About Croatia...

2006 Result
History (1956 to 2005)
This year's entry
What I predicted...
What you thought...
What actually happened...
What the bookies thought...

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2006 Result

Points in Semi Final: N/A
Position in Semi Final: N/A

Points in Final: 56
Position in Final: 13th
More about the 2006 result for Croatia

2007 Contest: Must compete in Semi Final

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History (1956 to 2005)

Croatia's previous appearances: 13 year(s) out of 50 [note]
Years participated: 1993- [note]
Best result: 4th (1996, 1999)

While never challenging for victory as an independent nation, Croatia is a consistently solid 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. Furthermore, Yugoslavia's 1989 winners, Riva, hailed from what is now Croatia, with the 1990 contest held in Zagreb's Vatroslav Lisinki Hall - perhaps we will return there if Croatia ever wins Eurovision under its own flag.

After a dodgy start to its Eurovision career in 1993, 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, 13th in 2004 and 11th again in 2005. Nevertheless, the results of the last two years were better than many had expected prior to the Contest.

In 2004, few people rated Ivan Mikulić's chances in the run-up to the Semi Final; consequently, securing a place in the Final, ahead of the more highly fancied Denmark and Finland, was 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 once again found itself participating in the Semi Final in 2005, this time with Boris Novković's 'Vukovi umiru sami'; and once again, the country did much better than expected, easily qualifying for the Semi Final with 169 points and 4th place, including high scores from places as unlikely as Austria, Switzerland and Sweden. Unfortunately, despite an enthusiastic performance, 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 meant that for the second year in succession, Croatia fell one place short of directly qualifying for the next year's Final, and was therefore expecting to participate in the Semi Final in 2006. However, with Serbia & Montenegro's late withdrawal freeing up a space in Saturday's show, Croatia benefits from its neighbour's discomfort and secures direct entry to the Final after all - a deserved reward after missing out so narrowly twice in a row.
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: N/A
Position in Final draw: 20

What I said prior to the Semi Final:
"Croatia's Dora took place on 4 March, following two semi finals that whittled down the initial 32 contenders to a more manageable 16. An incredible 27 of those 32 had taken part in at least one Dora before, including former Croatian Eurovision entrants Danijela (1995 and 1998), her former band Magazin (1995) and Claudia Beni (2003). However, predictions that popular Croatian singer Severina (8th in the 2000 Dora, with a song that nevertheless reached No. 1 in the Croatian singles chart) would win were proved to be right, and she will now represent Croatia in Athens with the song 'Moja štikla' ('My stilettos'), co-composed by the singer (Boris Novković) and composer (Franjo Valentić) of Croatia's entry in 2005.

Severina is certainly a striking woman, and her performance at the Dora consisted of her strutting around the stage (in her stilettos, of course) while a posse of men in traditional costumes chant and play instruments in the background - rather like the Albanian entry, apart from the high heels of course. These themes are taken even further in the preview video, where a giant Severina and her chums wander around, Gulliver-style, the streets of (what is presumably) Zagreb. It's all very silly but great fun, with a knowing wink that is perfectly in keeping with the song.

As for the song... I've never considered Severina to be the best singer Croatia has to offer - her voice is rather harsh and aggressive to these ears - but it is used to good effect here. The rather jolly 'Moja štikla' is certainly enjoyable, with an irritating catchy chorus and a distinctly Croatian flavour. On the minus side, the song is a bit of a jumble of various parts, and while it provides a lively enough three minutes it doesn't particularly go anywhere - the end sounds pretty much like the start. Watching the preview video made me realise that this may be down to the slightly flat presentation at the Dora show, as the video was certainly much more effective in holding my attention for three minutes. Hopefully this sense of fun can be recreated live on stage in Athens.

Overall, I do much prefer 'Moja štikla' to either of the two most recent Croatian entries, and suggested before that "given both of those qualified for the Final with little trouble, despite not being very highly rated by anybody prior to the Contest, Severina must be in with a good chance of following suit". Now, of course, Serbia & Montenegro's withdrawal means that she is directly qualified to the Final anyway, which saves her the trouble."

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What I predicted...

My prediction for Semi Final: N/A
My prediction for Final: 7th to 9th
See all my predictions for the 2006 Semi Final
See all my predictions for the 2006 Final

What I predicted prior to the Semi Final:
"At odds of 20-1, I have to confess to placing a sneaking each-way bet on Severina. At first I thought the song and performance was really irritating, but the more I hear it the more I appreciate its cheeky charm and the fact that it actually sounds like a song from the country it's representing. So keep an eye on this one - it's definitely growing on me, and if the televoters decide they aren't yet fed up of 'ethnic stomping' (Graham makes a note to trademark that phrase) it could do very well indeed, helped by its great draw towards the end of the running order. Another song with an outside chance of winning, and another of my each-way bets (at 20-1). "
Want an alternative prediction? See Simon Hylands' 'Je t'adore, Eurovision!' site

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What you thought...

View the final leader board

In the run up to the Contest, 1,721 visitors to this site awarded points to their favourite songs in the Soult.com Eurovision Jury Vote 2006, voting as a representative of their own country's 'jury'. The votes awarded by representatives of each country were totalled, with each of the 38 participating countries (plus the 'Rest of the World') then awarding points - 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - based on the overall voting preference of its representatives. The points awarded to the entry from Croatia are shown in the tables below:

Points awarded to Croatia overall:
AL	1	HR	X	GR	0	MK	8	PL	6	ES	0
AD	0	CY	0	IS	0	MT	0	PT	0	SE	0
AM	0	DK	0	IE	0	MD	0	RO	0	CH	0
BY	0	EE	7	IL	0	MC	0	RU	6	TR	5
BE	0	FI	0	LV	0	NL	2	CS	10	UA	0
BA	12	FR	2	LT	0	NO	0	SI	12	UK	0
BG	1	DE	3	WO	0	Last updated: 18 May 2006 Next scheduled update: None
Total points: 75, from 13/39 juries
Position: 10 out of 37

Points awarded to Croatia in the Semi Final:
AL	0	HR	X	GR	0	MK	0	PL	0	ES	0
AD	0	CY	0	IS	0	MT	0	PT	0	SE	0
AM	0	DK	0	IE	0	MD	0	RO	0	CH	0
BY	0	EE	0	IL	0	MC	0	RU	0	TR	0
BE	0	FI	0	LV	0	NL	0	CS	0	UA	0
BA	0	FR	0	LT	0	NO	0	SI	0	UK	0
BG	0	DE	0	WO	0	Last updated: 18 May 2006 Next scheduled update: None
Total points: N/A, from N/A/39 juries
Position: N/A out of 23

Points awarded to Croatia in the Final:
AL	1	HR	X	GR	0	MK	8	PL	7	ES	0
AD	0	CY	0	IS	0	MT	0	PT	0	SE	0
AM	0	DK	0	IE	0	MD	0	RO	0	CH	0
BY	0	EE	7	IL	0	MC	0	RU	8	TR	6
BE	0	FI	0	LV	0	NL	2	CS	10	UA	0
BA	12