The year’s almost over and Slovenia is staring directly into 2023. Today broadcaster RTVSLO confirmed that the band Joker Out will represent the country at Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool.
The group consists of Bojan Cvjetićanin, Kris Guštin, Jan Peteh, Jure Maček and Martin Jurkovič. Formed in 2016, they’ve described their sound as “shagadelic rock ‘n roll.”
It’s gone down well at home, as seen by their three wins at Slovenia’s Golden Whistle Awards, which celebrates the best in Slovenian pop music. They won Rookie of the Year in 2020 and Artist of the Year in 2021 and 2022.
Speaking at an RTVSLO press conference on Thursday, the band revealed that they were already working on a potential Eurovision song before the broadcaster approached them for Liverpool.
Bojan, the band’s frontman, said: “We talked about Eurovision years ago, but we were waiting for the right moment, which is obviously now.”
Their Eurovision song — which they’ll sing in Slovenian — will be released on February 4. It’s actually being recorded this weekend in Hamburg, Germany.
You may remember Bojan from EMA 2022. He co-hosted the show alongside Maja Keuc, and gave a memorable performance of “Zitti e buoni.”
As part of their growth, the band recently released “Demoni” — their first single in Serbian and a signal they’re ready to reach out to folks outside of Slovenia. Eurovision seems like an obvious next step.
Their description of that song suggests they’re at a cross-roads and ready to play with their sound.
“Demons poured out of the band in the form of an experiment that mixes the band’s guitar presence with club elements,” they write on YouTube. “It’s the band’s response to the beats from their surroundings and an escape from reality.”
The stylish video also captures their flair for performance and visuals. The guys pout in front of mirrors and wear unique clothes that suggest an anything-goes, devil-may-care attitude toward fashion.
Are you excited about Joker Out? Do you think it was a good idea for RTVSLO to bypass its EMA national final and choose internally? Let us know down below!
Hello! Thank you for the article 🙂 Just wanted to let you know that Martin recently left the band and chose Nace Jordan to replace him as the bassist
I already noticed that, thank you
Amaaaziiing
So they dress like Maneskin, make songs like Arctic Monkeys (one of their songs ‘Katrina’ literally sounds like a ‘Do I wanna know’ clone). I don’t like groups that don’t have their own identity. Not impressed so far, but there’s hope.
Identity? So tell us what identity Måneskin have? Which 70s glam group have they taken their identity from?
Everything in the business is inspired from others.
“Inspired”, suuure. They plagiarize a lot of their music. But of course eurofans are salivating over them, because they are hot.
shameful attitude
Well, their selection was quite decent, for such a small country too, really liked both LUMA and Hauptman last year. Probably gonna be supporting these guys as well tho, as long as the entry isn’t too bad.
This could work out really well for Slovenia. They look and sound fresh, and Slovene is a beautiful language so I’m happy they’ll stick to that.
Finally something really interesting from Slovenia! Looks really promising.
So far we have 1girl, 1 man, 1 duo and 1 group … Its interesting haha
Sounds very promising, I’m feeling what I’ve heard so far.
They sound and look very good. If they have a good song they can go far. Well done Slovenia.
It’s sad to lose a national final, but I think it was a good move from Slovenia, since Joker Out seems to be a established name of their musical industry while still being fresh and experimenting with their sound. I liked what I’ve listened from them so far.
Sad to hear Slovenia isn’t broadcasting a national selection contest (I loved last year’s). But I’m psyched by this decision! Let’s just say Bojan might have been my favorite part of the show <3 <3 <3
Bojan is the show
Wow, they sound and look great
Oh, this looks like a neat little gem that might just outshine a lot of other entries in the semifinal. I hope this is what Slovenia needs to return to the final. If the 2012 pattern continues, then they’ll qualify again!
(’12 NQ – ’13 NQ – ‘14 Q – ‘15 Q – ‘16 NQ – ‘17 NQ – ‘18 Q – ‘19 Q – ‘21 NQ – ’22 NQ)
Joker Out were the act I was hoping to represent Slovenia next! I’ve listened to their album and watched their performances, and I’m quite optimistic, they really are an awesome band! Can’t wait to see what they bring in 2023!
OMG YES ! I’m sad that we won’t get EMA this year but this is such a great choice let’s go Slovenia !
If they do a song line one of their track entitled “ne bi smel”, get ready Slovenia for anything big!
They are promising a lot, but first let’s wait the song in febraury
Slovenia only has 2 other internally selected songs (2013 and 2021) so I wouldn’t be fully sure about this. Still, they seem like a cool band
I loved Disko last year, it was one of my favourites. I appreciate how it could get a little lost in a competition but even still it was very underrated. Looking forward to this, hope they fare better!
This year actually seems like it might be one of the strongest Slovenia and Israel both having professionals with a lot of stage experience, Cyprus with someone with Eurovision national final experience and the Netherlands with Duncan Laurence involved.
And then with national finals we have Sweden with Loreen
ESC Ljubljana 2024 ? We will see…
These guys are very promising for LIverpool.
You can never go wrong with a professional act that has experience touring and brings something authentically them to the contest. More of that versus reality contestants with a pre-fabricated bought song from another country.
Loreen, Salvador, Cornelia, Anya, Guy Sebastian, Dami Im, OG3NE and Måns et al?
When did Bojan compete in EMA?
It was just a question. Maybe somebody will answer it.
Unrelated, how do you feel about Shania’s new songs?
I like the pink hair, but yeah, disappointing. Maybe they’ll grow on me. The last album did. Still good to see her back in action.
FYI, Serbian and Slovenian are essentially the same language with just a few regional differences in the dialect. Really, most of the Balkans more or less speak the same language, or a derivative of it (Macedonian is a bit more different but still recognizable, and Albanian is really the only really different Balkan language)
Albania was never part of Yugoslavia, so of course it has own language.
No, they are not the same language. Slovenian even though it was part of Yugoslavia was always more closer the Slavic countries in Central Europe than the Balkan countries. Serbian and Slovenian are so different. And Macedonian is so similar to Bulgarian that there is a debate about it.
I’m Croatian and I can understand Serbian, Bosnian, Slovenian and enough Macedonian to string the sentence together. They all sound the same or similar to my ears.
But you have many Slovenians who do not understand Serbian and vice versa.
Macedonia, I’ve heard, is mainly Serbian with Bulgarian grammar and spelling, and was tampered with by the Yugoslav communists.
similar and same is difference. They are similar yes because they are all Slavic languages. But that is where it ends. You will find Serbians, Croatians and Bosnians who dos not understand Slovenian or Macedonian. They can get words and phrases but that is it. Similarly many Slovenians, especially younger can struggle to understand the other languages.
As a Bosnian I can not speak Slovenian but I can understand sentences..
Slovenian is based on a variety that’s a litte more isolated than rest of the dialects spoken south of its borders so its mutual intelligibility with the languages of its former Yugoslav neighbors are reportedly not as strong as say Croatian and Bosnian are to Serbian.
Albanian is a language isolate although it has loanwords coming different languages as a result of frequent contacts to other idioms in the region.
Slovenian and Serbian are enough different that most people who haven’t learned the other language do not understand each other.
hahaha What?? Slovenian has a completely different grammar, times, verbs etc to Serbian. There are a lot of similiar words that mean something very different. For instance “snaža” means poweful in Serbo-Croatian, but clean in Slovene. Or “trudan sam” means I’m pregnant in SR-CR, but I’m tired in Slovene. Most Serbians and Croatians don’t udnerstand a single word of Slovene. I tried speaking Slovenian in Croatia and Bosnia and people didn’t udnerstand anything. Slovene is actually much closer to Slovakian and Czech then to other South Slavic languages.
Never heard of them but I am thrilled about what I am reading and the “Demoni” song is absolutely amazing!!! I have great expectations for Slovenia!!! Hooray!
The Austin Powers description concerned me, but then I listened and my worries subsided.
This is a really exciting announcement Slovenia, best of luck! They seem like they’ll bring something really authentic+ they’ll be singing in their native language so I’m sure it’ll be very true to their style. I’ve always rooted for Slovenia to do well so hopefully this will crack the top 10!
ROCK attitude !!!!!!!! Let’s go SLOVENIA !
When I saw ‘Joker Out’, I thought, “Oh no, not a cheesy novelty act!”, but after listening to a couple of their songs, I was relieved to find otherwise. Going by the two I listened to, they’ll need to bring something with a little more impact, but on the whole, sounds promising.
I wish them good luck, I have heard some of their songs and I like it very much. I can ‘t wait to hear their song for Eurovision, I hope for a good one.
Sounds so good! Like something I would actually listen outside the bubble (except for the language). I’m really looking forward to hear their entry. I’mm a bit worry as this music style is usually supported bu juries and they won’t have their help in the SF this year. Otherwise it has tons of potential to enter my ESC 2023 top 5.
That’s huge! Bravo Slovenia for selecting something so progressive for ESC standards, I really hope you finally get rewarded! These guys seem exciting, I’m already becoming a fan of Joker Out 🙂
Australia and Slovenia going internal, while Belgium and Greece are holding national finals? Why not. We need an occasional shake-up. All the best and good luck!
Greece is reportedly is sticking with an internal selection although they’re dping a different approach by supposedly inviting members of the public to help decide an act.
That’s a good surprise. Their National final never really worked so it’s good they go for a big local name
I got to say, I’m surprised Slovenia is going internal again, but I hope this is a good entry for Slovenia for once. The last two times they did internal selections didn’t go well for them, so I got my fingers crossed that joker out has a final worthy song in them.
Slovenia only once went internal (this is the second time)
I know that Hannah was internally selected for 2013, but so was Ana Sokli? for 2021, so joker out is the third Slovene artist to be internally selected. Unless Ana doesn’t count because she was originally selected By national final in 2020 And internally selected again to give her a second chance at Eurovision 2021. Is that what I’m getting at?
Slovenia is going internal and sending a pop rock band? Very interesting! Looking forward to their entry.
Omg finally an act I’m excited for!!!!