Croatia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest

Croatia has been represented at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest five times, winning the inaugural edition in Template:Escyr. The Croatian participating broadcaster in the contest is Template:Lang (HRT). It participated in the first four editions, from 2003 to 2006, organising a national final to select its entrant. The first Croatian entry was "Template:Lang" by Dino Jelusić, which finished in first place out of sixteen participants, with a score of 134 points. HRT was absent from the contest between 2007 and 2013, but it decided to return to the contest in Template:Escyr and selected its entry internally. In 2014, "Game Over" by Josie finished in last place, after which HRT again withdrew from competing the following year.

HRT returned in Template:Escyr, with The Voice Kids Hrvatska winner Marino Vrgoč to represent the country.

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> After problems occurred with the prospective host for the 2004 contest, Croatian broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija (HRT) stepped in to host the contest.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> HRT was one of six other broadcasters to enter a bid to host the 2005 contest, however this was unsuccessful.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Croatia also expressed an interest in hosting the 2006 contest<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and made another unsuccessful bid to host the 2007 contest.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

HRT withdrew from the 2007 contest, due to expense and difficulties in broadcasting the contest live.<ref name="Withdrawal">Template:Cite web</ref> 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,<ref name="HRT fined">Template:Cite web</ref> and instead decided at the last minute to broadcast it only on satellite channel HRT Plus which was not widely available in the country;<ref name="HRT Plus">Template:Cite web</ref> consequently a reserve jury had to take the place of the televoting.<ref name="Broadcast issues">Template:Cite web</ref> A recording of the contest was later aired, in a late evening slot, on a main channel.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref name="Broadcast issues"/><ref name="Withdrawal"/> The EBU would later relax the rule ahead of the 2007 contest.<ref name="HRT fined"/>

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Their return was officially confirmed by the EBU on 26 September 2014, with the 2014 contest being scheduled to be broadcast on HRT 2.<ref name=Croatia1>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 17 August 2016, HRT ruled out a return to the 2016 contest.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

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 Template:Ill 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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

On 16 April 2025 during Kod nas doma it was officially confirmed that Croatia will return to the contest in 2025. It was also confirmed that Marino Vrgoč will represent Croatia in the contest.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Participation overview

Table key

1	First place
3	Third place
◁	Last place
†	Upcoming event

Year	Artist	Song	Language	Place	Points
Template:Escyr	Dino Jelusić	"Template:Lang"	Croatian	1	134
Template:Escyr	Nika Turković	"Template:Lang"	Croatian	3	126
Template:Escyr	Lorena Jelusić	"Rock Baby"	Croatian	12	36
Template:Escyr	Mateo Đido	"Lea"	Croatian	10	50
Template:Escyr	Josie	"Game Over"	Croatian, English	16 ◁	13
Template:Escyr	Marino Vrgoč	"Snovi"	Croatian	colspan="2" Template:TBA

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.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 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	Template:Abbr
Template:Escyr	HRT 1	rowspan="4" Template:Unknown	Template:Unknown
Template:Escyr		Buga	Template:Center
Template:Escyr		Nika Turković	Template:Center
Template:Escyr	HRT Plus	Lorena Jelusić	Template:Center
Template:Escyr–Template:Escyr	colspan="2" Template:N/A	Template:N/A	Template:N/A
Template:Escyr	HRT 2	Ivan Planinić and Aljoša Šerić	Sarah	Template:Center
Template:Escyr–Template:Escyr	colspan="2" Template:N/A	rowspan="2" Template:N/A	Template:N/A
Template:Escyr	HRT 2	Nika Turković and Duško Ćurlić	Template:Center

See also

• Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest – Senior version of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest.