Today, Slovenian national broadcaster RTVSLO has announced who will be battling for the Slovenian ticket to the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest to be held in Moscow, Russia. Two former Slovenian representatives are hoping to return to the competition for a second time: Omar Naber from 2005 and Karmen Stavec from 2003. As usual, the Slovenian representative will be chosen through EMA, the Slovenian national final. The semi final will be held on January 31st, 2009 and the final on February 1st, 2009 in Ljubljana.
As reported earlier by esctoday.com, the Slovenian national final is going to face a some slight changes. The most evident point is the altered voting system: Contrary to the 2008 and 2007 editions (won by Rebeka Dremelj and Alenka Gotar respectively) where the winner was decided by televoting only, the voting for the upcoming edition will consist of a mix of televoting (lines will be open for ten minutes) and an expert jury (50: 50) appointed by RTVSLO.
113 songs have been submitted to RTVSLO and a comission consisting of Darja Svajger, Slovenian Eurovision Song Contest representative in 1995 and 1999, Mojca Menart from RTVSLO and Jernej Verne, a music editor on Radio Slovenia, was in charge of deciding the line- up for EMA 2009.
These are the 6 acts already qualified for the final (songwriters in brackets):
The invited songwriters are those who achieved remarkable success on EMA in recent years and celebrated some hits in the Slovenian charts.
-
Omar Naber (Omar Naber)
-
Eva Černe (Boštjan Grabnar )
-
Alya in Rudi Bučar(Jan Plestenjak)
-
skupina Langa in Manca Špik (Matja� Vlašič)
-
Samuel Lucas (Aleš Klinar)
-
skupina Čuki (Jo�e Potrebuješ)
The invited songwriters are those who achieved remarkable success on EMA in recent years and celebrated some hits in the Slovenian charts.
Omar Naber already represented Slovenia in the 2005 Eurovision Song Contest in Kiev, Ukraine with Stop, a rock-ballad written by himself. If he manages to win EMA 2009 with another self-written song, he will be the second artist to have represented Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest on two occasions, the first one being Darja Svajger, who came 7th in 1995 (Slovenia's best result so far alongside with Nusa Derenda's 7th place in 2001) and 11th in 1999.
Another familar face is Eva Cerne, who will be competing with a song written by Bostjan Grabnar. As well as Omar Naber, Eva is a former winner of the Slovenian Idol-show Bitka Talentov (The Battle of Talents) and was runner-up in EMA 2007 with the song Cudezi smehljaja. Furthermore, Eva reached 5th place in EMA 2008 with Dovolj.
Two other artists from EMA 2008 are competing together this time: last year's runner-up, Skupina Langa in Civili, are collaborating with Manca Spik, who reached 9th place in last year's final with the song Še vedno nekaj čutim.
Alya is another experienced performer on EMA. In 2007 she took 12th place with Vizija, 5th place in 2005 Exxtra, 3rd in 2004Fluid and 13th in 2003Exploziv.
These are the 14 semi finalists – 8 of them will qualify for the final (writers in brackets):
-
Karmen Stavec – A si �eliš (Do you wanna)
(Rafael Artesero/Rafael Artesero/Gregor Bezenšek) -
Brigita Šuler – Druga liga(Second choice)
(Boštjan Groznik/Boštjan Groznik/Werner Brozovic) -
Bjonde – Blond Power
(Gorazd Sedmak/Gorazd Sedmak/Gaber Radojevic) -
Nuška Drašček – Kako lepo (Very nice)
(Duško Rapotec/Rok Terkaj/Ivan Popeskic) -
Aynee – Zdaj vem (Now I doknow)
(Simona Cernetic/Simona Cernetic/Miha Gorše) -
Tadeja Molan in Retro Beat – Sanje (Dreams)
(Tadeja Molan/Tadeja Molan/Retro Beat) -
Gianni Rijavec – Gloria
(Gianni Rijavec/Leon Oblak/Gianni Rijavec) -
Krema – Ob meni si (You're here with me)
(Janko Marinc/Roman Milavec/Dejan Markic) -
Mitja – Mission
(Aleš Berkopec – Primo� Velikonja/Aleš Berkopec/Damjan Berkopec – Damjan Berkopec/Primo� Velikonja/Mitja Šedlbauer/Nejc Viher) -
Quartissimo – Love Symphony
(Andrej Babic/Andrej Babic/Aleksandar Valencic) -
Nexys – Vsaj za en dan (Just for a day)
(Ines Mohorko/Anton Valencak) -
Ne me jugat in Slavko Ivančič – Kaj me briga (Whywould I care)
(Kodarin/Kodarin/Radojevic) -
Lea Sirk – Znamenje iz sanj(Signs from a dream)
(Patrik Greblo/Damjana Kenda Hussu/Sašo Fajon) -
Petra Slapar – Mistery
(Daniela Bervar/�iga Pirnat/�iga Pirnat)
Karmen Stavec has represented Slovenia in the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest in Riga, Latvia with Nanana. She came 23 out of 26 participants. Prior to her 2003 participation, Karmen has participated in EMA in 2001 and 2002. In 2002, there was a huge controvery surrounding the results as Karmen had won the televoting by a landslide but fell back into 2nd place due to the jury who eventually sent Sestre to Tallin. Karmen's song Se in se scored 31.944 televotes while Sestre only received 8,454. Brigita Suler gained 3rd place in EMA 2008 with her violin dominated song Samara. .
These are the four back- up entries:
-
Tina Gačnik – Agent 00-LA
(Rok Kosmac/Rok Kosmac/Miha Gorše) -
Rok Kosmač – Kriva si (It's your fault)
(Bor Zuljan/Leon Oblak/Bor Zuljan) -
Gašper – Greva do neba (Fly to the sky)
(Toma� Maras/Primo� �i�ek/Toma� Maras) -
La Kost – Čavčibavči (Chao-bao)
(Tadej Lah/Tadej Lah/Gregor Bele)
Tina Gačnik reached 8th place on EMA 2008 with the ballad Povej. Rok Kosmač was in the second semi final of EMA 2007 with Ko še spiš.
Find out everything about the altered rules on EMA here
Special thanks to Matic C. for the help with this article.
