Croatia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

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Croatia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Flag of Croatia.svg
Participating broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT)
Participation summary
Appearances5
First appearance 2003
Last appearance 2014
Highest placement1st: 2003
External links
Croatia's page at JuniorEurovision.tv OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Song contest current event.png For the most recent participation see
Croatia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014

Croatia participated in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest five times, and won the inaugural edition in 2003. Croatian broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT), a member organisation of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), were responsible for the country's participation. Croatia participated in the first four editions, from 2003 to 2006, organising a national final to select the country's entrant. The first representative to participate for Croatia was Dino Jelusić with the song " Ti si moja prva ljubav ", which finished in first place out of sixteen participating entries, with a score of 134 points. Croatia was absent from the contest between 2007 and 2013, but HRT decided to return to the contest in 2014 and selected their entry internally. In 2014, Josie finished in last place for Croatia with the song "Game Over", after which HRT again withdrew from competing the following year.

Contents

History

Croatia are one of the sixteen countries to have made their debut at the inaugural Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003, which took place on 15 November 2003 at the Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark. [1] After problems occurred with the prospective host for the 2004 contest, Croatian broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT) stepped in to host the contest. [2] However, this was later abandoned after it was revealed the venue HRT had planned on using for the contest was to be in use during the period of the contest. [3] HRT was one of six other broadcasters to enter a bid to host the 2005 contest, however this was unsuccessful. [4] Croatia also expressed an interest in hosting the 2006 contest [5] and made another unsuccessful bid to host the 2007 contest. [6] HRT withdrew from the 2007 contest, due to expense and difficulties in broadcasting the contest live. [7]

On 23 September 2014, it was announced that Croatia could possibly return to the 2014 contest in Marsa, Malta due to a tweet composed by the Executive Supervisor of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, Vladislav Yakovlev. [8] Their return was officially confirmed by the EBU on 26 September 2014, with the 2014 contest being scheduled to be broadcast on HRT 2. [9] On 23 June 2015, it was announced that HRT would withdraw from the 2015 contest, leaving Croatia out of the edition which took place in Bulgaria. [10] On 17 August 2016, HRT ruled out a return to the 2016 contest. [11] On 20 May 2017, the Croatian broadcaster announced their ambitions to return to the 2017 contest in Tbilisi. However, Croatia was not on the final list of participants released by the EBU and did not compete in the contest. [12]

Participation overview

Table key
1First place
3Third place
Last place
YearArtistSongLanguagePlacePoints
2003 Dino Jelusić " Ti si moja prva ljubav " Croatian 1134
2004 Nika Turković "Hej mali"Croatian3126
2005 Lorena Jelusić"Rock Baby"Croatian1236
2006 Mateo Đido"Lea"Croatian1050
2014 Josie "Game Over"Croatian, English16 ◁13

Commentators and spokespersons

The contests are broadcast online worldwide through the official Junior Eurovision Song Contest website junioreurovision.tv and YouTube. In 2015, the online broadcasts featured commentary in English by junioreurovision.tv editor Luke Fisher and 2011 Bulgarian Junior Eurovision Song Contest entrant Ivan Ivanov. [13] The Croatian broadcaster, HRT, sent their own commentator to each contest in order to provide commentary in Croatian. Spokespersons were also chosen by the national broadcaster in order to announce the awarding points from Croatia. The table below list the details of each commentator and spokesperson since 2003.

YearChannelCommentatorSpokespersonRef.
2003 HRT 1 Un­knownUn­known
2004 Buga
2005 Nika Turković
2006 HRT Plus Lorena Jelusić
20072013 No broadcastDid not participate
2014 HRT2 Ivan Planinić and Aljoša ŠerićSarah
20152023 No broadcastDid not participate

See also

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References

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