HRT have announced that they will be making format changes to Dora in 2023.
The Croatian broadcaster has announced that there will be changes made to the 2023 edition of Dora, with two of the biggest changes being a change to the release date of all the competing songs, and the addition of semi finals.
The Head of Delegation for Croatia, Tomislav Štengl, revealed HRT’s plans for Dora next year in an interview with Music Pub Zlatka Turkalja on HR 2.
Semi finals make their Dora debut
One of the biggest changes that will be seen in next years edition of Dora is the addition of semi finals. Štengl explains that they would like to see more songs competing in the contest. In order for this to work effectively, the contest would need to be expanded.
“The intention is to go to more evenings, to pass more songs in this selection, therefore, a maximum of 28, so we would go to two semi-finals and a final.”
Speaking of songs, Štengl has confirmed that all of the competing songs will be released much earlier than they usually are, and the songs will be accompanied by music videos, which will be a requirement.
In previous years, the competing songs in Dora have been released very close to the contest taking place, and in most cases, only a short snippet of the songs is released, usually without any music video.
Calling all artists!
HRT is aware that there are some songwriters and singers that avoid participating in Dora for whatever reason; but despite this, HRT is actively urging as many artists as they can to apply for the 2023 edition, as Štengl explains:
“As HRT, we are trying to motivate as many people as possible to contact us. We spoke with the composers’ society, the music union, and Croatian publishers to motivate their performers and authors to submit as many songs as possible – said Tomislav Štengl, adding that the one who wins the Dora competition will most likely have certain financial benefits.
This year we are in negotiations to find ways to motivate performers and authors . That there are also some kind of financial rewards . That their performance at Dora, if they win, will be financially covered, their stake, in everything they had to invest in order to perform.”
Special television shows for Dora songs
Another change that will be made will be the way in which the competing songs are revealed. The broadcaster has stated that there will be special television shows that will be recorded that will show all of the music videos for the competing songs.
“Our idea is to spin these videos through some television shows, which will be dedicated only to Dora. Another thing is that people are simply informed. We go by the principle that if the Eurosong works in such a way that for two and a half months we all know those songs, hear them, then the Eurosong is a success.
It is always interesting to see how a team of authors will work out their song for a performance on a big stage, so it can be the same at Dora. We hope that all this together has some kind of path that should take us from the semi-finals to the final.”
Dora was used as Croatia’s national final for Eurovision from their debut in 1993 until 2012. The Balkan nation opted for an internal selection between 2013 and 2018 (excluding 2014 and 2015 when they withdrew from Eurovision), before returning to Dora in 2019.
The latest winner of Dora is Mia Dimšić, who won with her song “Guilty Pleasure”. She went on to represent Croatia at Eurovision 2022 in Turin, finishing in 11th place in semi final one.
What are your thoughts on these changes that are being made to Dora? Do you think these changes will benefit the contest? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
