Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Slovenia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. Slovenian broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTV Slovenija) organized the national selection EMA 2019 in order to select the Slovenian entry for the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Country	Slovenia
National selection
Selection process	EMA 2019
Selection date(s)	16 February 2019
Selected entrant	Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl
Selected song	"Sebi"
Selected songwriter(s)	Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (6th, 167 points)
Final result	15th, 105 points
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2018 • 2019 • 2020►

Background

Prior to the 2019 Contest, Slovenia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-four times since its first entry in 1993.[1] Slovenia's highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been seventh place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 1995 with the song "Prisluhni mi" performed by Darja Švajger and in 2001 with the song "Energy" performed by Nuša Derenda. The country's only other top ten result was achieved in 1997 when Tanja Ribič performing "Zbudi se" placed tenth. Since the introduction of semi-finals to the format of the contest in 2004, Slovenia had thus far only managed to qualify to the final on four occasions. In 2018, Slovenia was represented by Lea Sirk and the song "Hvala, ne!", which qualified to the final and placed twenty-second.

The Slovenian national broadcaster, Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTV Slovenija), broadcasts the event within Slovenia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The Slovenian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest has traditionally been selected through a national final entitled Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA), which has been produced with variable formats. To this point, the broadcaster has only foregone the use of this national final in 2013 when the Slovenian entry was internally selected. For 2018, the broadcaster opted to organise EMA 2019 to select the Slovenian entry.

Before Eurovision

EMA 2019

EMA 2019 was the 23rd edition of the Slovenian national final format Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA). The competition was used by RTV Slovenija to select Slovenia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 and was broadcast on TV SLO1, Radio Val 202, Radio Koper, Radio Maribor and online via the broadcaster's RTV 4D platform.[2]

Format

Ten songs competed in a televised show where the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, a three-member expert jury selected two finalists out of the ten competing songs to proceed to a superfinal. Each member of the expert jury assigned a score of 1 (lowest score) to 5 (highest score) to each song with the top two being determined by the songs that receive the highest overall scores when the jury votes are combined. Ties were broken by giving priority to the song(s) that achieved a higher number of top scores (5), which would be followed by each juror indicating their preferred song should a tie still have persisted. In the superfinal, public televoting exclusively determined the winner. In case of technical problems with the televote, the jury would have voted to determine the winner in a similar process as in the first round of the competition.

Competing entries

Artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 9 November 2018 and 14 December 2018.[3] 103 entries were received by the broadcaster during the submission period. An expert committee consisting of Lea Sirk (singer-songwriter and 2018 Slovenian Eurovision entrant), Mojca Menart (Head of the publishing business of ZKP RTV SLO), Aleksander Radić (Head of the Slovenian delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest) and Žiga Klančar (music editor for Radio Val 202) selected ten artists and songs for the competition from the received submissions. The competing artists were announced on 27 December 2018.[4] Among the competing artists was former Slovenian Junior Eurovision contestants Ula Ložar who represented Slovenia in 2014 .

Final

EMA 2019 took place on 16 February 2019 at the RTV Slovenija Studio 1 in Ljubljana, hosted by Ajda Smrekar. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Smaal Tokk, Inot and Lea Sirk performed as guests. An online backstage broadcast at RTV Slovenija's official website also occurred concurrently with the competition, which was hosted by Tanja Kocman and Rok Bohinc.[5] The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, a three-member jury panel selected two entries to proceed to the second round: "Sebi" performed by Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl and "Kaos" performed by Raiven. The jury consisted of Lea Sirk, Darja Švajger (singer, vocal coach and 1995 and 1999 Slovenian Eurovision entrant) and Vladimir Graić (composer of Serbia's winning Eurovision entry "Molitva" in 2007). In the second round, a public vote selected "Sebi" performed by Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl as the winner.

Final – 16 February 2019
Draw	Artist	Song (English translation)	Composer(s)	Place	Result
1	Kim	"Rhythm Back to You"	Maraaya, Jimmy Jansson, Samuel Waermö, Art Hunter	8	Eliminated
2	Renata Mohorič	"Three Bridges"	Grigor Koprov, Stiko Per Larsson	9	Eliminated
3	René	"Ne poveš" (You don't say)	Jean Markič	10	Eliminated
4	Fed Horses	"Ti ne poznaš konjev" (You don't know the horses)	Jure Mihevc, Urša Mihevc	3	Eliminated
5	Ula Ložar	"Fridays"	Maraaya, Anej Piletič, Charlie Mason	3	Eliminated
6	Lumberjack	"Lepote dna" (The beauty of the bottom)	Drago Popovič, Jaka Novak, Robi Glač, Blaž Kuster, David Podgornik, Rok Ahačevčič	6	Eliminated
7	Okustični	"Metulji plešejo" (Butterflies are dancing)	Mate Bro, Karin Zemljič	5	Eliminated
8	INMATE	"Atma"	Andrej Bezjak, Marko Duplišak, Jure Grudnik, Miha Oblišar	7	Eliminated
9	Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl	"Sebi" (Oneself)	Zala Kralj, Gašper Šantl	—	Advanced
10	Raiven	"Kaos" (Chaos)	Sara Briški Cirman, July Jones, Lazy Joe, Peter Khoo, Alba	—	Advanced

Superfinal – 16 February 2019
Draw	Artist	Song	Televote	Place
1	Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl	"Sebi"	4,666 (73%)	1
2	Raiven	"Kaos"	1,735 (27%)	2

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (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. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, 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. Slovenia was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 14 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[6]

Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Slovenia was set to perform in position 5, following the entry from Poland and preceding the entry from Czech Republic.[7]

Semi-final

Slovenia performed fifth in the first semi-final, following the entry from Poland and preceding the entry from Czech Republic. At the end of the show, Slovenia was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Slovenia placed sixth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 167 points: 93 points from the televoting and 74 points from the juries.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results will be released shortly after the grand final.[8]

Points awarded to Slovenia

Points awarded to Slovenia (Semi-final 1)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
	Serbia	Belarus  Montenegro  Poland	Estonia  Finland  Hungary  Portugal
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Czech Republic  Georgia  Greece  Iceland		Belgium  San Marino  Spain	France
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Czech Republic		Poland  Portugal	Georgia  Serbia
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Cyprus  Finland  Iceland	Australia  San Marino  Spain	Hungary		Greece  Montenegro

Points awarded to Slovenia (final)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
	Croatia  Serbia		Estonia	Russia
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Belarus	Montenegro  Poland	Germany  Hungary	Austria  North Macedonia  Latvia	Finland
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
	Czech Republic  Poland			Finland
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
	Azerbaijan  Georgia  Greece  Lithuania	Portugal		Spain

Points awarded by Slovenia

Semi-final 1 Score Televote Jury 12 points  Serbia  Czech Republic 10 points  Iceland  Greece 8 points  Estonia  Belarus 7 points  Montenegro  Cyprus 6 points  Hungary  Belgium 5 points  Czech Republic  Serbia 4 points  Australia  Iceland 3 points  San Marino  Poland 2 points  Belarus  Hungary 1 point  Poland  Estonia

Final Score Televote Jury 12 points  North Macedonia  Czech Republic 10 points  Serbia  Azerbaijan 8 points  Italy  Italy 7 points  Iceland  Sweden 6 points  Norway  Netherlands 5 points  Netherlands   Switzerland 4 points   Switzerland  Denmark 3 points  Denmark  France 2 points  Australia  North Macedonia 1 point  Estonia  Malta

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Slovene jury:[8]

• Žiga Klančar – Chairperson – music editor, head of music programme
• Urša Mihevc – singer, composer
• Ula Ložar – singer, represented Slovenia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014
• Mate Bro – musician, singer, composer, producer
• Urša Vlašič – lyricist

Split voting results from Slovenia (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Ž. Klančar	U. Mihevc	U. Ložar	M. Bro	U. Vlašič	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Cyprus	4	6	3	4	6	4	7	14
02	Montenegro	7	8	10	10	11	11		4	7
03	Finland	14	12	14	14	9	14		15
04	Poland	11	4	11	9	8	8	3	10	1
05	Slovenia
06	Czech Republic	1	1	2	1	3	1	12	6	5
07	Hungary	9	9	7	13	5	9	2	5	6
08	Belarus	6	10	1	5	2	3	8	9	2
09	Serbia	8	7	5	3	4	6	5	1	12
10	Belgium	2	2	9	8	7	5	6	11
11	Georgia	10	13	12	11	12	13		16
12	Australia	13	15	6	6	15	12		7	4
13	Iceland	3	5	13	12	14	7	4	2	10
14	Estonia	12	11	4	7	13	10	1	3	8
15	Portugal	16	14	15	15	16	16		12
16	Greece	5	3	8	2	1	2	10	13
17	San Marino	15	16	16	16	10	15		8	3

Split voting results from Slovenia (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Ž. Klančar	U. Mihevc	U. Ložar	M. Bro	U. Vlašič	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Malta	12	7	6	4	18	10	1	19
02	Albania	18	16	17	17	9	17		12
03	Czech Republic	1	1	11	2	13	1	12	15
04	Germany	21	17	22	24	24	23		21
05	Russia	20	18	20	13	14	19		11
06	Denmark	5	5	9	8	6	7	4	8	3
07	San Marino	25	19	25	25	22	25		22
08	North Macedonia	9	8	5	9	5	9	2	1	12
09	Sweden	6	3	4	14	4	4	7	13
10	Slovenia
11	Cyprus	13	12	14	11	12	16		20
12	Netherlands	10	9	3	10	1	5	6	6	5
13	Greece	14	11	24	15	15	18		25
14	Israel	19	24	23	22	19	24		23
15	Norway	23	25	16	23	17	22		5	6
16	United Kingdom	7	6	21	21	21	14		24
17	Iceland	2	10	18	18	7	11		4	7
18	Estonia	16	20	12	19	20	20		10	1
19	Belarus	8	13	10	6	10	12		18
20	Azerbaijan	3	4	19	3	2	2	10	16
21	France	15	23	2	16	3	8	3	17
22	Italy	11	2	8	1	16	3	8	3	8
23	Serbia	17	14	7	7	8	13		2	10
24	Switzerland	4	15	1	12	11	6	5	7	4
25	Australia	24	22	13	5	23	15		9	2
26	Spain	22	21	15	20	25	21		14

References

1. "Slovenia Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
2. Vehar, Jan (11 February 2019). "More Details About Slovenian Preselection EMA 2019!". ESCBubble. Retrieved 30 January 2021.
3. "Slovenia: RTVSLO opens submission window for EMA2019". esctoday.com. 9 November 2018. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
4. "Slovenia: Raiven and JESC star Ula Ložar among the 10 competing acts in EMA 2019". wiwibloggs.com. 27 December 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2018.
5. "Alternativni prenos Eme s Tanjo Kocman in Rokom Bohincem". rtvslo.si (in Slovene). 16 February 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2021.CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
6. Jordan, Paul (28 January 2019). "Eurovision 2019: Which country takes part in which Semi-Final?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
7. "Exclusive: This is the Eurovision 2019 Semi-Final running order!". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 2 April 2019. Retrieved 2 April 2019.
8. Groot, Evert (30 April 2019). "Exclusive: They are the judges who will vote in Eurovision 2019!". Eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2019.

External links

• Official RTV Slovenija Eurovision website (in Slovene)