About Slovenia...

2007 Result
History (1956 to 2006)
This year's entry
What I predicted...
What you thought...
What actually happened

top of page 

2007 Result

Points in Semi Final: 140
Position in Semi Final: 7th

Points in Final: 66
Position in Final: 15th
More about the 2007 result for Slovenia

2008 Contest: Must compete in Semi Final

top of page 

History (1956 to 2006)

Slovenia's previous appearances: 12 year(s) out of 51 [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, 2005, 2006), men dressed as women (2002's camptastic Sestre), or even one of each (2004). 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.

Given the experiences of previous years, the decision to ditch the jury in 2005 and rely on 100% televoting was perhaps a sensible one - at least then the televoters could only blame themselves if Slovenia's entry did badly. Even with 100% televoting, however, the result was not clear cut, with Rebeka Dremelj's 'Pojdi z menoj' narrowly winning the first round televote ahead of Saša Lendero's 'Metulj', but with both losing out to Omar Naber and 'Stop' (only 3rd in the first round) in the final runoff of the top 3 songs. Unfortunately, Omar fell foul of the curse of Slovene men, his 12th place in the Semi Final better than many had expected, but not quite enough to qualify Slovenia for the Final.

For 2006, Slovenia inexplicably brought back its 'expert' jury, with the gulf between the jurors' and the public's taste contributing to possibly the most farcical EMA selection yet. The viewers' verdict was unequivocal, with Saša Lendero's 'Mandoline' and Atomik Harmonik's 'Polkaholik' picking up 12 points and 10 points respectively in both the SMS and telephone votes. Incredibly though, neither scored anything at all from the jury, leaving the way clear for Anžej Dežan (the jury's favourite) and Plan B (later translated into English as 'Mr Nobody') to sneak through with 26 points to Saša's 24. Due to Omar's result from the year before, Anžej had to first try and qualify from the Semi Final; it was always going to be a challenge, but his 16th place was still a little disappointing. Consequently, Slovenia remains one of only six countries - the others being Andorra, Belarus, Estonia, Monaco, Portugal - to have failed to qualify from any of the three Semi Finals held so far, and will surely be hoping for better things in 2007.
Get 'The Eurovision Song Contest: The Offical History' at Amazon.co.uk

top of page 

This year's entry

Position in Semi Final draw: 25
Position in Final draw: 7

What I said prior to the Semi Final:
"I've been waiting for years to say it, but Slovenia has finally gone and chosen a Eurovision entry that is really, really good. Slovenia's EMA is one of the few National Finals I bother to watch, and with the 'expert' jury once again sent packing, the country's fate was entirely in the hands of the televoting public. Presented with a diverse and eclectic EMA that featured few of the familiar faces from previous years, viewers shunned the dodgy rappers, pretty boys, Oberkrainer band and tiresome joke song, and propelled the two women in floaty dresses who could actually sing into the 'Superfinal' run-off - pitting operatic star Alenka Gotar with 'Cvet z juga' ('Flower of the south') against talent show winner Eva Černe and 'Cudeži smehljaja'. I was delighted to see these two get the highest number of votes - either would have been a worthy Slovene entry, though I felt that Alenka's dramatic ethnic/opera/dance track had the edge over Eva's variation on Steps' 'One for sorrow'. The final result - 44,636 votes to Alenka and 31,324 to Eva - was clear cut, though it's interesting to note that Alenka was slightly behind Eva (20,123 compared to 20,509) prior to the Superfinal run off. It seems that however hard the Slovenes try, they just cannot come up with an unequivocal, uncontested winner.

However, let's not niggle over that... the song is FABULOUS! It is everything a Slovene Eurovision entry should be, with an attractive female singer in a beautiful dress, well-toned male dancers, a wind machine, and an ear-shattering high note at the end. Indeed, it is also everything you would expect from the splendid composer, Andrej Babić, singularly responsible for some of ex-Yugoslavia's campest Eurovision and national final moments. Andrej penned the Britney-esque 2003 Croatian entry, 'Više nisam tvoja', the Abba-esque 'Call me' (Bosnia, 2005), and both Saša Lendero's Slovene contenders ('Metulj' in 2005 and 'Mandoline' in 2006); now, with 'Cvet z juga', he becomes one of only a handful of composers to have written Eurovision entries for three different countries.

After the disappointing results by Claudia Beni and Feminnem, I suspect that 'Cvet z juga' could bring Babić his highest placing yet - it must, surely, give the Slovenes their best chance for many years of a top ten placing, as long as they can make it out of the Semi Final quagmire. The performance will need tweaking slightly; at EMA, the female backing vocal sounded too harsh in comparison to the pureness of Alenka's voice, and the dance movements need to be a little slicker and more co-ordinated with the vocal. However, this is the first year since Nuša Derenda's 'Energy' that I feel genuinely excited about a Slovene Eurovision entry. Dvanajst točk! "

top of page 

What I predicted...

My prediction for Semi Final: 3rd to 5th
My prediction for Final: Definite qualifier; 2nd to 4th, possible winner
What I predicted prior to the Semi Final:
"This could win the whole thing - technically, Alenka is one of the strongest singers Eurovision has seen for many years, and a fantastic performance could really see her as one of the main contenders for victory. "
Want an alternative prediction? See Simon Hylands' 'Je t'adore, Eurovision!' site

top of page 

What you thought...

View the final leader board

In the run up to the Contest, 1,274 visitors to this site awarded points to their favourite songs in the Soult.com Eurovision Jury Vote 2007, voting as a representative of their own country's 'jury'. The votes awarded by representatives of each country were totalled, with each of the 42 participating countries (plus the 'Rest of the World') then awarding points - 12, 10, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - based on the overall voting preference of its representatives. The points awarded to the entry from Slovenia are shown in the tables below:

Points awarded to Slovenia overall:
AL	0	AD	0	AM	10	AT	5	BY	0	BE	0
BA	7	BG	3	HR	4	CY	0	CZ	6	DK	2
EE	0	FI	0	FR	6	GE	8	DE	0	GR	0
HU	0	IS	0	IE	4	IL	0	LV	4	LT	0
MK	12	MT	6	MD	0	ME	8	NL	0	NO	4
PL	3	PT	5	RO	0	RU	0	RS	8	SI	X
ES	12	SE	0	CH	0	TR	2	UA	0	UK	0
WO	0	Last updated: 12 May 2007 Next scheduled update: None
Total points: 119, from 20/43 juries
Position: 8 out of 42

Points awarded to Slovenia in the Semi Final:
AL	0	AD	0	AM	10	AT	7	BY	0	BE	3
BA	8	BG	5	HR	7	CY	0	CZ	7	DK	4
EE	3	FI	0	FR	8	GE	8	DE	0	GR	2
HU	0	IS	0	IE	6	IL	2	LV	8	LT	0
MK	12	MT	7	MD	0	ME	8	NL	3	NO	6
PL	7	PT	7	RO	0	RU	0	RS	12	SI	X
ES	12	SE	0	CH	2	TR	6	UA	0	UK	2
WO	4	Last updated: 12 May 2007 Next scheduled update: None
Total points: 176, from 28/43 juries
Position: 6 out of 28

Points awarded to Slovenia in the Final:
AL	0	AD	0	AM	10	AT	5	BY	0	BE	0
BA	7	BG	4	HR	4	CY	0	CZ	7	DK	3
EE	2	FI	0	FR	6