Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999

Prior to the 1999 contest, Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Croatia six times since its first entry in 1993. Its best result in the contest was fourth, which it achieved in 1996 with the song "Sveta ljubav" performed by Maja Blagdan. In 1998, it placed fifth with Danijela and the song "Neka mi ne svane".^[1]

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, HRT organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. Between 1993 and 1998, HRT organised the national final Dora in order to select its entry for the contest, a method that continued for its 1999 participation.^{[citation needed]}

Dora '99 was the seventh edition of the national selection Dora which selected the Croatian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1999. The competition consisted of twenty-four entries, selected by an expert committee following a submission period opened by HRT between 14 November and 22 December 1998, competing in one final on 7 March 1999 at Jadran Film's Studio 2 in Zagreb, hosted by Oliver Mlakar and Vlatka Pokos and broadcast on HTV1.^[2] HRT broadcast an additional two shows prior to the final; the first show on 5 March, titled Naj Dora, featured performances from former Croatian Eurovision entrants, while the second show on 6 March, titled Pjevajmo Doru, featured the twenty-four competing artists performing songs from previous editions of Dora of their choice.^[3][4] Among the artists were Doris Dragović who represented Yugoslavia in 1986, and Magazin which represented Croatia in 1995.^{[citation needed]}

For the first time since Dora existed, an orchestra was introduced to accompany the entries. Nineteen of the twenty-four competing songs were performed with HRT's Revijski Orchestra during the final and the winner, "Marija Magdalena" performed by Doris Dragović, was determined by a combination of votes from 20 regional juries and a public televote, the latter of which had the same weight as one jury.^[5] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Tihana Škrinjarić, members of the Turbo Limach Show and Danijela, who represented Croatia in 1998, performed as the interval acts during the show.^{[citation needed]}