Croatia competed in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999, held in

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. The Croatian entry for the contest was

Doris Dragović Dorotea "Doris" Budimir (, ; born 16 April 1961) is a Croatian singer-songwriter who has represented Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1986 with the song " Željo moja", finishing 11th with 49 points, and Croatia in the Eurovision Song Co ...

with the song "Marija Magdalena". The Croatian broadcaster

Hrvatska radiotelevizija ''Hrvatska radiotelevizija'' (abbr. HRT), or Croatian Radiotelevision, is Croatia's public broadcasting company. It operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as well as satellite. HRT is divided into thr ...

(HRT) held a national final, Dora, to select the Croatian entry for the contest.

Before Eurovision

Dora 1999

The 1999 edition of Dora was held on 7 March at the HRT TV studios in

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Croatia#List of cities and towns, largest city of Croatia. It is in the Northern Croatia, northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slop ...

, hosted by

Oliver Mlakar Oliver Mlakar (born 1 July 1935) is a Croatian television presenter. Best known for hosting game shows, he was one of the most popular television personalities in SFR Yugoslavia and later Croatia. Biography Mlakar was born in Ptuj and lived in O ...

and Vlatka Pokos. 24 songs competed, with the winner decided by 21 juries, 20 regional juries and a 21st jury made up of televoting results. This was the first contest where an orchestra is introduced for the first time since Dora existed. Every entry has its own conductor, respectively as the arranger for the specific song. This existed until 2004. The winner of the contest was

with "Marija Magdalena". Dragović had previously represented

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

, at the 1986 contest with the song " Željo moja".

At Eurovision

On the night of the contest Dragović performed 4th, following

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and preceding the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. The song received 118 points at the close of the voting (12 points from

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and ...

and

), placing Croatia 4th of 23 countries competing. This was, and still is as of 2021, Croatia's joint-best placing at the contest, sharing with Croatia's

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entry, "Sveta ljubav" with

Maja Blagdan Maja Blagdan (born 16 May 1968) is a Croatian pop singer. She began her singing career in a rock band, Stijene, in 1986. Later she had a solo career. Her first solo album was released in 1993. She represented Croatia at the Eurovision Song Con ...

. Only

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

and the

failed to award the song any points at all.

Voting

After Eurovision

The Norwegian delegation raised an objection to the use of simulated male vocals during the performance of Croatian entry "Marija Magdalena". Following the contest this was found to have contravened the contest rules regarding the use of vocals on the backing tracks, and Croatia were sanctioned by the EBU with the loss of 33% of their points for the purpose of calculating their average points total for qualification in following contests. The country's position and points at this contest however remain unchanged.

References

Bibliography

* * {{Eurovision Song Contest 1999

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pri ...