely as Austria, Switzerland and Sweden. Unfortunately, despite an enthusiastic performance - helped by what appeared to be Neiokõsõ's (EE 2004) drummer, and Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas on backing vocals, all while wearing Ivan Mikulić's suit - Boris was unable to maintain this momentum in the Final, falling behind many of the other qualifying Semi Finalists to finish with 115 points and 11th place. Frustratingly, this means that for the second year in succession, Croatia falls one place short of directly qualifying for next year's Final. For those of us in the UK, however, the most memorable part of the Croatian performance was Terry Wogan's commentary, introducing the act - seemingly in all seriousness - as 'Boris Feat'. When a commentator can't even get the names of the Eurovision entrants right, it surely must be time to call it a day - particularly if that commentator's jokes stopped being funny a long, long time ago...

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What the bookies thought...

	Croatia to win:	21/05/05 (prior to Final)	33-1
		19/05/05 (after Semi Final)	25-1
		19/05/05 (prior to Semi Final)	33-1
		16/05/05	33-1
		15/05/05	33-1
		08/05/05	28-1
		02/05/05	28-1
		24/04/05	28-1

After Ivan's surprisingly good result in 2004, Boris' not dissimilar song entered the 2005 Contest with slightly higher expectations. In the end, 33-1 was a fair reflection of the song's mid-table result.

(Odds quoted here were those offered by Coral.co.uk. 'F' indicates favourite, 'JF' joint favourite.)

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Links

http://www.borisnovkovic-official.com/
http://www.hrt.hr/dora/

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Notes (see 'History' above)

• The 1956 Contest (where each country had two songs) is counted as a single appearance;
  
• Countries eliminated in the 1993 preliminary heat (EE, HU, RO, SK) ARE NOT counted as making an appearance in that year's Contest;
  
• Countries eliminated in the 1996 preliminary heat (DE, DK, HU, IL, MK, RO, RU) ARE NOT counted as making an appearance in that year's Contest;
  
• Countries eliminated in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 Semi Finals ARE counted as making an appearance in that year's Contest.
  

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