Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011

Dora 2011 - Official logo

Dora 2011 - Let's go to Eurovision! was the nineteenth edition of the Croatian national selection Dora which selected Croatia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. The competition consisted of seven shows between 22 January and 5 March 2011, all taking place at the Studio 10 Anton Marti in Zagreb instead of Opatija due to financial difficulties, broadcast on HRT 1 as well as online via the broadcaster's official website hrt.hr and hosted by Aleksandar Kostadinov, Leona Paraminski and Monika Lelas.[1] The final was also streamed online via the official Eurovision Song Contest website eurovision.tv.

Dora 2011 consisted of seven live shows. The first two shows on 22 and 29 January 2011 were the heats where twelve artists competed in each show and the seven contestants with the least public televotes were eliminated. Five contestants remained in the third show on 5 February 2011, three remained in the fourth show on 12 February 2011 and two remained in the fifth show, the quarter-final, on 19 February 2011. For each of the first five shows, a contestant was saved by the public among the eliminated contestants to remain in the competition as a wildcard. The sixth show on 26 February 2011 was the semi-final, during which the three remaining contestants competed and two proceeded to the final. The seventh show on 5 March 2011 was the final where the two finalists performed songs written by composers invited by HRT for the competition and the winner was selected by a combination of votes from a jury panel and the public vote.[2][3]

Auditions for artists aged over 16 with Croatian citizenship began on 9 December 2010 and concluded on 11 December 2010.[4] 150 applicants participated in the auditions. A six-member expert committee consisting of Željen Klašterka (HRT), Branka Muvrin (HRT), Hrid Matić (HRT), Željimir Babogredac (HDU), Zvonimir Bučević (HDU) and Hrvoje Hegedušić (HDS) reviewed the applicants and selected twenty-four contestants and two backups: Maksim Hozić and Marina Đurović for the competition. HRT announced the contestants on 21 December 2010.[5][6]

Colour key

  – Contestant received the most public votes

  – Contestant received the fewest public votes and was eliminated

  – Contestant received the public wildcard

• Celebrity judges: Gabi Novak, Dino Jelusić and Milana Vlaović[7]
• In a press conference soon after the first heat, it was announced that the votes were incorrectly analyzed and that Jelena Vanjek had qualified instead of Damir Kedžo.[8]

• Celebrity judges: Vanna, Luka Nižetić and Sandra Bagarić[9]

• Celebrity judges: Tereza Kesovija, Maja Blagdan and Hari Varešanović[10]

• Celebrity judges: Ivana Banfić, Mirjana Bohanec and Tomislav Bralić

• Celebrity judges: Danijela Martinović, Miran Hadživeljković and Ivanka Boljkovac

• Celebrity judges: Josipa Lisac, Emilija Kokić and Branko Bubica

The final took place on 5 March 2011. The two finalists: Jacques Houdek and Daria Kinzer each performed three candidate Eurovision songs and the winner was determined over two rounds of voting. In the first round, one song per finalist proceeded to the second final, the superfinal, by a 50/50 combination of votes from the celebrity judges and a public televote: "Lahor" performed by both Daria Kinzer and Jacques Houdek. Ties were decided in favour of the entry ranked higher by the judges. In the superfinal, "Lahor" performed by Daria Kinzer, was determined exclusively by a public televote.

• Celebrity judges: Tonči Huljić, Severina and Andrej Babić
• Interval acts: Feminnem, Boris Novković and Petar Grašo

• In the Semi-final 1 Croatia came 15th with 41 points: the public awarded Croatia 16th place with 32 points and the jury awarded 14th place with 49 points.