It’s the Eurovision national selection that’s slowly been picking up pace since early November. And on 20 December, after several weeks of the EMA FREŠ wildcard round, Slovenian broadcaster RTVSLO announced the names of ten confirmed finalists for EMA 2020.
EMA 2020 Finalists: Artists and Song Titles
The lineup contains several prominent names from the Slovenian music scene. In terms of facial recognition, Eurovision fans will probably be most familiar with Tinkara Kovac. She represented Slovenia in 2014 with “Round And Round”, reaching the grand final.
Another name that pops out is Lina Kuduzović. She sang “Prva ljubezen” for Slovenia at Junior Eurovision 2015 and gave the country its first-ever podium finish at a Eurovision event.
The full confirmed line-up for Slovenia’s EMA 2020 final is:
- Ana Soklič “Voda”
- Božidar Wolfand Wolf “Maybe Someday”
- Gaja Prestor “Verjamem vase”
- Imset “Femme Fatale”
- Inmate “The Salt”
- Klara Jazbec “Stop the World”
- Lina Kuduzović “Man Like U”
- Manca Berlec “Večnost”
- Simon Vadnjal “Nisi sam”
- Tinkara Kovač “Forever”
- EMA FREŠ winner 1
- EMA FREŠ winner 2
The ten songs were whittled down from a total of 74 submissions. A three-person panel of musician and singer Raiven, record label exec Mojca Menart and music editor Jernej Vene were responsible for the shortlisting.
EMA 2020 Dates
The EMA 2020 final is set for 22 February.
The voting system remains unchanged from 2019. After all 12 acts have performed, a three-person jury will select two super finalists.
These will sing again, with the viewers at home having the final say on who represents Slovenia at Eurovision 2020.
EMA FREŠ 2020 Finalists: Artists and Song Titles
You’ll notice that the last two places in the final are yet to be confirmed. That’s because they’ll be filled by the top two acts from EMA FREŠ — a rather convoluted wildcard round designed to unearth new talent.
The preliminary rounds have concluded and the final is scheduled for 18 January. The result will be determined by a mixture of public and jury vote.
The ten EMA FREŠ finalists are:
- Stella “Ne vem, če sem v redu”
- Younite “The Cure”
- Alfirev “Črno bela lika”
- Klarity “Diham”
- Marmoris “Moj pristan”
- Saška “Še kar lovim tvoj nasmeh”
- Pia Nina “Tukaj in zdaj”
- Lana Hrvatin “Dream”
- Parvani Violet “Cupid”
- Astrid in Avantgarden “Sing to Me”
What do you think of the lineup? Which name are you most excited for? Let us know in the comments.
I want to see BQL get their deserving win some time soon
aaand still listening to Sebi here, quite unusual for an ESC song.
Good to see Lina back. About Tinkara… she shouldn’t be an international jury in the SRF but also participating in EMA. That’s a bit strange.
May be she know she has got bad song and did not have any chance to win EMA
No WHY AY AY AY Lady?! Then I don’t care! Out of 41 countries first definite NQ already!
Why would Trijntje Oosterhuis want to participate in the Slovene nf?
Because every single country should get a chance to see THAT dress.
Thanks to Edsilia in the final, they all did!
That was way too brief. I need to see Trijntje and Edsilia in a three minute duet wearing those dresses.
They are in disdress.
It’s a disdress signal.
The sounds of disdress. 😛
I’m going make a wild guess here and predict that Slovenia will be represented by a female soloist. Slovenia tends to have a much better and stronger selection of women than men. Some interesting names here, I wish I could also know the songwriters, they’re usually a good indicator, unless there’s something surprisingly superior, like “Sebi’ in 2019. Haven’t followed the pre-competition but just for the name alone, I’m rooting for Astrid in Avantgarden. 🙂
Yeah for sure a female will represent us! Also Klara’s song will be from Maraaya (maybe even Tinkara’s) and Lina’s song is by a german producer Florian Krahe. Gaja Prestor’s song is probably produced by Zan Sercic, who produced most of her songs. That’s all I know:)
Is it just at EMA or is the Slovenian music scene generally female-driven? I’ve noticed this quite a bit. I could list about 30 female Slovenian singers among my favorites. Hardly any males. What’s up with that? 😉
Come to think of it, there are very few Slovene entries with a male soloist. 1998, 2005. 2006, and 2017 are the only ones I can think of. The rest are either bands or duos with male and female artists (the one exception being 2002), or female soloists (14, not counting duos or bands with female soloists, which would also add 2009, 2010, 2015, and 2019).
2006 was especially dreadful. The title was very apt: Mr Nobody. Meanwhile, they could have cracked the top 5 that year, had they not rigged the voting against the public’s favorite who totally and rightfully rejected Mr Nobody. Omar on the other hand I always found quite handsome. I had drinks with him when I was in Ljubljana. But that was before 2017, when he wasted his second Eurovision chance on that dire song.
It was kind of cool that he represented Slovenia in the same country, twelve years apart, just like Laura from Estonia did. How many other acts can claim that? Me being a nerd, I’m gonna figure it out.
Yes, of course. But it would have been cooler if those two had come back with a success story. I mean, I would kind of like both to be third time lucky but I imagine it might be hard to get selected after failing twice already. The sad irony is that Omar did have good songs in EMA but those were the ones with which he didn’t win, so I suppose we should blame the juries.
We’re gonna find out with Laura this year, although I have my doubts.
Just talking performers (not counting any pre- or post-appearance stints as backing singers or whatnot): Belgium: Stella Maessen (as part of Dream Express in 1977 and solo in 1982, both in the UK) Austria: Beatrix Neundlinger and Günter Grosslercher (as members of Milestones in 1972 and Schmetterlinge in 1977 – honorable mention to fellow band member Christian Kolonovits, who conducted their entry in ’77, all in the UK) Bosnia and Herzegovina: Alma Cardzic (1994 and 1997, both in Ireland) Denmark: Tommy Seebach (his two subsequent entries in 1981 and 1993 were both in Ireland) Estonia: Laura (as a member of… Read more »
+Dino Merlin (1999-2011)
Yardena Arazi (1976-1988)
Mary Ross (1972-1984)
(if we’re talking ’bout the artists with 12-year breaks)
That’s six in total (with Tommy, Omar and Laura).
If you look at the NFs this year, we could’ve had a TON. Sasha Son (Lithuania), Sandra from Urban Symphony (Estonia), Yohanna (Iceland – technically, since she was a backing singer for Fridrik Omar, which would’ve been really funny since he sang backup for her in 2009), and Andrea Demirovic (Montenegro) were all hopefuls at some point.
We’ve still had Tamara coming back after 11 years (well, teeechnically 5, as she was the backing singer for her sister in Copenhagen, but that’s besides the point). It’s kinda crazy that the last year with no returnees was 2003.
Would love to figure out the longest gap between first and last Eurovision participations. If we’re being technical, if we’re counting her potential entry that missed out in the pre-qualifying round, Kaliopi can claim a whopping twenty years between her first and most recent Eurovision entries.
I’ve always had a problem with 1996 pre-qualifying round. Was it a SF, or wasn’t it? The artists were selected for Eurovision, but didn’t get the chance to perform on stage, so… maybe? Same thing with 1993 “Kvalifikacija za Millstreet”. So confusing.
I’ve done some research and it’s… Anna Vissi, with impressive 26 years of difference (1980-2006). Of course she’d be easily dethroned by Lys Assia, if only Ms. Assia had won the NF in 2012 (46 y).
All the best Slovene acts I can think of are either a woman (Tinkara, Darja Svajger, Tanja Ribic, Alenka Gotar, Maja Keuc, Lea Sirk – classics all, yes even Lea) or a duo with a female vocal (like Maraaya or Zalagasper). The only somewhat decent male act I can think of is Omar Naber, at least his first time around, and even that can’t hold a candle to the ladies.
So I’m the only one who likes ‘Mr. Nobody’?
haha why do you guess like that? i listen before i guess. Its like the ennoying people here saying Sweden will pick a male. They count our males in a row and complain about it all year.
Of course you made this about the Swedish persecution complex somehow
this is a selection i’m really lookin forward to
Lina was amazing at JESC. I hope she gets as good song, or even better one.
@Hanna – yes, Lina was outstanding in the JESC 2015 …..and she was in the grand final of The Voice of Germany 2017. There she slayed too ……so I have good hope for her that she will be one of the 2 super-finalists.
Writing as a Slovene:
Who will win: Either Lina, Gaja, Klara or Tinkara.
Gaja and Lina are popular with teenagers.
Klara has an overall appeal.
And everybody knows Tinkara.
Klara’s song is most probably produced by Maraaya.
Interesting line-up! Tinkara was severely underrated in 2014, I knew it was a matter of time Lina would debut in EMA and I’m thrilled to see Inmate back as well! Slovenia’s EMA has become one of the most intriguing national finals in recent years.
Omg Lina ??????
Manos – yes yes yes – that are stunning news. After she slayed in JESC 2015 and The Voice of Germany 2017 now EMA 2020
So writing this as a Slovene:
Contenders for the win are: Gaja, Lina, Klara, Tinkara and maybe Ana Soklic.
Gaja is popular especially with teenagers. Her song is probably produced by Zan Sercic. Hoping for something like “Najino Nebo”
Lina’s song is produced by a german producer. It will be a modern bop.
Klara could surprise and her song is most likely written and produced by Maraaya.
Tinkara’s song is also probably produced by Maraaya, but I’m not certain.
Imagine Slovenia sending Lina and Malta sending Destiny the same year to ESC lol. Interesting. Armenia could join the party with Mika.
It was a strong Top 3 Jesc
Belarus could bring Helena Meraai (JESC 2017) ……that would be very interesting to have 3 strong JESC artists in the competition (1 x winner, 1 x 3rd finish and 1 x 5th finish)
OMG, Tinkara my underrated queen.. Welcome back!!
Ooh, I dig it! Round and Round was mad underrated in 2014. One of my favorite entries from that year.
She kicked off Ireland, NM, Israel….
Slovenia was a deserved qualifier. Belarus on the other hand…
Israel getting the bump is something I blame on Greece and Belarus.
Greece was my crush it was cool, however slovenia and belarus was wtf for me but yes i liked Tinkara’s song, but i think Macedonia, Ireland and Israel were better than Slovenia, Belarus or even Finland