Performing during the show in position 13, "Celebrate" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final.

[2] Since 1993, HRT organised the national final Dora in order to select the Croatian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, a method that was continued for their 2011 participation.

The remaining two contestants proceeded to the final on 5 March 2011 where they performed their versions of the three songs bidding for Eurovision and the Croatian entry was selected by votes from the public and a judging panel.

Following the first heat, HRT announced during a press conference that the votes were incorrectly analysed and that Jelena Vanjek had qualified instead of Damir Kedžo.

The three guest judges that participated in the quarter-final were Danijela Martinović, Miran Veljković and Ivanka Boljkovac [hr].

In the first round, the two finalists Daria Kinzer and Jacques Houdek each performed their versions of the three candidate Eurovision songs and a 50/50 combination of votes from a three-member judging panel and a public televote selected one song per finalist to proceed to the second round, the superfinal.

[21] An English version of "Lahor" entitled "Break a Leg" was also performed by Daria at the final of Dora 2011 following her victory.

[23][24] The new version, "Celebrate", premiered on 11 March during the radio programme Sunčani sat broadcast on HR 2 and hosted by Zlatko Turkalj Turki.

[27][28] French, German and Russian versions of the song were also recorded entitled "C'est la fête", "Diese Nacht" and "Lunnij svjet", respectively.

[30] On 15 and 16 April, Daria took part in promotional activities in Malta where she appeared during several programmes on TVM including the talk show Xarabank.

[33] According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final.

On 17 January 2011, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in.

The Croatian performance featured Daria in a short black dress with a gold band in the middle, which changed colours twice to pink and silver.

[36][37] Daria was joined on stage by four backing vocalists: Ana Jakšić, Irena Križ, Jasenka Rutar and Katarina Jurić.

[38][39] At the end of the show, Croatia was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final.

The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency.

This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.