Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017


Slovenia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "On My Way" written by Omar Naber. The song was performed by Omar Naber, who had previously represented Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2005 where he failed to qualify to the final with the song "Stop". Slovenian broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija organised the national selection EMA 2017 in order to select the Slovenian entry for the 2017 contest in Kiev, Ukraine. After a two-week-long competition consisting of two semi-finals, and a final, "On My Way" performed by Omar Naber emerged as the winner after achieving the highest score following the combination of votes from a regional jury vote from six regions in Slovenia and a public vote.
Slovenia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2017. Performing during the show in position 17, "On My Way" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final.

Background

Prior to the 2017 Contest, Slovenia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-two 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 four occasions. In 2016, Slovenia was represented by ManuElla and the song "Blue and Red", but the country didn't qualify for the final.
The Slovenian national broadcaster, Radiotelevizija 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 , 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 2017, the broadcaster opted to organise EMA 2017 to select the Slovenian entry.

Before Eurovision

''EMA 2017''

EMA 2017 was the 21st edition of the Slovenian national final format Evrovizijska Melodija . The competition was used by RTV Slovenija to select Slovenia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The competition was broadcast on TV SLO1, Radio Val 202, Radio Koper, Radio Maribor and online via the broadcaster's RTV 4D platform.

Competing entries

On 20 July 2016, RTVSLO opened the submission period for artists and songwriters to submit their songs to the broadcaster until 3 November 2016. The artists competing in the selection were revealed on 4 December 2016. On 20 January 2017, Amaya announced that she'd be withdrawing from the competition on the advice of her record label. It was later announced that Clemens would replace Amaya with the song "Tok ti sede".
ArtistSongComposer
Alya"Halo"Raay, Rok Lunaček, Tina Piš
AmayaN/ADaniel Gidlund, Jakob Shultze
BQL"Heart of Gold"Maraaya, Anej Piletič
Clemens"Tok ti sede"Klemen Mramor
Ina Shai"Colour Me"Martina Šraj
Kataya & Duncan Kamakana"Are You There"Tim Žibrat, Duncan Kamakana, Kataya
KiNG FOO"Wild Ride"Rok Golob, Cherie Lucas
Lea Sirk"Freedom"Lea Sirk, Gaber Radojevič
Nika Zorjan"Fse"Maraaya, Nika Zorjan
Nuška Drašček"Flower in the Snow"Pelé Loriano, Lina Button, Brendan Wade
Omar Naber"On My Way"Omar Naber
Raiven"Zažarim"Jernej Kržič, Tadej Košir, Sara Briški Cirman
Sell Out"Ni panike"Miha Gorše, Uroš Obranovič, Tina Muc
Tim Kores"Open Fire"Jeff Lewis, Drew Lawrence
Tosca Beat"Free World"Andraž Kržič, Tosca Beat, Peter Penko
United Pandaz & Arsello feat. Alex Volasko"Heart to Heart"Arsello, Alex Volasko
Zala"Lalalatino"Zala Đurić Ribič

Format

On 3 December 2016, RTVSLO revealed that for the first time since 2008, EMA would consist of two semi finals and a final to select their entrant for Kyiv, Ukraine. Sixteen artists competed in EMA 2017, with 8 songs in each semi final. In the two semi-finals, 4 songs qualified to the final as two songs were selected by the jury and the other two songs were selected by the Slovenian public. The voting process for the final was also revamped with the introduction of new regional juries. There were six regional juries capable of awarding a total of 252 points. Each jury awarded 12, 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2 points to their top 6 songs. After the jury voting, the televoting result was revealed by the host in ascending order. The top 6 songs received 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 and 72 points.

Semi-final 1

The first semi-final of EMA 2017 took place on 17 February 2017. Four acts qualified for the final on 24 February 2017. The eight competing entries first faced a public vote where the top two songs advanced to the final. The other two qualifiers were selected from the remaining six entries by the jury.

Semi-final 2

The second semi-final of EMA 2017 took place on 18 February 2017. Four acts qualified for the final on 24 February 2017. The eight competing entries first faced a public vote where the top two songs advanced to the final. The other two qualifiers were selected from the remaining six entries by the jury.

Final

The final of EMA 2017 took place on 24 February 2017. It was hosted by Mario Galunič. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2016 Eurovision winner Jamala, 2016 Slovenian entrant
ManuElla and Toni Cetinski performed as guests. The combination of points from a public vote and a regional jury vote from six regions in Slovenia determined the winner. The six Slovenian regions were Ljubljana, Kranj, Maribor, Koper, Novo Mesto and Celje. Eventually, Omar Naber won the national final with the song "On My Way".

Gallery


Promotion

Omar Naber made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "On My Way" as the Slovenian Eurovision entry. On 2 April, he performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Café de Paris venue in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Nicki French. Between 3 and 6 April, Naber took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel where he performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Ha'teatron venue. On 8 April, Omar Naber performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Selma Björnsdóttir.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" 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 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 31 January 2017, 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 9 May 2017, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.
Once all the competing songs for the 2017 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 17, following the entry from Armenia and before the entry from Latvia.

Semi-final

Omar Naber took part in technical rehearsals on 1 May and 5 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 8 and 9 May. This included the jury show on 8 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.
At the end of the show, Slovenia was not announced among the top 10 entries in the first semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Slovenia placed seventeenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 36 points: 20 points from the televoting and 16 points from the juries.

Voting

Points awarded to Slovenia

Points awarded by Slovenia

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Slovenian jury:
On 9 May 2017, it was confirmed that Aleksander Lavrini had replaced Mistermash as a member of the Slovene jury.