Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Slovenia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 with the song "Sebi" written and performed by Zala Kralj and Gašper Šantl. Slovenian broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTV Slovenija) organised the national final EMA 2019 in order to select the Slovenian entry for the 2019 contest in Tel Aviv, Israel. Ten entries competed in the national final where the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the top two entries were selected by a three-member jury panel. In the second round, "Sebi" performed by Zala Kralj and Gašper Šantl was selected as the winner entirely by a public televote.

Slovenia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 14 May 2019. Performing during the show in position 5, "Sebi" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and hence qualified to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Slovenia placed sixth out of the 17 participating countries in the semi-final with 167 points. In the final, Slovenia performed in position 10 and placed fifteenth out of the 26 participating countries with 105 points.

Background
Prior to the 2019 contest, Slovenia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-four times since its first entry in. 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 five occasions. In 2018, "Hvala, ne!" performed by Lea Sirk qualified to the final and placed twenty-second.

The Slovenian national broadcaster, Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTV Slovenija), broadcasts the event within Slovenia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. RTV Slovenija confirmed Slovenia's participation in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest on 6 September 2018. 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 2019, the broadcaster opted to organise EMA 2019 to select the Slovenian entry.

EMA 2019
EMA 2019 was the 23rd edition of the Slovenian national final format Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA), used by RTV Slovenija to select Slovenia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The competition took place at the RTV Slovenija Studio 1 in Ljubljana, hosted by Ajda Smrekar and was broadcast on TV SLO1, Radio Val 202, Radio Koper, Radio Maribor and online via the broadcaster's RTV 4D platform. An online backstage broadcast at RTV Slovenija's official website also occurred concurrently with the competition, which was hosted by Tanja Kocman and Rok Bohinc. The national final was watched by 223,900 viewers in Slovenia with a market share of 11%.

Format
Ten songs competed in a televised show where the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, a three-member expert jury selected two finalists out of the ten competing songs to proceed to a superfinal. Each member of the expert jury assigned a score of 1 (lowest score) to 5 (highest score) to each song with the top two being determined by the songs that receive the highest overall scores when the jury votes are combined. Ties were broken by giving priority to the song(s) that achieved a higher number of top scores (5), which would be followed by each juror indicating their preferred song should a tie still have persisted. In the superfinal, public televoting exclusively determined the winner. In case of technical problems with the televote, the jury would have voted to determine the winner in a similar process as in the first round of the competition.

Competing entries
Artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 9 November 2018 and 14 December 2018. 103 entries were received by the broadcaster during the submission period. An expert committee consisting of Lea Sirk (2018 Slovenian Eurovision entrant), Mojca Menart (Head of ZKP RTV Slovenija), Aleksander Radić (Head of the Slovenian delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest) and Žiga Klančar (music editor for Radio Val 202) selected ten artists and songs for the competition from the received submissions. The competing artists were announced on 27 December 2018. Among the competing artists was former Slovenian Junior Eurovision contestant Ula Ložar who represented Slovenia in 2014.

Final
EMA 2019 took place on 16 February 2019. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Smaal Tokk, Inot and 2018 Slovenian Eurovision entrant Lea Sirk performed as guests. The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, a three-member jury panel selected two entries to proceed to the second round. The jury consisted of Lea Sirk, Darja Švajger (1995 and 1999 Slovenian Eurovision entrant) and Vladimir Graić (composer of Serbia's winning Eurovision entry "Molitva" in 2007). In the second round, a public televote selected "Sebi" performed by Zala Kralj and Gašper Šantl as the winner.

Preparation
Following Zala Kralj and Gašper Šantl's win at EMA 2019, the music video of "Sebi" was released to the public on 20 February. The video was directed and produced by Žiga Krajnc who previously collaborated with Kralj and Šantl on the music videos for their singles "Baloni", "S teboi" and "Valovi".

At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (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 2019, 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 14 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.

Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Slovenia was set to perform in position 5, following the entry from Poland and before the entry from the Czech Republic.

In Slovenia, the semi-finals were televised on RTV SLO2 and the final was televised on RTV SLO1 with commentary by Andrej Hofer. The Slovenian spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by the Slovenian jury during the final, was Lea Sirk who represented Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018.

Semi-final
Zala Kralj and Gašper Šantl took part in technical rehearsals on 4 and 9 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 13 and 14 May. This included the jury show on 13 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.

The Slovenian performance featured Zala Kralj and Gašper Šantl both dressed in white; Kralj performed vocals on stage while Šantl held a guitar behind a mixing keyboard. The stage colours were dark and the LED screens and floor displayed an encircling galaxy and starry night scene. The Slovenian performance was directed by Igorja Zupeta.

At the end of the show, Slovenia was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Slovenia placed sixth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 167 points: 93 points from the televoting and 74 points from the juries.

Final
Shortly after the first semi-final, a winners' press conference was held for the ten qualifying countries. As part of this press conference, the qualifying artists took part in a draw to determine which half of the grand final they would subsequently participate in. This draw was done in the order the countries were announced during the semi-final. Slovenia was drawn to compete in the first half. Following this draw, the shows' producers decided upon the running order of the final, as they had done for the semi-finals. Slovenia was subsequently placed to perform in position 10, following the entry from Sweden and before the entry from Cyprus.

Zala Kralj and Gašper Šantl once again took part in dress rehearsals on 17 and 18 May before the final, including the jury final where the professional juries cast their final votes before the live show. The duo performed a repeat of their semi-final performance during the final on 18 May. Slovenia placed fifteenth in the final, scoring 105 points: 59 points from the televoting and 46 points from the juries.

Voting
Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1–8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results will be released shortly after the grand final.

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Slovenia and awarded by Slovenia in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

Detailed voting results
The following members comprised the Slovene jury:
 * Žiga Klančar (jury chairperson) – music editor, head of music programme
 * Urša Mihevc – singer, composer
 * Ula Ložar – singer, represented Slovenia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2014
 * Mate Bro – musician, singer, composer, producer
 * Urša Vlašič – lyricist