Brigita Suler is one of the hopefuls to win the Slovenian ticket to the Eurovision Song Contest this year. Brigita Suler will participatie in the semi final of EMA, the Slovenian national final, on January 31st, hoping to qualify to the final, to be held on February 1st, in Ljubljana. Brigita is already known to the Eurovision audience due to her 3rd place on last year's EMA with the song Samara. This year, Brigita competes with Druga liga. Find out more about Brigita, her song and her views on Eurovision in the following interview, which she has kindly given to esctoday.com editor Florian Grillhofer.

You made your debut at EMA last year with a very innovative, dramatic and violin- dominated song called Samara. What is the meaning of this song? Is there some special story related to it?

The song was really different, dramatic and with our performance we tried to present a fight between good and evil. There is a mythology story about goddess Samara who was crying so much, because she lost her husband, that her tears made a river. The chorus in the song Samara presents the impression of goddess Samara's feelings and her fight with evil.

Samara was one of the fan favourites to win the Slovenian national final in 2008. How satisfied were you with reaching 3rd place thus just missing out on the super final to decide the winner?

I had been sending Samara for three years and the juries of our EMA did not accept it. I knew that the song is really fabulous and would be very successful in Eurovision. But the EMA jury really doesn't recognise a good song. But okay, considering the situation, that I qualify to EMA from reserve and had just three weeks to prepare for my appearance, I was satisfied with the results, especially because our listeners and music critics accepted Samara as one of the best. And it won the Second Chance Contest in Slovenia, too.

This year, you will try your luck in EMA once again with the song Druga liga. What can we expect from you this year? What is your song about and which musical genre does it belong to? Can you identify yourself with the song?

Druga liga in English means "Second league". It is talking about a man who is not good enough for me, so I think he is second league. With those lyrics I think anyone can identify themselves. The song belongs to the pop genre. It is loaded with energy, lively, its melody remains in your ears after one listening and it has a powerful and rich arrangement with acoustic instruments.

Your performance of Samara was very interesting and well received. Will you prepare an equally vivid performance of Druga liga?

We are preparing a vivid, lively performance full of energy, with a lot of small surprises. Gena Zeneli is our choreographer who has created a really interesting choreography with which we all feel very good and it will add another value to the song. With me on the stage, I'll have five excellent singers and dancers and I'm very happy that I have such a good team, that is highly motivated and we all are looking forward to present our song to all of you.

Do you think Druga liga has got what it takes to win EMA? Who do you think will be your biggest competitor for victory?

I haven't listened to all of the other songs yet and if I am completely honest, I don't care about it. It is a competition, definitely, but it is very hard to predict the winner. I only hope that the listeners and juries will recognise the best song and singer, who would at least present our country in a successful way. Of course I hope they will recognise that it is me and my song Druga ligaJ!

What would it mean to you to represent your country in the Eurovision Song Contest? Are you a fan of the competition? Do you perhaps have a favourite song?

I have been a fan of the Eurovision Song Contest for all of my life and if I' accomplish that, then my biggest dreams would come true. I am prepared to represent Slovenia with my great song and very interesting performance, I think I would be very successful.

In your opinion, what is more important in the Eurovision Song Contest nowadays- good music, a good show or both?

I think both: good music and good show. Sometimes it is hard for us singers, because it is hard to sing good and dance at the same time, but I think that this is what makes the Eurovision Song Contest interesting and because of that it is Eurovision so popular.

Do you think smaller countries like Slovenia are disadvantaged in Eurovision, as far as the voting is concerned? And what do you think of the previous entries that competed for Slovenia?

I think that there is some truth to it. Slovenia is a very small country and because of that, our song must be very good and interesting so Europe could remember it. I think that in Slovenia the biggest problem is the fact that most of the times we are not thinking what is the best for Slovenia in Eurovision, but what is the best for Slovenia in Slovenia. Therefore, many good songs of the previous competitions didn't make it to Eurovision and had to stay in Slovenia.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, your career so far and how you got involved with musical business in the first place.

I live with the music since my childhood, because I was born into a musical family. I started to sing as a very little girl, at my ten years I went to a music school and started to play the piano. Then I realised that I want to be a singer and a music teacher. So, I studied music (solfeggio and piano) and became a professor of music and now I'm giving piano lessons in a music school. All the time of my studying I've performed as a singer in different bands with a wide range of genres, and as backing vocalist to several Slovenian singers. In the year 2003 I started a career of my own and won several singing competitions, and from 2005 I am successfully collaborating with the producer Werner. With his help, my music is well known in Slovenia, some of my songs became big hits and because of that I have now a lot of fans. We are preparing my second CD which will come out soon after Ema and it will contain the song Druga liga.

Is there some special message you would like to tell our readers at esctoday.com?

I am very glad that you liked my song Samara last year and I'm promising you that you won't be disappointed this year. I will do my best on EMAS and God knows, maybe I'll see you in the Eurovision Song Contest.

Druga liga EMA 2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPO8XJmwb7I

Samara EMA 2008, 3rd place
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJLmIEzD4P4