| Year: | 1993 |
| Country: | Croatia |
| Preselection: | Dora 1993 |
| Preselection Date: | 28 February 1993 |
| Entrant: | Put |
| Song: | Don't Ever Cry |
| Final Result: | 15th, 31 points |
Croatia entered the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time as an independent country in 1993. The country's first entry was by Put with the song "Don't Ever Cry".
See main article: Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest and Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Croatia first entered the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993, having previously competed as a part of from to . SR Croatia was the most successful republic of Yugoslavia at Eurovision, with 11 of the 27 entries that won the Yugoslavian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest being Croatian.[1]
During the disintegration of Yugoslavia the state broadcaster at the time, JRT, decided to continue Yugoslavia's participation in the contest, holding for the, held on 28 March 1992. Only artists from the republics of Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina competed, despite the latter declaring independence on 1 March. Artists from Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia did not compete after declaring independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. The winning song was "Ljubim te pesmama" by Extra Nena, representing Serbia. However, by the time Extra Nena competed at Eurovision for Yugoslavia, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was no more, and a new republic, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, had been formed.[2] [3] [4]
Croatia's former sub-national broadcaster RTV Zagreb became the country's national broadcaster, renamed Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT). The broadcaster first attempted to enter the Eurovision Song Contest as an independent nation in 1992, holding a national contest to select a song. However, as the broadcaster was not a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) at the time, they were refused entry to the contest. The winner of the contest was Magazin with the song "Hallelujah".[5] The broadcaster became a member of the EBU on 1 January 1993, allowing it to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest for the first time as an independent nation in 1993. HRT broadcasts the event within Croatia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. HRT confirmed their intentions to participate at the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 on 14 November 1992. Along with their participation confirmation, it was announced that a national final would be held to select the Croatian entry.[6]
To select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1993, HRT hosted a national final on 28 February 1993 at the Crystal Ballroom of Hotel Kvarner in Opatija. The national final was hosted by Sanja Doležal and Frano Lasić. Prior to the event, 134 songs had been submitted to the broadcaster; sixteen candidate entries were then selected by a jury panel, consisting of Milan Mitrović,,, Tomislav Ivčić, Aleksandar Kostadinov and, from the received submissions. One song was later disqualified, and ultimately, fifteen remaining entries competed, with the winning song chosen by 11 regional jury panels. At the close of voting, "Don't Ever Cry" performed by Put received the most votes and was selected as the Croatian entry. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Sanja Doležal, Frano Lasić, Ivo Robić, Tomislav Ivčić, Rajko Dujmić, and Tereza Kesovija, Daniel Popović, and Doris Dragović and winner for Riva, performed as special guests.[7]
| Draw | Artist | Song | Points | Place | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Davor Borno | "Ispod zvjezdica" | 23 | 8 | |
| 2 | Nina Badrić | "Ostavljam te" | 24 | 7 | |
| 3 | Alka Vuica and Sandi Cenov | "OK" | 10 | 11 | |
| 4 | K-2 | "Pepeljuge su same" | 0 | 15 | |
| 5 | Alter Ego | "Ritam u grudima" | 2 | 13 | |
| 6 | Neki to vole vruće | "Sve me podsjeća na nju" | 54 | 3 | |
| 7 | Put | "Don't Ever Cry" | 85 | 1 | |
| 8 | Zorica Kondža | "Nema mi do tebe" | 51 | 4 | |
| 9 | Academia | "Tam Tam Ta Ram" | 1 | 14 | |
| 10 | Ivo Amulić | "Odlazim" | 48 | 5 | |
| 11 | Tony Cetinski | "Nek te zagrli netko sretniji" | 33 | 6 | |
| 12 | Maja Blagdan | "Jedini moj" | 76 | 2 | |
| 13 | Leteći odred | "Cijeli je svijet zaljubljen" | 19 | 9 | |
| 14 | Dorian | "Lady" | 3 | 12 | |
| 15 | Dražen Žanko | "Gordana" | 11 | 10 |
| Detailed Regional Jury Votes | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Draw | Song | |||||||||||||
| 1 | "Ispod zvjezdica" | 1 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 23 | |||||
| 2 | "Ostavljam te" | 12 | 12 | 24 | ||||||||||
| 3 | "OK" | 2 | 1 | 7 | 10 | |||||||||
| 4 | "Pepeljuge su same" | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 5 | "Ritam u grudima" | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
| 6 | "Sve me podsjeća na nju" | 5 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 54 | ||
| 7 | "Don't Ever Cry" | 12 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 85 | ||||
| 8 | "Nema mi do tebe" | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 51 | |||
| 9 | "Tam Tam Ta Ram" | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| 10 | "Odlazim" | 12 | 12 | 1 | 5 | 12 | 1 | 5 | 48 | |||||
| 11 | "Nek te zagrli netko sretniji" | 10 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 33 | |||
| 12 | "Jedini moj" | 7 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 76 | ||
| 13 | "Cijeli je svijet zaljubljen" | 5 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 19 | |||||||
| 14 | "Lady" | 3 | 3 | |||||||||||
| 15 | "Gordana" | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 11 | ||||||||
By 1992 an increasing number of countries had begun expressing an interest in participating in the Eurovision Song Contest; this increase was the result of new countries being formed following the dissolutions of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and as part of the Revolutions of 1989.[8] To accommodate this new interest the EBU expanded the maximum number of participating countries for the 1993 contest to twenty-five, with entries from three new countries being joined by twenty-two participating countries. In order to determine which countries would progress to the contest proper, a preselection round was held for the first time in the contest's history, with the top three countries in this round progressing to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. Preselection round, entitled Slovenian: [[Kvalifikacija za Millstreet]], took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia and was produced by the Slovenian public broadcaster Slovenian: [[Radiotelevizija Slovenija]]|i=unset (RTV SLO). Performing during the show in position two, following and preceding, Croatia received 51 points, placing third and subsequently qualifying to the Eurovision Song Contest proper alongside and Bosnia and Herzegovina.[9]
Put performed 21st at the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 in Millstreet, Ireland, following the Netherlands and preceding Spain. Despite being a favourite to win the contest, the group received only 31 points, placing 15th of the 25 competing countries.[10] [11] The Croatian jury awarded its 12 points to Norway.