The participation of the Croatia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest first began at the inaugural Junior Eurovision Song Contest in which took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. Hrvatska radiotelevizija, a member organisation of the European Broadcasting Union, were responsible for the selection process of their participation. Croatia originally used a national selection format for their participation at the contests. The first representative to participate for the nation at the 2003 contest was Dino Jelusić with the song "Ti si moja prva ljubav", which finished in first place out of sixteen participating entries, achieving a score of one hundred and thirty-four points. Croatia first withdrew from competing in the Junior EurovisionSong Contest in. After seven years of absence, Croatia decided to return to the contest in which was held in Marsa, Malta and selected their entry internally. However after placing last with Josie and the song "Game Over", Croatian broadcaster HRT again withdrew from competing the following year, and have yet to make their return to the contest.
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. After problems occurred with the prospective host for the 2004 contest, Croatian broadcaster Hrvatska radiotelevizija stepped in to host the contest. 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. HRT was one of six other broadcasters to enter a bid to host the 2005 contest, however this was unsuccessful. Croatia also expressed an interest in hosting the 2006 contest and made another unsuccessful bid to host the 2007 contest. HRT withdrew from the 2007 contest, due to expense and difficulties in broadcasting the contest live. 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. Their return was officially confirmed by the EBU on 26 September 2014, with the 2014 contest being scheduled to be broadcast on HRT 2. 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. On 17 August 2016, HRT announced that they have no plans to return to the contest in 2016. 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.
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. The Croatian broadcaster, HRT, sent their own commentator to each contest in order to provide commentary in the Croatian language. 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.
