Last week the MTV EMAs awarded Europe’s most successful musicians with some delightful gongs. Among them were Eurovision stars like Mahmood and Maruv. This week Slovenia kicked off its very own EMA (Evrovizijska Melodija) Freš. A total of six songs fought for two of ten spots in the final of EMA Freš. Today it was announced that Stella and Younite have won the first tickets for the show!
Slovenia is taking a new direction in its Eurovision selection. EMA Freš is meant to secure new and non-established acts under the age of 26 a place in the main competition. Acts who have not released more than three songs so far have been invited to send in a one-minute-long video of themselves performing. Now the 18 best applicants are fighting for two of the ten spots in the EMA final in February 2020.
The results of the first week:
The first duel took place on Monday, and Stella defeated Pia Nina.
The second duel took place on Tuesday. The duo Younite defeated Soulution.
The third duel took place on Wednesday. Martina defeated Astrid in Avantgarden.
This week’s final saw Stella, Younite and Martina battling it out for the first two spots in the final. The winners of this week are Stella and Younite. It was not announced who won the online vote and who was chosen by the jury.
Who are the finalists?
Stella is a 19-year old singer and dancer from Šentjur. Her real name is Špela Jezovšek. Her biggest success thus far was probably her participation in the Romanian edition of X-Factor last year, where she finished inside the Top 20. She’s taken part in multiple festivals in Slovenia and performed in North Macedonia, Italy and Hungary, to name a few places. You don’t need to worry about her stage presence — she has amazing dance moves! Stella took part in the Dance Star World Finals and in the Slovenian pre-selection for Eurovision Young Dancers in 2017. She released a song this summer called “Ocean”. Her song in EMA Freš is called “Ne vem, če sem v redu”.
Younite consists of the students Iza Leskovšek and Jakob Zlatinšek. Iza won the Korajža festival and performed together with the Klapa Fa Linđo in Dubrovnik. Additionally, she has played the violin since the age of five. Jakob played the keyboard in numerous bands and has produced the music for various short movies. Both have known each other since childhood, which hints at a similar understanding of each other like Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl had it. In 2018, they released the song “Junija“. Their song in EMA Freš is called “The Cure”.
What’s next?
These duels will last for the next two weeks, meaning that four more songs will make it to the next round of the show: the EMA Freš final. But hold on! Everyone deserves a second chance, right? The twelve songs that didn‘t make it to the final round will still have the chance to do so. For the next two weeks these “lucky losers” will again battle it out in duels.
So after these two weeks, another four songs will be through and will join the first six winners. In the end, a total of 10 songs will take part in the EMA Freš final – with the date yet to be announced. This whole process takes place online through a special voting website.
Only two of these 10 acts will get crowned winners and move on to take part in the actual final of Slovenia‘s EMA 2020 in February – together with the eight artists selected by the Slovenian broadcaster. Established acts still have time to apply at RTVSLO.
Five luminaries have been offering commentary. They are singer and songwriter Bojan Cvjetićanin, TV presenter Klemen Kopina, Eurovision expert and journalist Denis Živcec and Slovenian social media stars Maja Pinteric and Rebeka Tomc.
Who was your favourite this week? Who could become the next representative and fly the Slovenian flag in Rotterdam? Let us know in the comments below.
Based on the demos, I really like Ne vem, ?e sem v redu, but I find The Cure boring. Well, this might change when I hear the final songs.
Stella’s song sounds interesting — though admittedly it’s hard to judge based on a few seconds — but it keeps sounding like she’s singing the words “San Marino.” 🙂
While some countries lack money to hold national finals or even participate in Eurovision, Slovenia has the money to make the national final as long and complicated as possible.
Ema Fresh is practically for free.
sebi was indeed a fresh-sounding song (one of the few from this year’s edition that felt like it was clearly from 2019), i’m really hyped for slovenia and this ema fresh thing bringing young independent artists forward is the best thing that could happen!
I am really excited about EMA. I skipped last year but this year, I feel like there will be acts that will make me watch again. Song-wise, “Sebi” is a tough act to follow, though. A beautiful, captivating song. I’m hoping for that again, but this time also with an equally captivating performance.
So far so good – I’m really fond of this format, it’s a fantastic idea to let so many young artists give a try. I think both of the snippets presented here have a real potential and make me even more curious about the next ones we’re gonna hear. And Stella’s voice sounds very intriguing!