# Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1999

Slovenia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 with the song "For a Thousand Years", written by Sašo Fajon and Primož Peterca, and performed by Darja Švajger. The Slovene participating broadcaster, Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTVSLO), held the national final Evrovizijska Melodija 1999 in order to select its entry for the contest. Švajger had previously represented Slovenia in 1995.
17 entries competed in the national final where "Še tisoč let" performed by Darja Švajger was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a four-member jury panel and a public televote. The song was later translated from Slovene to English for Eurovision and was titled "For a Thousand Years" .
Slovenia competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 29 May 1999. Performing during the show in position 6, Slovenia placed eleventh out of the 23 participating countries, scoring 50 points.

## Background

Prior to the 1999 contest, Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTVSLO) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Slovenia five 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 1998, "Naj bogovi slišijo" performed by Vili Resnik placed eighteenth.
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 1999, RTVSLO opted to organise Evrovizijska Melodija 1999 (EMA 1999) to select its entry.

## Before Eurovision
### Evrovizijska Melodija 1999

Evrovizijska Melodija 1999 (EMA 1999) was the fifth edition of the national final format Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA). The competition was used by RTVSLO to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 1999 and took place on 26 February 1999 at its Studio 1 in Ljubljana. The show was hosted by Mojca Mavec and was broadcast on TV SLO1.

#### Format

Seventeen songs competed in a televised show where the combination of points from a four-member expert jury and a public televote selected the winner. Each member of the expert jury assigned scores as follows: 1–8, 10 and 12, while the public televote assigned scores which had a weighting equal to the votes of two jurors. The song that received the highest score when the votes were combined was determined the winner.

#### Competing entries

An expert committee consisting of Miša Molk (Head of Entertainment and Sports at RTVSLO), Mojmir Sepe (conductor and composer) and Andrej Karoli (music editor for Radio Slovenija) selected seventeen artists and songs for the competition from 71 received submissions. Among the competing artists was former Slovenian Eurovision entrant Darja Švajger who represented Slovenia in 1995.
| Artist | Song | Songwriter(s) |
| Avia Band | "Ne izdajte me" | Matjaž Vlašič, Urša Vlašič |
| Babilon | "Kot ocean" | Marijan Merljak, Dada Kladnik, Sebastjan Artič |
| Darja Švajger | "Še tisoč let" | Primož Peterca |
| Gianni Rijavec and Vladimir Čadež | "Ljubezen je le ena" | Gianni Rijavec, Miša Čermak |
| Irena, Damjana and Sanja | "Igra je končana" | Karel Novak, Janez Zmazek |
| Jan Plestenjak | "Moja dežela" | Jan Plestenjak |
| Kantor | "Drugačen dan" | Mark Lemer, Tone Košmrlj |
| Lara Baruca | "Ti si se bal" | Danilo Kocjančič, Drago Mislej |
| Matjaž Zupan and Californija | "Tisoč kilometrov" | Matjaž Zupan |
| Mitja | "Čas je da najdem te" | Aleš Berkopec, Mitja Šedlbauer |
| Monika Tratnik | "Sanje" | Nenad Kokovič, Igor Misdaris |
| Nude | "Ši'z d bes" | Gaber Marolt, Primož Pogelšek |
| Nuša Derenda | "Nekaj lepega je v meni" | Matija Oražem, Damjana Kenda Hussu |
| Sound Attack | "Kje si zdaj" | Simon Šurev, Pika Božič |
| Tatjana Mihelj | "Dlan okrog srca" | Bor Zuljan, Marjan Kukovec |
| Tinkara Kovač | "Zakaj" | Marino Legovič, Drago Mislej |
| Victory | "Le povejte ji" | Martin Štibernik, Karmen Stavec |

#### Final

EMA 1999 took place on 26 February 1999. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Marc Roberts, who represented Ireland in 1997, performed as a guest. The combination of points from a four-member jury panel (2/3) and a public televote (1/3) selected "Še tisoč let" performed by Darja Švajger as the winner. The jury consisted of Roberts, Miša Molk (Head of Entertainment and Sports at RTVSLO), Mojmir Sepe (conductor and composer) and Andrej Karoli (music editor for Radio Slovenija).
Final – 26 February 1999 :
| Draw | Artist | Song | Jury | Televote | Televote | Total | Place |
| Draw | Artist | Song | Jury | Votes | Points | Total | Place |
| 1 | Mitja | "Čas je da najdem te" | 22 | 1,161 | 0 | 22 | 5 |
| 2 | Tatjana Mihelj | "Dlan okrog srca" | 1 | 344 | 0 | 1 | 17 |
| 3 | Monika Tratnik | "Sanje" | 3 | 835 | 0 | 3 | 16 |
| 4 | Matjaž Zupan and Californija | "Tisoč kilometrov" | 4 | 1,308 | 2 | 6 | 15 |
| 5 | Kantor | "Drugačen dan" | 7 | 760 | 0 | 7 | 13 |
| 6 | Victory | "Le povejte ji" | 8 | 4,108 | 10 | 18 | 9 |
| 7 | Irena, Damjana and Sanja | "Igra je končana" | 14 | 3,396 | 8 | 22 | 5 |
| 8 | Lara Baruca | "Ti si se bal" | 22 | 682 | 0 | 22 | 5 |
| 9 | Sound Attack | "Kje si zdaj" | 4 | 1,700 | 6 | 10 | 11 |
| 10 | Darja Švajger | "Še tisoč let" | 44 | 8,465 | 20 | 64 | 1 |
| 11 | Avia Band | "Ne izdajte me" | 10 | 4,493 | 14 | 24 | 4 |
| 12 | Nuša Derenda | "Nekaj lepega je v meni" | 10 | 751 | 0 | 10 | 11 |
| 13 | Nude | "Ši'z d bes" | 3 | 1,431 | 4 | 7 | 13 |
| 14 | Babilon | "Kot ocean" | 11 | 983 | 0 | 11 | 10 |
| 15 | Tinkara Kovač | "Zakaj" | 38 | 8,682 | 24 | 62 | 2 |
| 16 | Gianni Rijavec and Vladimir Čadež | "Ljubezen je le ena" | 5 | 6,777 | 16 | 21 | 8 |
| 17 | Jan Plestenjak | "Moja dežela" | 26 | 4,340 | 12 | 38 | 3 |

## At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the bottom seven countries in the 1998 contest competed in the final on 29 May 1999. On 17 November 1998, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Slovenia was set to perform in position 6, following the entry from the United Kingdom and before the entry from Turkey. At the contest, Darja Švajger performed the English version of "Še tisoč let", titled "For a Thousand Years". Slovenia finished in eleventh place with 50 points.
The show was televised in Slovenia on RTV SLO1. RTVSLO appointed Mira Berginc 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 Croatia in the contest.