Last month media speculated that Slovenian broadcaster RTVSLO would use three shows for EMA 2017. This month the broadcaster confirmed it to be true. RTVSLO has now revealed that the competition will introduce two semi-finals.
The new plan of the 2017 competition has been outlined in the official EMA rules.
The two semi-finals will be made up of eight songs each. From each semi, four acts will qualify for the grand final. The two songs with the highest televote scores will qualify first, followed by the two songs that are ranked next highest with the jury vote.
This format is similar to the semi-final voting systems of Hungary’s A Dal and Latvia’s Supernova. While the public and jury votes usually agree, the results can sometimes produce in awkward mismatches. At the 2016 Supernova semi-final, Markus Riva was the public’s third choice. However, he missed out on making the final when the jury did not select him.
The EMAÂ grand final will consist of eight finalists. The voting will be split between six regional juries and the public televote, using a variation on the traditional Eurovision “12 points” system.
This is a change from previous years, where a jury alone selected the top two acts in the grand final. Under the old system, the public then voted for the winner in a superfinal.
RTVSLO has not confirmed dates for EMA 2017, but Slovenia media have speculated that the grand final will take place on Friday 24 February.
Slovenia at Eurovision
The change to EMA comes after Slovenia’s mixed fortunes at Eurovision in recent years. They qualified for the grand final only four times in the past decade. Slovenia’s best result in that period was in 2011, when Maja Keuc’s song “No One” placed 13th.
In 2014, Tinkara Kovac placed 25th with “Round and Round”, while the following year, the married duo Maraaya placed 14th with “Here for You”.
Most recently, ManuElla’s song “Blue and Red” failed to quality for the final in Stockholm, placing only 14 in its semi-final.
What do you think? Is the new semi-final system a good choice for EMA? Share your thoughts below!
SLAY
ME
(please have lots of songs in Slovene)
Nice with semifinals! 🙂 Let’s hope for many different music styles. Some past EMAs have been good I think. When the songhave not been “cheesy”. I think Slovenia has had good entries in both 2010 (a bit “quircky”, but so charming and different), 13, 15 and 16. To count the recent ones. So they have a nice tendency. 8 songs is a bit of a small number for a semi. But hey – with some great music….who can complain? 🙂 I hope some “big names” at their native pop / rock scene will take part.
Slovenia is the definition of underrated. Prisluhni mi (1996) and Energy (2001) both deserved to win, while Cvet z juga (2007), Vrag naj vzame (2008) and more recently Here for You (2015) all would’ve been top 10 had they represented another country. I really hope they do send something marvelous that will a fair result. I don’t know anything about music from there, but I have hopes, they’re our neighbors after all!
Democracy is the best system of the voting. In my opinion Slovenia will choose song which will qualify to grand final in Kyiv. ManuElla wasn`t good decision because her song was boring.
I like this, because more shows = more songs and more visibility for the performers. However, it was better with unique Slovenian acts, like Tinkara and Maraaya (both very unique and memorable), whereas last year’s discount Taylor Swift was too obvious a copycat and didn’t feel right at all – I can’t even remember her name! (Sorry!)
Slovenia at Eurovision needs to rediscover its uniqueness and go back to their 2014 and 2015 style successes – hopefully having a broader selection will help with that. Best of luck. 🙂
Yeah prva ljubezen was my absolute winner and dambaje 2nd in 2015.
The format doesn’t need to change, the quality of the songs just needs to be good. In 2015, Maraaya was my alltime favorite Eurovision song EVER, and JESC Slovenia 2015 was the best that year. Maraaya just needs to write a song for a good singer, and they would go to Eurovision immidiately.