"Ya know, I had my doubts about Dora this year but god damn it, you Croatians have done it again."
That was the text I sent to my Croatian friends, who initially turned me on to Dora in 2023, as Marko Bošnjak took the stage for his winner's reprise of "Poison Cake."
I was curious to see what Dora would do this year. In 2023, Let 3's overwhelming victory and great result at Eurovision pushed national interest in the contest to new heights. Then, with Baby Lasagna's Cinderella story from first alternate to second place in Eurovision, and winner of the public vote, expectations were at an all time high.
But I had my doubts. After two years of unprecedented success, it would be understandable for things to falter. Lightning already struck twice, could it happen a third time?
As I watched the two semi-finals, there were moments of joy and moments that felt like clips from Fire Saga. We had all the tropes: Clowns whose performance was much more interesting than their songs, wind machines and fire out the wazzoo, and even the eventual winner had a cape that looked like it would've been sucked into giant hamsterwheel, had there been one on stage. One of the highlights is an emerging trope that I love and desperately want more of: obsessive Eurovision nerds entering national finals, this year represented by Fenksta.
In the end, it was a very right race for the first place, which is a nice change from the last two years of absolute blowouts. In a way, its a microcosm of this season. Lots of deserving songs with no clear favorite.
"Poison Cake" fits perfectly into the Class of 2025. A fun, upbeat, and slightly goofy song that leans hard into the camp that first brought most of us into this wacky Eurovision family.