In 2005, fifteen years after his near miss in the Yugoslav pre-selection, Novković won the right to represent the now independent Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest.

He performed his song "Vukovi umiru sami" ("Wolves die alone") together with members of the Lado ensemble.

To win the Dora pre-selection competition on 5 March 2005, they had to defeat an array of former Croatian Eurovision representatives, including Magazin, Danijela Martinović, Vesna Pisarović and Goran Karan.

Despite the respectable showing of Croatia's 2004 Eurovision entry "You Are The Only One", the country did not achieve a high enough placing to qualify automatically for the 2005 grand final.

[2] He was also the composer of "Moja štikla", Croatian entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, performed by Severina.