Last year they said Hvala, ne! to another early exit in the semi finals of Eurovision. After Lea Sirk’s success, Slovenia again wants to reach the final in Tel Aviv. And now they have confirmed that their Evrovizijska Melodija 2019 final will take place on 16 February.
Slovenian broadcaster RTVSLO received 103 submissions this year. But instead of giving 16 of them a spot in the show, like they did last year, this year EMA will consist of only 10 songs. They will battle it out on one single night. No semi finals needed! They ain’t wasting no time and are ready to cut to the chase.
Even if the broadcaster skipped the semi-finals, they still know how to build excitement. In the final there will be two voting rounds. After all 10 acts give their best on stage in Ljubljana, the best two songs will be decided by a jury vote alone. The top two acts will then compete in the super final. Only one of them gets the crown — and that’s decided by 100% televoting. Does that sound familiar to you? The method was used in 2016 when ManuElla won EMA but then crashed out in the semis in Stockholm. We hope that’s not a bad omen…
But there‘s more news: the Slovenian broadcaster is feeding us freshly squeezed juice – every Monday, Wednesday and Friday – with webcasts. They will help us get to know the 10 EMA acts better. You can watch all of the webcast episodes on RTVSLO’s EMA YouTube page. They will continuously upload the webcasts until 8 February, with Raiven’s being premiered on Wednesday.
Speaking of Raiven, she is probably the most well-known act amongst fans and is already a fan favourite. The former pink haired singer is back at EMA with her song ‘Kaos’. Seven out of the 10 songs will be performed in Slovenian. The Eurovision 2015 act Maraaya will also take part again, this time as songwriters for Kim and Ula Ložar. Ula of course was Slovenia’s first JESC act upon their debut in 2014. She is the only one whose webcast has already been released. You can watch it below.
16 February will be a so-called Super Saturday. Not only Slovenia but also neighbours Croatia and the Baltics Latvia and Estonia will choose their song and act for Tel Aviv that day. But things will get even busier as Sweden, Lithuania, Portugal, Iceland, Ukraine and Hungary hold preliminary rounds that day.
Which show will you watch on 16 February? And who is your early favourite to win the Slovenian national final EMA 2019? Let us know in the comment section below.
February will be a busy month once again! Let’s enjoy!
Slovenia and Croatia in both countries I have candidates in Croatia and I am waiting for a surprise and in Slovenia I have high expectations for Raiven, I’ve been waiting for now she must win ema
The dates I’m pumped for are February 9 (Australia, Italy, and Montenegro), February 16 (Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, and Slovenia), February 23 (Denmark, Hungary, Lithuania, and Ukraine), and March 2 (Finland, Georgia, Iceland, Norway, and Portugal). It feels like they’re all choosing in clumps!
Indeed. Unfortunately there are only a finite number of weekends between now and the March deadline. Very few televised finals happen during the week. Except possibly Germany, UK and (if it’s on) Switzerland. That’s a point – what’s happening with Switzerland this year?
Oh, you haven’t heard? Switzerland went totally internal. They’re basically doing what Germany does now, except they aren’t televising anything. There are already rumors for who’ll be representing them (some say it’s a famous Swiss pop singer who gave the jury votes in 2017 – any guy who likes Salvador is a pal of mine). Sebalter threw his hat in the ring a second time, but let’s see what happens.
The only country I know is doing a NF but hasn’t announced a date yet is Belarus.