# Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2001

Slovenia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2001 with the song "Energy", composed by Matjaž Vlašič, with lyrics by Lucienne Lončina, and performed by Nuša Derenda. The Slovene participating broadcaster, Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTVSLO), held the national final Evrovizijska Melodija 2001 in order to select its entry for the contest. The broadcaster returned to the contest after a one-year absence following its relegation in 2000 as one of the six entrants with the lowest average scores over the previous five contests.
22 entries competed in the national final which consisted of two shows: a semi-final and a final. Entries were selected to advance from the semi-final based on a public televote and a jury panel. Ten entries qualified to compete in the final where "Ne, ni res" performed by Nuša Derenda was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from two thematical juries and a public televote. The song was later translated from Slovene to English for Eurovision and was titled "Energy".
Slovenia competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2001. Performing during the show in position 17, Slovenia placed seventh out of the 23 participating countries, scoring 70 points.

## Background

Prior to the 2001 contest, Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTVSLO) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Slovenia six times since its first entry in 1993. Its highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been seventh place, achieved in in 1995 with the song "Prisluhni mi" performed by Darja Švajger. Its only other top ten result was achieved in 1997 when "Zbudi" performed by Tanja Ribič placed tenth. In 1999, "For a Thousand Years" performed by Švajger placed eleventh.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, RTVSLO organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster has traditionally selected its entry through a national final entitled Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA), which has been produced with variable formats. For 2001, RTVSLO opted to organise Evrovizijska Melodija 2001 (EMA 2001) to select its entry.

## Before Eurovision
### Evrovizijska Melodija 2001

Evrovizijska Melodija 2001 (EMA 2001) was the sixth edition of the national final format Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA). The competition was used by RTVSLO to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2001, and consisted of two shows on 23 and 24 February 2001. Both shows of the competition took place at the RTVSLO Studio 1 in Ljubljana and were broadcast on TV SLO1.

#### Format

The format of the competition consisted of two televised shows: a semi-final held on 23 February 2001 and a final held on 24 February 2001. Twenty-two songs competed in the semi-final where a public televote first selected the top six entries to proceed to the final. An expert jury then selected an additional six finalists out of the thirteen remaining songs. Ten songs competed in the final where the winner was selected following the combination of points from two thematical juries and a public televote. The jury groups and the televote each assigned points as follows: 1–8, 10 and 12, with the song that received the highest overall score when the votes were combined being determined the winner.

#### Competing entries

An expert committee consisting of Mojca Menart (music editor for Radio Slovenija), Mojmir Sepe (conductor and composer), Jaka Pucihar (composer) and Aleš Strajnar (musician and composer) selected twenty-two artists and songs for the competition from 98 received submissions. The competing artists were announced on 18 December 2000. Among the competing artists was former Eurovision contestants 1X Orchestra which represented Slovenia in 1993 as 1X Band, and Regina who represented Slovenia in 1996.
| Artist | Song | Songwriter(s) |
| 1X Orchestra | "Ta ni zame" | Tomaž Kosec, Cole Moretti |
| Alenka Godec | "Če verjameš ali ne" | Anja Rupel, Alenka Godec, Aleš Klinar |
| Andraž Hribar | "Življenje je" | Dušan Bižal, Andraž Hribar |
| By the Way | "Svet okoli mene" | Aleksandra Konstantin, Simon Baraga |
| Damjana Golavšek | "Stoletje sanj in miru" | Svezdana Majhen, Karel Novak |
| Deja Mušič and Katice | "Angel luči" | Nenad Kokovič |
| GIS | "Sreča je" | Jamez Hostnik |
| Ivo Špacapan | "Za devetimi gorami" | Ivo Špacapan |
| Jan Plestenjak | "Vse je OK" | Jan Plestenjak |
| Karmen Stavec | "Ostani tu" | Martin Štibernik, Karmen Stavec |
| Kingston | "Lunapark" | Dare Kaurič, Zvone Tomac |
| Lutke | "Pokliči me" | Dadi Dacič |
| Nude | "Ni čist greh" | Boštjan Dermol, Gaber Marolt |
| Number One | "Tell Me Why" | Franko Reja, Branko Kumar, Roland Makovec |
| Nuša Derenda | "Ne, ni res" | Urša Vlašić, Matjaž Vlašić |
| Panda | "Tok, tok" | Andrej Pompe |
| PAX | "Ko so lipe cvetele" | Vlado Poredoš |
| Polona | "Samo laži" | Drago Mislej Mef, Danolo Kocjančič |
| Regina | "Zaljubljena v maj" | Marko Slokar, Aleksander Kogoj |
| Simona Weiss | "Vse življenje" | Simona Weiss, Goran Šarac, Andrej Baša |
| So Real | "Nedeljsko jutro" | Peter Azaman, Mario Barišič |
| Tinkara Kovač | "Sonce v očeh" | Zvezdan Martič, Tinkara Kovač, Sergej Pobegajlo |

#### Semi-final

The semi-final of EMA 2001 took place on 23 February 2001 and was hosted by Mojca Mavec. The twenty-two competing entries first faced a public televote where the top six proceeded to the final; an additional six qualifiers were then selected out of the remaining sixteen entries by an expert jury.
Public vote qualifier  Jury qualifier
Semi-final – 23 February 2001 :
| Draw | Artist | Song | Televote | Place | Result |
| 1 | Panda | "Tok, tok" | 1,051 | 15 | Eliminated |
| 2 | PAX | "Ko so lipe cvetele" | 3,849 | 4 | Advanced |
| 3 | Tinkara Kovač | "Sonce v očeh" | 3,580 | 5 | Advanced |
| 4 | Nuša Derenda | "Ne, ni res" | 6,416 | 1 | Advanced |
| 5 | Jan Plestenjak | "Vse je OK" | 2,026 | 10 | Eliminated |
| 6 | Simona Weiss | "Vse življenje" | 2,819 | 7 | Eliminated |
| 7 | GIS | "Sreča je" | 1,000 | 17 | Eliminated |
| 8 | Damjana Golavšek | "Stoletje sanj in miru" | 1,897 | 11 | Eliminated |
| 9 | By the Way | "Svet okoli mene" | 1,022 | 16 | Advanced |
| 10 | Deja Mušič and Katice | "Angel luči" | 1,534 | 13 | Eliminated |
| 11 | Polona | "Samo laži" | 999 | 18 | Advanced |
| 12 | Lutke | "Pokliči me" | 446 | 21 | Eliminated |
| 13 | Ivo Špacapan | "Za devetimi gorami" | 615 | 20 | Advanced |
| 14 | Regina | "Zaljubljena v maj" | 1,654 | 12 | Advanced |
| 15 | Nude | "Ni čist greh" | 2,288 | 9 | Advanced |
| 16 | Kingston | "Lunapark" | 4,441 | 3 | Advanced |
| 17 | So Real | "Nedeljsko jutro" | 444 | 22 | Eliminated |
| 18 | Number One | "Tell Me Why" | 1,161 | 14 | Eliminated |
| 19 | Alenka Godec | "Če verjameš ali ne" | 2,465 | 8 | Advanced |
| 20 | Andraž Hribar | "Življenje je" | 2,857 | 6 | Advanced |
| 21 | 1X Orchestra | "Ta ni zame" | 766 | 19 | Eliminated |
| 22 | Karmen Stavec | "Ostani tu" | 5,096 | 2 | Advanced |

#### Final

The final of EMA 2001 took place on 24 February 2001 and was hosted by Mojca Mavec, Miša Molk and Marcel Štefančič. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Jette Ostan Vejrup, Trine Jepsen and Michael Teschl (who represented Denmark in 1999) and Stefan Raab (who represented Germany in 2000) performed as guests. The combination of points from two thematical juries (2/3) and a public televote (1/3) selected "Ne, ni res" performed Nuša Derenda as the winner. The juries consisted of experts and representatives of the entertainment programme of RTVSLO.
Final – 24 February 2001 :
| Draw | Artist | Song | Jury | Jury | Televote | Televote | Total | Place |
| Draw | Artist | Song | Expert | RTVSLO | Votes | Points | Total | Place |
| 1 | PAX | "Ko so lipe cvetele" | 1 | 1 | 5,788 | 7 | 9 | 7 |
| 2 | Tinkara Kovač | "Sonce v očeh" | 6 | 7 | 4,617 | 5 | 18 | 5 |
| 3 | Nuša Derenda | "Ne, ni res" | 12 | 12 | 8,769 | 10 | 34 | 1 |
| 4 | By the Way | "Svet okoli mene" | 2 | 2 | 1,512 | 1 | 5 | 12 |
| 5 | Polona | "Samo laži" | 7 | 6 | 1,073 | 0 | 13 | 6 |
| 6 | Ivo Špacapan | "Za devetimi gorami" | 4 | 5 | 787 | 0 | 9 | 7 |
| 7 | Regina | "Zaljubljena v maj" | 0 | 4 | 1,786 | 2 | 6 | 10 |
| 8 | Nude | "Ni čist greh" | 3 | 0 | 2,399 | 3 | 6 | 10 |
| 9 | Kingston | "Lunapark" | 0 | 0 | 5,955 | 8 | 8 | 9 |
| 10 | Alenka Godec | "Če verjameš ali ne" | 8 | 8 | 3,302 | 4 | 20 | 3 |
| 11 | Andraž Hribar | "Življenje je" | 10 | 10 | 4,856 | 6 | 26 | 2 |
| 12 | Karmen Stavec | "Ostani tu" | 5 | 3 | 10,088 | 12 | 20 | 3 |
Members of the Jury :
| Jury | Members |
| Experts | Mojca Menart Mojmir Sepe Jaka Pucihar Aleš Strajnar |
| RTVSLO | Mira Bučar Dajana Makovec Anton Natek Andrej Hofer |

## At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2001 took place at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 12 May 2001. The relegation rules introduced for the 1997 contest were again utilised ahead of the 2001 contest, based on each country's average points total in previous contests. The 23 participants were made up of the host country, the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom), and the 12 countries with the highest average scores between the 1996 and 2000 contests competed in the final. On 21 November 2000, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Slovenia was set to perform in position 17, following the entry from the United Kingdom and before the entry from Poland. At the contest, Nuša Derenda performed the English version of "Ne, ni res", titled "Energy". Slovenia finished in seventh place with 70 points.
The show was televised in Slovenia on TV SLO1. RTVSLO appointed Mojca Mavec as its spokesperson to announce the Slovenian votes during the show.

### Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Slovenia and awarded by Slovenia in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Estonia in the contest.