Drama in Croatia – Nina Kraljić speaks out about ‘being sabotaged’ in Dora, before deleting all social media

Dora 2021 took place on Saturday, where a total of 14 acts competed to represent Croatia in Eurovision 2021. The favorite of both the public and the juries was Albina with her song “Tick Tock” and she will go on to represent her country in this year’s Contest in Rotterdam. All of the other contestants congratulated Albina on a well-deserved victory, except Croatia’s Eurovision entrant from 2016, who finished in second place in Dora 2021 – Nina Kraljić.

During the results you could see that Nina wasn’t happy with how the voting was going, and moments after the show she took her disappointment to her social media. Starting from claims that the entire contest was rigged, that she was sabotaged by the producers by being put on to perform first, that people were not able to televote for her, and all the way to claims that she was getting the backtrack of “Tick Tock” instead of her own song during rehearsals. This led to her arguing with most of her fans in the comments on her artist pages on Facebook and Instagram, and eventually saying that she doesn’t like Tick Tock and that she “obviously doesn’t care what others think, not even high-ranking lobbies”. She also stated that she is “done with HRT” and she doesn’t want to have Eurovision 2016 mentioned to her because she was sent there with “no money and no support”. She eventually went on to delete all of her social media accounts earlier today.

Croatian news portal Vecernji.hr made a screenshot of one of her last posts on Facebook, and you can check it out here, together with its translation below:

Screenshot by vecernji.hr

Dear people, I remain consistent with myself whether some like it or not. I do not mumble nor do I intend to embellish and say what’s expected to be said. I have the right to my own opinion that Bernarda, Mia and especially ToMa was visually and vocally better than me and Albina and I congratulate them. I don’t like the song “Tick Tock” and that’s it. Reconcile yourselves to the fact that I am peacefully reconciled with the fact that just because I said that not everything is so wonderful and beautiful behind the stage, or that I was being played the backing track of “Tick Tock” on my own on-stage rehearsal, on my own in-ear headphones for almost 10 minutes, and not my track. This really speaks about the respect of the organizers, 4 days before the announcement, and that random drawing of the running order number of performances would be the basic correctness because it is too transparent, etc. etc. (and I haven’t said anything yet, and I actually appealed to HRT because I wanted to say that I finished my job with them and finally outgrew them). I’m now being bullied in newspapers and I’m in hate comments everywhere. Why doesn’t that hurt me, and why did I celebrate Valentine’s Day yesterday and feasted? Because someone else’s hatred and such type of journalism and behavior speaks for others. I advise you that if you don’t like what one person is saying about the other side of the story, or has a different attitude from yours, and for some reason you can’t handle it and instead you attack or insult to simply follow what suits you. I have a family you know. I don’t mind as long as I’m consistent with myself, but I feel sorry for them because I’m still their daughter who just stands behind her views and the views of my loved ones who know the real backstory, not the half-information from yellow-press and what you get on TV. Anyway, I have cleaner air around me now and that is what me and my folks have concluded, and I am grateful now even more to Dora because I started a new project that makes me passionately happy, and thanks to it I gathered people around me who suit me privately and professionally. I am moving away for the last time from HRT with this Dora, also due to several reasons that have been going on for a couple of years. It’s also my right to think that censorship and acting by saying ‘it was wonderful, congratulations to everyone again’ is not for me if I don’t feel it, and if I had finished first I still wouldn’t have felt it, but I was told I wouldn’t be first anyways 😀 so those who moan that this was about the victory have missed the point. In addition, I already have my victories, big ones that I honestly received, including the ‘Slavic Hope’ award from the President of Belarus and the Ministry of Culture, and these are much more important to me I dare to say. At the end of the day I already have “The Voice” behind me as well as Eurovision, but there can be a lot to talk about that one as well. That’s where the whole story stops on my side. I concentrate further on this new project, on reveling with people who have a similar attitude and I will soon release “Rijeka” as an audio for everyone who loves it and wants to hear it with a more normal mix. You can write whatever you want, I won’t answer to anyone anymore. Nor do I have to defend myself to anyone. It is sad that we live in a society in which the same is always said and done and expected, and as soon as it is not so, you are immediately lynched publicly. Well, if I really wanted to join the mainstream, my behavior would be completely different, trust me. Obviously I don’t care what others think, not even high-ranking lobbies. I follow myself and my truth and whoever likes that, likes that. Enjoy the weekend.

After various comment exchanges with fans and followers, Nina has closed down both her Facebook and her Instagram profiles.

Nina finished in third place with the juries, scoring points from each jury center, being 9 points behind second placed Bernarda, and 10 points behind the jury favorite – Albina. Whilst she finished in second place in televoting, she was far behind Albina who won the televoting by a big margin. Nina thus finished in second place overall with 145 points, whilst Albina won with 198 points. Give a listen to the winning song “Tick Tock” right here:

1 Comment
  1. Genius among geniuses says

    Nina’s message is clearly biased.

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