1.
Croatia
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Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a sovereign state between Central Europe, Southeast Europe, and the Mediterranean. Its capital city is Zagreb, which one of the countrys primary subdivisions. Croatia covers 56,594 square kilometres and has diverse, mostly continental, Croatias Adriatic Sea coast contains more than a thousand islands. The countrys population is 4.28 million, most of whom are Croats, the Croats arrived in the area of present-day Croatia during the early part of the 7th century AD. They organised the state into two duchies by the 9th century, tomislav became the first king by 925, elevating Croatia to the status of a kingdom. The Kingdom of Croatia retained its sovereignty for nearly two centuries, reaching its peak during the rule of Kings Petar Krešimir IV and Dmitar Zvonimir, Croatia entered a personal union with Hungary in 1102. In 1527, faced with Ottoman conquest, the Croatian Parliament elected Ferdinand I of the House of Habsburg to the Croatian throne. In 1918, after World War I, Croatia was included in the unrecognized State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs which seceded from Austria-Hungary, a fascist Croatian puppet state backed by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany existed during World War II. After the war, Croatia became a member and a federal constituent of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On 25 June 1991 Croatia declared independence, which came wholly into effect on 8 October of the same year, the Croatian War of Independence was fought successfully during the four years following the declaration. A unitary state, Croatia is a republic governed under a parliamentary system, the International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high-income economy. Croatia is a member of the European Union, United Nations, the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization, the service sector dominates Croatias economy, followed by the industrial sector and agriculture. Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world, the state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatias most important trading partner, since 2000, the Croatian government constantly invests in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Internal sources produce a significant portion of energy in Croatia, the rest is imported, the origin of the name is uncertain, but is thought to be a Gothic or Indo-Aryan term assigned to a Slavic tribe. The oldest preserved record of the Croatian ethnonym *xъrvatъ is of variable stem, the first attestation of the Latin term is attributed to a charter of Duke Trpimir from the year 852. The original is lost, and just a 1568 copy is preserved—leading to doubts over the authenticity of the claim, the oldest preserved stone inscription is the 9th-century Branimir Inscription, where Duke Branimir is styled as Dux Cruatorvm. The inscription is not believed to be dated accurately, but is likely to be from during the period of 879–892, the area known as Croatia today was inhabited throughout the prehistoric period
2.
Croatia in the Eurovision Song Contest
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Croatia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 22 times since making its debut at the 1993 contest. Between 1993 and 2011, the Croatian entrant was selected at the Dora pop festival, Croatias best result in the contest is fourth-place finishes in 1996 and 1999. Croatia first reached the top ten in 1995, when Magazin & Lidija Horvat-Dunjko finished sixth and this would be the first of six top ten results in seven years. Maja Blagdan was fourth in 1996, Danijela Martinović was fifth in 1998, Doris Dragović was fourth in 1999, Goran Karan was ninth in 2000, since then, Croatia has failed to reach the top ten. Since the introduction of the round in 2004, Croatia has failed to reach the final on five occasions. Croatia then withdrew from the contest in 2014 and 2015, on its return in 2016, Croatia reached the final for the first time in seven years. Croatia participated at Eurovision ten times as part of Yugoslavia, in 1963,1968,1969,1971,1972,1986,1987,1988,1989 and 1990. Apart from being the most successful Yugoslav republic in the contest, it gave the socialist republic its only win, Rock Me, sung by Riva in 1989, the Eurovision Song Contest 1990 was held in Zagreb as a result. After the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991, the Croatian national public broadcaster Croatian Radiotelevision had organised a festival to select a Croatian representative for the 1992 Contest. If HRT had been a member of the EBU in time for the contest, Croatias first entry as an independent state was in 1993 with the band Put, performing Dont Ever Cry which was, despite the English title, also partially performed in Croatian. The song came third in the Qualification for Millstreet, which allowed their participation in the 1993 contest, Croatias best position, as of 2016, has been with Maja Blagdans 1996 entry Sveta ljubav and Doris Dragovićs 1999 entry Marija Magdalena. Along with Malta and Cyprus and Portugal, Croatia was never relegated in the 1990s, the last time Croatia qualified for the grand final was in 2009. However, on 5 May 2015, HRT announced that it wont broadcast the 2015 contest and it was the first time since 1992 for HRT to not broadcast the contest. On 26 November 2015, it was announced that Croatia would return to the contest in 2016, nina Kraljić with the song Lighthouse qualified to the final, making it that Croatia qualified for the first time since 2009. After the successful return in 2016, Croatian national broadcaster Croatian Radiotelevision confirmed on 17 September 2016 that they would participate in 2017. Yugoslavian entries in 1963,1968,1969,1971,1972,1986,1987,1988,1989 and 1990 are Croatian entries that competed for Yugoslavia, ^ Spain originally gave its 12 points to Israel and 10 to Norway. After the broadcast it was announced that Spanish broadcaster wrongly tallied the votes and Germany should have got the top mark -12 points - instead of being snubbed, the mistake was corrected and so Germany was placed 7th over Norway. ^ In 2009, Croatia qualified through the back-up jury selection, if a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year
3.
Croatian Radiotelevision
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Croatian Radiotelevision is a Croatian public broadcasting company. It operates several radio and television channels, over a domestic transmitter network as well as satellite, Croatian Radiotelevision has three organizational units, three sister companies - the Croatian Radio, the Croatian Television and Music Production. Croatian Radiotelevision is the successor of the Radio station Zagreb that started broadcasting on 15 May 1926 under its first director and co-founder. During the first 14 years of its existence the Zagreb Radio station was owned by a private corporation, Radio Zagreb was nationalized on 1 May 1940. During the Independent State of Croatia, the station was known as Hrvatski krugoval, after World War II it began to operate as a state-owned radio station. Zagreb Radio station was the first public broadcasting facility in the southeast European area, at the end of the first year of operation, Radio Zagreb company had a little over four thousand subscribers. On the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Zagreb Radio station, on 15 May 1956, for the next two years this was the only TV broadcasting service in the southeast European area. This was the first TV station in Yugoslavia and would become a color station in 1972. In June 1990, the Croatian Parliament renamed the company from Radiotelevizija Zagreb to Hrvatska radiotelevizija, on 1 January 1993, HRT was admitted as a full active member of the European Broadcasting Union. The television channels were aired under the name Croatian Television, Hrvatska televizija between 1990 and 1993, since then, the current name is used. The radio broadcast unit is referred to as Croatian Radio, Hrvatski radio, HRT1 - HRTs first TV channel, previously known as TVZ1. This is a generalist channel with daily news around the world, documentaries, HRT2 - HRTs second channel, previously known as TVZ2. It is primarily used for broadcasts and entertainment programmes. The channel is known for its footage of vintage films. HRT3 - HRTs third channel, primarily used for culture, films and it was popular during the late 90s, and taken off-air in 2004. It returned to air in September 2012, HRT4 - HRTs fourth channel, broadcasting news programmes, started airing in December 2012. In the 1980s there was a channel called Z3 and later HTV Z3. It was taken off air on 16 September 1991 when its main transmitter, on 7 November 1994 the channel came back on air, this time called HRT3
4.
Millstreet
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Millstreet is a town in north County Cork, Ireland with a population of approximately 1,500. The town is most famous for hosting Eurovision Song Contest 1993, Millstreet is within the Civil Parish of Drishane, and within a Poor Law Union also called Millstreet. The Millstreet Union encompasses the parishes of both Drishane and Kilcorney. The town is located at the foot of Clara Mountain, the townlands within Millstreet Poor Law Union were part of the barony of West Muskerry. Note that Aubane is a neighborhood of Millstreet Poor Law Union within the townlands of Tooreenbane and Tullig, despite its small population, Millstreet has hosted many major events. One of the largest equestrian centres in Ireland is located in Millstreet, a part of the centre is a facility for shows and exhibitions. It hosted Eurovision Song Contest 1993, which was won by Irelands Niamh Kavanagh, steve Collins twice successfully defended his World Boxing Organization super middleweight boxing championship in Millstreet, against Chris Eubank in 1995, and against Neville Brown in 1996. In July 2006 and July 2014 Millstreet hosted the 29th and 37th European Juggling Convention, in December 2007 it hosted the John Deere show, in which Deere & Company unveiled new agricultural machinery. It also hosted the Farm Machinery Show in January 2008 and 2009, several artists have performed there, such as The Prodigy, James Blunt and Westlife. The towns Catholic church is dedicated to St. Patrick, since October 1985, the town has been twinned with Pommerit-le-Vicomte in Brittany, France. The town is situated on the Mallow–Killarney–Tralee line of the Irish railway network, Millstreet railway station opened on 16 April 1853 and closed for goods traffic on 6 September 1976, though it remains open for passenger train services. Joanne ORiordan Millstreet Town Website Aubane Historical Society
5.
Eurovision Song Contest 1993
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The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 15 May 1993 in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland. Niamh Kavanagh was the winner of this Eurovision for Ireland with the song and this was Irelands fifth victory, and equalled the tally of five Eurovision victories achieved by France in 1977 and Luxembourg in 1983. However, the venue, a large indoor well- equipped equestrian centre was deemed more suitable as the location by RTÉ. With huge support from local and national authorities, plus several businesses in the region and it was also the largest outside broadcast ever attempted by state broadcaster RTÉ and was deemed a technical triumph for all involved. The stage was created by Alan Farquharson, who was also chief production designer two years later in Dublin, BBC newsreader Nicholas Witchell caused controversy by remarking on the air, shortly before the contest, that it would be held in a cowshed in Ireland. The top two countries of this contest were the same as the top two countries in the years contest, being Ireland and the United Kingdom. This was, however, merely a measure that was plainly not a sustainable solution for future years. After some extremely tight voting, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia edged through, each country had a jury who awarded 12,10,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 point for their top ten songs. The voting required a jury to deliberate in the midst of the war in Bosnia. Warm applause rang round the hall as a voice on a phone line was heard to deliver the familiar greeting, Hello Millstreet. By the final few juries it became clear that either Ireland or the United Kingdom were going to win, after the penultimate jury had voted, it looked to be a lost cause for second-placed Sonia of the UK as she was eleven points behind Niamh Kavanagh. Ostensibly due to technical difficulties, the final jury to announce their results was the Maltese jury. However, the name of neither country came up, instead it was Ireland that were awarded the final points of the evening, finishing with what looked in retrospect a comfortable twenty-three-point victory. Interestingly, given the way the votes were cast, having Maltas vote announced last was the way for the contest for victory to go down to the final jury. 1993 was the last year that the points were announced by telephone
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