Croatia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

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.

Croatia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
Participating broadcaster	Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT)
Participation summary
Appearances	5
First appearance	2003
Last appearance	2014
Highest placement	1st: 2003
Participation history 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 – 2013 2014 2015 – 2024
External links
Croatia's page at JuniorEurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Croatia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014

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] In October 2007, the broadcaster was fined 10,000 Swiss francs for breaching the rules of the 2006 contest by not broadcasting the show live on one of their main terrestrial channels despite initially declaring it would do so,^[8] and instead decided at the last minute to broadcast it only on satellite channel HRT Plus which was not widely available in the country;^[9] consequently a reserve jury had to take the place of the televoting.^[10] A recording of the contest was later aired, in a late evening slot, on a main channel.^[11] The broadcaster had sent several requests to the EBU to move the show to an earlier time slot, using 17:00 as an example and also asked for permission to broadcast the contest in a delayed time slot more convenient for its programming schedule but these requests were declined.^[10][7] The EBU would later relax the rule ahead of the 2007 contest.^[8]

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.^[12] Their return was officially confirmed by the EBU on 26 September 2014, with the 2014 contest being scheduled to be broadcast on HRT 2.^[13] 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.^[14] On 17 August 2016, HRT ruled out a return to the 2016 contest.^[15] 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.^[16]

On 3 November 2024, the broadcaster published a programme schedule for the day of the 2024 contest which shows that HRT intends to broadcast the contest live on HRT 2 for the first time in a decade. A few days later the Croatian Head of Delegation for Eurovision, Tomislav Štengl confirmed on Dobro jutro, Hrvatska [hr] that the broadcaster was evaluating a potential return to the contest in 2025 and invisioned that the inaugural winner of the upcoming kids version of The Voice Hrvatska would be the chosen representative.^[17]

Participation overview

Table key

1	First place
3	Third place
◁	Last place

Year	Artist	Song	Language	Place	Points
2003	Dino Jelusić	"Ti si moja prva ljubav"	Croatian	1	134
2004	Nika Turković	"Hej mali"	Croatian	3	126
2005	Lorena Jelusić	"Rock Baby"	Croatian	12	36
2006	Mateo Đido	"Lea"	Croatian	10	50
2014	Josie	"Game Over"	Croatian, English	16 ◁	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.^[18] 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.

Year	Channel	Commentator	Spokesperson	Ref.
2003	HRT 1	Un­known	Un­known
2004			Buga
2005			Nika Turković	[19]
2006	HRT Plus		Lorena Jelusić	[9]
2007–2013	No broadcast		Did not participate	—
2014	HRT 2	Ivan Planinić and Aljoša Šerić	Sarah	[20]
2015–2023	No broadcast		Did not participate	—
2024	HRT 2	Nika Turković and Duško Ćurlić		[21]

See also

• Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest – Senior version of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.
• Croatia in the Eurovision Young Dancers – A competition organised by the EBU for younger dancers aged between 16 and 21.
• Croatia in the Eurovision Young Musicians – A competition organised by the EBU for musicians aged 18 years and younger.

References

1. García, Belén (7 September 2015). "#BestOfJESC – Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003". esc-plus.com. ESC+Plus. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
2. Bakker, Sietse (2004-06-01). "Junior 2004 in Croatia!". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
3. Bakker, Sietse (2004-06-17). "'Junior contest moves to Norway'". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
4. Philips, Roel (2004-03-04). "Belgium organises Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2005!". ESCToday.
5. "Exclusive! 'Croatia and Romania want to host junior 2006'". ESCToday. 15 October 2004. Archived from the original on November 16, 2006.
6. West-Soley, Richard (17 September 2006). "Dutch JESC decision 'took ten minutes'". ESCToday.com. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
7. Klier, Marcus (2007-01-20). "HRT Withdraw from JESC 2007". ESCToday. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
8. Royston, Benny (4 October 2007). "Croatia fined for breaking rules". ESCToday.com. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
9. Royston, Benny (8 January 2007). "Exclusive: HRT to learn fate within a month". ESCToday.com. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
10. Mancheño, José Miguel (15 July 2022). "Recordando Eurovisión Junior: Bucarest 2006, el festival viaja hacia el este" [Remembering Junior Eurovision: Bucharest 2006, the festival travels eastwards]. ESCplus España. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
11. Horvat, Ivan (26 September 2014). "Hrvatska se vraća na Dječji Eurosong!" [Croatia returns to the Children's Eurosong!]. eurosong.hr. Retrieved 6 November 2024.
12. Garcia, Belen (23 September 2014). "Junior Eurovision: Looks like Croatia is back!". ESC+Plus. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
13. Fisher, Luke James (26 September 2014). "Croatia returns to Junior Eurovision!". junioreurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 26 September 2014.
14. Granger, Anthony (23 June 2015). "Croatia withdraws from Junior Eurovision". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
15. Granger, Anthony (17 August 2016). "Croatia will not return Junior Eurovision 2016". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
16. Granger, Anthony (23 May 2017). "Croatia HRT considering a return to Junior Eurovision". eurovoix.com. Eurovoix. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
17. "Za tjedan dana završava natječaj za Doru, evo što treba znati" [The competition for Dora ends in a week, here's what you need to know]. Hrvatska radiotelevizija (in Croatian). Retrieved 8 November 2024.
18. Fisher, Luke James (21 November 2015). "Tonight: Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015!". Junior Eurovision Song Contest – Bulgaria 2015. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
19. "TV program – Subota, 26. studenoga – HRT 1" [TV program – Saturday, 26 November – HRT 1]. Glas Podravine (in Croatian). Koprivnica, Croatia. 25 November 2005. p. 22. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
20. "Naša predstavnica na Dječjem Eurosongu ima tremu, ali zna kako je pobijediti" [Our representative at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest is nervous, but she knows what it's like to win]. www.vecernji.hr (in Croatian). 15 November 2014. Retrieved Nov 6, 2024.
21. "Raspored emitiranja programa – HRT2 – Subota, 16. studenog 2024" [Schedule of the programme – HRT2 – Saturday, 16. November 2024.]. Hrvatska radiotelevizija (in Croatian). 2024-11-03. Retrieved 2024-11-03.