Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020

**Slovenia** originally planned to participate in the **Eurovision Song Contest 2020**. The Slovenian broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTVSLO) will use the national selection *EMA 2020* to decide their representative.

## Background

*Main article: Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest*
Prior to the 2020 Contest, Slovenia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-five times since its first entry in 1993. 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 six occasions. In 2018, Slovenia was represented by Lea Sirk and the song "Hvala, ne!", which qualified to the final and placed twenty-second. One year later, in 2019, Slovenia qualified for the final again with Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl, finishing in fifteenth place with the song "Sebi".

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 2020, the broadcaster opted to organise *EMA 2020* to select the Slovenian entry.

## Before Eurovision

On 1 August 2019 RTVSLO announced the launch of their national final EMA 2020 and the associated competition, EMA FREŠ. EMA FREŠ acted as a preselector for EMA itself, with eighteen artists participating at EMA FREŠ and two qualifying for EMA 2020. EMA FREŠ was held in late 2019.

### EMA FREŠ

#### Format

EMA FREŠ took place in late 2019, beginning on 4 November 2019 and finishing on 6 December 2019. All competing artists must be under the age of 26 and have three or less released songs. Eighteen songs in total have been chosen for the competition, which will take place online.

Two competing songs were released every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 4-20 November 2019 (inclusive). Online voters picked their preferred song of the two released each day, with the winners of each of these duels moving forward to another round on the Friday of that week (8, 15 or 22 November 2019). Online voters picked one song to qualify for the EMA FREŠ final, and a jury picked another qualifier. Two songs qualified each week for three weeks, leaving six songs in the final. The remaining twelve competing entries went through the same process again, with duels on 25-27 November 2019 and 2-4 December 2019 and the next rounds on the 29th of November or the 6 December 2019. After this process was complete, ten songs qualified for the EMA FREŠ final.

#### Final

The contest was held on 18 January 2020 at RTV Slovenija Studio 2 in Ljubljana. The ten songs that qualified from the weekly finals and the second chance round competed in the final for one of the two spots in EMA 2020. One song was determined by a public vote, and another by the jury to compete in EMA 2020. The jury consisted of Urša Mihevc, Rok Ahačevčič and Jernej Vene.

### *EMA 2020*

*EMA 2020* was the 24th edition of the Slovenian national final format *Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA)*. The competition was organised by RTV Slovenija to select Slovenia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020.

#### Competing entries

Artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 1 August 2019 and 18 November 2019. 74 entries were received by the broadcaster during the submission period. An expert committee consisting of Raiven (musician and singer), Mojca Menart (head of the publishing business of ZKP RTV SLO) and Jernej Vene (music editor for Radio Val 202) selected ten artists and songs for the competition from the received submissions. The competing artists were announced on 20 December 2019. Among the competing artists, Bozidar Wolfand Wolf was previously competed in the 1986 Yugoslav final and was also a backing singer for Yugoslavia at the 1984 Eurovision Song Contest, while Lina Kuduzović represented Slovenia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2015, finishing third, and Tinkara Kovač represented Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2014.

#### Final

EMA 2020 took place on 22 February 2020 at the RTV Slovenija Studio 1 in Ljubljana, hosted by comedian, actor and television anchor Klemen Slakonja. The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, a three-member jury panel selected two entries, "Voda" performed by Ana Soklič and "Man Like U" performed by Lina Kuduzović, to proceed to the second round. The jury consisted of Maja Keuc (singer, represented Slovenia in 2011), Darja Švajger (singer and vocal coach, represented Slovenia in 1995 and 1999) and Nuša Derenda (singer, represented Slovenia in 2001). In the second round, a public vote selected the song "Voda" performed by Ana Soklič as the winning entry.

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## 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 2020, 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 12 May 2020, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. However, due to 2019-20 pandemic of Coronavirus, the contest was cancelled.

#### Points awarded to Slovenia

Points awarded to Slovenia (Semi-final 1)

### **Split Voting Results**

The following five members comprised the Slovenian jury:

* Juror 1: -
* Juror 2: -
* Juror 3: -
* Juror 4: -
* Juror 5: -