About Slovenia...

2005 Result
History (1956 to 2004)
This year's entry
What I predicted...
What you thought...
What actually happened...
What the bookies thought...

top of page 

2005 Result

Points in Semi Final: 69
Position in Semi Final: 12th

Points in Final: Failed to qualify
Position in Final: Failed to qualify
More about the 2005 result for Slovenia

2006 Contest: Must compete in Semi Final

top of page 

History (1956 to 2004)

Slovenia's previous appearances: 10 year(s) out of 49 [note]
Years participated: 1993; 1995-1999; 2001- [note]
Best result: 7th (1995, 2001)

Making its début in 1993, Slovenia (along with Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina) was one of the first wave of east European countries to appear at Eurovision. Sadly, the country's record has been unremarkable, peaking with two 7th places in 1995 and 2001. Both of those were achieved by Slovene divas with big voices; Darja Švajger in 1995 (who returned in 1999 and came a respectable 11th) and the fantastic Nuša Derenda in 2001, whose song 'Energy' deserved to finish higher than it did. Slovenia has tended to do less well when it has sent men (1998), or even men dressed as women (2002's camptastic Sestre). However, Slovenia has only missed 1994 and 2000 through relegation, which is a better record than many other countries.

Having used either 100% jury voting or 100% televoting to select its earlier entries, one of Slovenia's biggest problems since 1999 has been its insistence on using a 50/50 hybrid, causing havoc and incriminations when the jury and televoters disagree with one another. The weighting of votes meant that the jury's preference overrode the viewers' choice in both 1999 ('Zakaj' by Tinkara Kovac) and 2001 ('Ostani tu' by Karmen Stavec), though it didn't matter too much given that the winners both ended up doing quite well at Eurovision. 2002 was more controversial, however, with Sestre getting the Eurovision ticket despite Karmen Stavec - back for another go with 'Se in se' - winning the televote by a hefty margin (31,944 votes compared to just 8,454 for Sestre).

After the uproar of the year before, broadcaster RTVSLO twiddled the system for 2003, seemingly in the televoters' favour. Now, the winner would be selected via two rounds of voting: the first round would choose the top 3 songs using 50% televoting and 50% international jury; these top 3 songs would then be performed again, with the winner chosen wholly by televoting. Unfortunately, this system merely exposed the gulf in musical tastes between the televoters and the international jury. Despite getting nearly double the televotes of anyone else in the first round, the group Bepop (winners of Slovenia's Popstars show) received no points at all from the jury, who instead favoured Alenka Godec. Unfortunately for Bepop, this left them in overall 4th place, thus missing out on a place in the final runoff. With their overwhelming favourite knocked out, the televoters had little choice but to plump for their original second choice - the ubiquitous Karmen Stavec, this time singing the enjoyable 'Lep poletni dan' ('A beautiful summer day'). Though no-one could deny that Karmen deserved her shot at Eurovision after cruelly missing out for the last two years, it was hardly a satisfactory outcome, with neither the jury (who had originally ranked Karmen as 4th) nor the televoters ending up with their favourite. To compound one flawed decision with another, it was decided that Karmen would perform the song in English at Eurovision, the rather attractive 'Lep poletni dan' morphing into the excruciatingly banally-titled 'Na na na'. Even before the Contest, I felt that this was a classic example of a good foreign language song being ruined by a poor translation into English, and so it proved - Karmen, singing last on the night, finished a terribly disappointing 23rd with just 7 points. Indeed, had it not been for Slovenia's obliging neighbours - 4 points from Bosnia and 3 from Croatia - she would have scored nothing at all. To be fair, Karmen's pink make-up and dress was much scarier than her song; rather than disproving the theory that singing last is an advantage, Karmen reminded us that singing last might well be an advantage, but only if the song is actually any good.

Despite this disaster, the new format of the Contest gave Slovenia a chance to take part in the 2004 Semi Final. Unfortunately, the two-round voting system - unwisely being used for a second time - threw up an almost identitical fiasco to the year before, with the televoters' overwhelming favourite (Natalija Verboten's 'Cry on my shoulder') once again scoring nothing from the jury, who gave top marks to Rožmarinke's 'Kliše' instead. Just like Bepop in 2003, this meant that Natalija could only finish 4th overall, therefore failing to make the final runoff, and leaving the way clear for Platin - original 2nd choice of both the jury and the televoters - to win. By sending a male-female duo to Eurovision, Slovenia appeared to have embraced 2004's trend, with Malta, Lithuania and Belarus all going down the same route. However, Platin went further than most by kissing on stage during the performance of 'Stay forever'. This was not quite as dreadful as it sounds, given that Simon and Diana of the duo Platin had decided to make the most of their trip to Istanbul by arranging their wedding for the day after the Semi Final. Unfortunately, their onstage snogging - perhaps an effort to distract viewers' attention from the song - proved to be the kiss of death, with Slovenia mustering even fewer points than the year before (a measly 5) and once again having to rely on neighbourly contributions from Bosnia (1) and Croatia (3). This time Macedonia also joined in the act, but its 1 point was not enough to prevent Slovenia finishing second from bottom, the country's dignity only remaining intact because Switzerland's terrifying entry scored nothing at all. Inevitably, Slovenia must once again compete in the Semi Final if it is to stand a chance of improving its record in 2005.
Get 'The Eurovision Song Contest: The Offical History' at Amazon.co.uk

top of page 

This year's entry

Position in Semi Final draw: 23
Position in Final draw: Failed to qualify

What I said prior to the Semi Final:
"This year, Slovenia's hopes rest with 23 year-old Omar Naber from Ljubljana. In 2004, Omar won RTV SLO's TV talent show, Bitka Talentov (Battle of Talents), securing him a record deal and a guaranteed place in the Slovenian national Eurovision selection, EMA 2005. With the song 'Stop' (performed in Slovene, despite its English title), Omar beat some seasoned Slovene talent to gain his ticket to Kiev, seeing off former Eurovision entrants Regina (1996) and Nuša Derenda (2001), as well as 2004 EMA contender Rebeka Dremelj and a stunning song, 'Metulj' by newcomer and eventual runner up Saša Lendero. At first glance, Slovenia appears to have scuppered its chances of reaching the Final by sending a man with a ballad - never a good combination at Eurovision. However, 'Stop' has a welcome contemporary feel, and is really rather beautiful, starting gently before building up to a rousing finale, helped by a fabulous soprano on backing vocals. At the same time, Omar has an excellent voice and good looks, which never does any harm. With what is arguably Slovenia's best entry since 2001, Omar will certainly be hoping to emulate Croatia's (less impressive) male ballad from 2004, by securing a place in the Final - but does he have a realistic chance?"

top of page 

What I predicted...

My prediction for Semi Final: 17th to 19th
My prediction for Final: Unlikely to qualify
See all my predictions for 2005

What I predicted prior to the Semi Final:
"Slovenia's place in the running order may not do it any favours - coming 22nd in the running order, immediately after the Bulgarian and Irish entries, viewers at home may already have lost the will to live. Furthermore, a recent 'new' version of the song has greatly diminished its quality - the stripped down beauty has been replaced by a noisy and unnecessarily intrusive backing track, while the stunning backing vocalist seems to have disappeared all together. Bad, bad move! Unless the song is given back the kind of arrangement that helped it win the Slovene national final in the first place, I fear it will be three years in a row of dismal results for Slovenia, and that would be an enormous shame. Fortunately, the wonderful soprano appears to have may a comeback in the Slovene rehearsals, so perhaps all is not lost after all. Still, a great performance will be needed to make this song stand out and give it the placing it deserves; otherwise a berth in the lower teens of the Semi Final would seem to beckon."

top of page 

What you thought...

Final Poll Ranking: out of 39 ()
(Updated 22 May 2005; change refers to movement over final week)

In the run up to the Contest, 27,998 visitors to this site voted for their favourite song in the Soult.com Eurovision Poll (up from 5,000 in 2004!)
See full results of Poll 2005

top of page 

What actually happened...

Well, the soprano made her appearance, but I can't help feeling that the decision to go for the rocky backing track over the original piano version was a mistake. Indeed, the piano version is the one that appear's on Omar's album, and stunning it is too. In these circumstances, 12th was a creditable result, certainly better than I had expected, and coming surprisingly close to qualifying. On the night, the presentation of the song was quite effective, with just Omar on stage and his backing singer strutting her stuff on the raised platform. Vocally, Omar seemed to begin the song slightly off-key, but came into his own on the more powerful parts of the song. Overall, it was a pleasant effort, though I can't help thinking what might have happened if Slovenia had stuck with the version that won the EMA, or even if Saša Lendero's wonderful 'Metulj' had gone to Kiev instead.

top of page 

What the bookies thought...

	Slovenia to win:	21/05/05 (prior to Final)	-
		19/05/05 (after Semi Final)	-
		19/05/05 (prior to Semi Final)	50-1
		16/05/05	50-1
		15/05/05	50-1
		08/05/05	50-1
		02/05/05	50-1
		24/04/05	40-1

Poor Slovenia - despite a much better result than in 2004, few could argue that 50-1 was anything other than a fair assessment of Slovene prospects.

(Odds quoted here were those offered by Coral.co.uk. 'F' indicates favourite, 'JF' joint favourite.)

top of page 

Links

http://www.omar.si/
http://www.rtvslo.si/ema/

top of page 

Notes (see 'History' above)

• The 1956 Contest (where each country had two songs) is counted as a single appearance;
  
• Countries eliminated in the 1993 preliminary heat (EE, HU, RO, SK) ARE NOT counted as making an appearance in that year's Contest;
  
• Countries eliminated in the 1996 preliminary heat (DE, DK, HU, IL, MK, RO, RU) ARE NOT counted as making an appearance in that year's Contest;
  
• Countries eliminated in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 Semi Finals ARE counted as making an appearance in that year's Contest.
  

top of page