Dublin singer songwriter Ben Pyne has said he is "so excited" to be part of Croatia's Eurovision Song Contest journey after he co-wrote the country's entry for this year’s competition.
The track, entitled Poison Cake, was composed by Mr Pyne with a team of international collaborators and was the winning song at Dora 2025, Croatia's national Eurovision final last week.
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Croatian singer-songwriter Marko Bosnjak, who won the second season of the Serbian talent show Pinkove Zvezdice, will perform the track, which he describes as a message of "standing up for yourself".
Mr Pyne has previously penned tracks for numerous Irish and European acts in a wide range of genres and his music has been featured on national and international radio, and on national television, including BBC's Strictly Come Dancing.
Poison Cake was conceived during the Las Negras Songwriting Camp, in Andalucia, Spain when Mr Pyne teamed up with fellow songwriters Emma Gale and Bas Wissink.
"On the final day of the camp, we decided to write a modern, dark fairytale that would explore ideas of injustice and karma, using the metaphorical image of a poisoned cake," he says.
"At the time, we never envisaged the song going to Eurovision. It wasn't until last year when I saw a video of Croatian singer Marko Bosnjak online, I immediately thought this would be a perfect match.
"He had previously been shortlisted to represent Croatia at Eurovision and came second. It's a very visual song and it is made for a stage performance."
Croatia will compete in the first semi-final of the 69th Eurovision Song Contest, which takes place in Basel, Switzerland, following the country's victory in 2024 with their song The Code by Nemo.
"Marko has huge plans to elevate his performance for the Eurovision stage," Mr Pyne says. "He has been working behind the scenes on different concepts and plans to deliver the performance of his life in May.
"I will be there with some family. I am looking forward to being in the green room with the songwriting team and the Croatian delegation for the first semi-final on the 13 May and hoping that Poison Cake is one of the ten songs to qualify to the Grand Finale the following Saturday."
Emmy will perform Ireland's Eurovision entry, Laika Party, during the second semi-final on 15 May.
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