Eurovision 2025 Croatia profile: Poison Cake by Marko Bošnjak

We profile the 2025 entry from Croatia including details on the artist, song, how it was chosen, odds, fan reaction and how the nation has fared at Eurovision.

After participating as part of Yugoslavia between 1961 and 1992, Croatia made its debut as an independent country at the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest along ex-Yugoslav bedfellows Slovenia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

The country initially proved to be something of a powerhouse, placing in the top 10 in six of the seven contests between 1995 and 2001 (including fourth-place finishes in 1996 and 1999).

However, the twenty-first century proved less kind to the Balkan nation, with Croatia qualifying just twice between 2010 and 2022 - although they did take a two-year break from the contest during this period, in 2014 and 2015, due in no small part to this disastrous run of results.

2023 saw a turnaround for the country, however, with provocative rock act Let 3 qualifying for the grand final in Liverpool with their memorably insane track Mama ŠČ! The following year, newcomer Baby Lasagna would build on Let 3's success by obtaining Croatia's first ever runner-up result with his song Rim Tim Tagi Dim.

In 2025, Croatia will be represented by Marko Bošnjak, who will be hoping to continue his country's strong streak of results with his song Poison Cake.

2025 Entry: Marko Bošnjak - Poison Cake

• Marko will compete 15th in the running order of semi-final 1

• My Eurovision Scoreboard ranking: 34th

• Odds to win ranking: 35th

(Rankings as of 7 April 2025)

About the Artist

Marko grew up in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and sung and performed across the Balkans from a young age, including singing in church choirs as a child and signing himself up for a children's talent show in Serbia aged 11.

Eventually relocating to Zagreb to escape school bullying, Marko found himself working a string of eclectic jobs including working at KFC and as customer support for a sex toy company. However, he continued to work to pursue a music career and eventually came to public prominence after winning the second season of Serbian talent show Pinkove Zvezdice.

This year is Marko's second attempt to represent his country at the Eurovision Song Contest, after a previous participation in Dora 2022 with the song Moli za nas. He would ultimately finish second to Mia Dimšić with a respectable score of 179 points.

Marko is openly gay, having publicly come out in 2024. Following his victory at Dora 2025, he received a torrent of homophobic abuse on social media, with one Croatian broadcaster having to lock comments on a post announcing his appearance on a talk show.

In response, Marko said:

I'm proud of who I am. I think that a lot of people in Croatia are still a bit backwards and have a narrow understanding of the world. I don't blame them and I think that they should again refer to that Christian love that they promote.

About the Song

Poison Cake is a dark pop track written by Marko himself alongside Bas Wissink, Ben Pyne, Emma Gale and Filip Majdak.

The song, which juxtaposes heavy electro elements against a bouncy childlike bridge, is a revenge anthem inspired by the Grimm fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel. As part of the lyrics, Marko fantasises about having his enemies "take a bite of [his] poison cake", with all of the undesirable effects one might expect to follow.

Reactions to the song in Croatia were mixed - while many expressed support for Poison Cake, Croatian priests and religious figures accused the song of being "satanic".

In an interview on Croatian TV, Marko had the following to say in response:

Priests are priests rather than music critics, and some of them look for deeper meanings that correspond more to their ideology than to what the song is actually about [...] We can all interpret the song as we wish. I know it's not satanic, but if it's fun for someone to see it as such - feel free to do so."

The song reached number 1 in Croatia's HR Top 100, which reflects domestic airplay within Croatia.

How was Marko chosen for Eurovision?

Following on from the success of Baby Lasagna in 2024, Dora received a great deal more attention in 2025 than in other recent years, with two semi-finals and a grand final playing out over the course of a week.

The results in the final were according to the same format as at Eurovision itself, with 100% televoting in the semi-finals and a standard 50/50 split between jury and televote in the final. The juries consisted of half national panels representing different regions of Croatia, and half international panels from Finland, Slovenia, Spain and Armenia.

Participating in the second of two semi-finals, Marko qualified in second place to the final behind rock group Ogenj and their song Daj, daj (with Ogenj receiving more than twice the number of votes of any other act).

However, this placement was reversed in the grand final, where the presence of the juries would put Marko on top in the final score. Marko received the highest score of 83 from the juries in the final, while Ogenj would came only fifth.

Interestingly, though, Ogenj continued to dominate in the televote, receiving 78 points from the public compared to just 47 for Marko (fourth place in the televote).

Reaction Video

Croatia will compete in the first semi-final of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest on 13 May 2025 in Basel.

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