EMA 2006 was the 11th edition of the Slovenian national final format Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA). The competition was used by RTV Slovenija to select Slovenia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 and was broadcast on TVS 1 and online via the broadcaster's website rtvslo.si.[1]
Competing entries[]
Artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 18 September 2005 and 20 November 2005. 107 entries were received by the broadcaster during the submission period.[2] An expert committee consisting of Jaka Pucihar (composer), Rok Lopatič (music producer), Jernej Vene (music editor for Radia Slovenija), Mitja Ciuha (Eurovision expert) and Mario Galunič (television presenter) selected fourteen artists and songs for the competition from the received submissions.[3] The competing artists were announced on 28 November 2005.[4]
EMA 2006 took place on 29 January 2006 at the RTV Slovenija Studio 1 in Ljubljana, hosted by Janez Škof, Aljoša Ternovšek and Boris Koba. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2001 Slovenian Eurovision entrantNuša Derenda and Alya performed as guests. The combination of points from a five-member jury panel, a public telephone vote and a public SMS vote selected "Plan B" performed by Anžej Dežan as the winner. The jury consisted of Martin Žvelc (music producer), Nataša Assejev (editor for RTV Slovenija), Cole Moretti (singer-songwriter and guitarist), Dragan Trivič (musician) and Črt Sojar Voglar (composer).
EMA veteran Saša Lendero won both the telephone and SMS votes while in the end, the jury decided the outcome and Anžej Dežan won the competition, causing much controversy. This was second time in 3 years that voting jury expelled the televoting winner from their votes. In 2004 also Natalija Verboten with Cry On My Shoulder" had won the public vote, but the jury gave her 0 points. If they had get only 1 point - both, Lendero in 2006 or Verboten in 2004 would have won EMA. Many polemics and discussions were raised after this - people and media wondering if jury did this on purpose. More dispute was caused when accusations were made that "Plan B" was a copy of a song called "Santa Maria" sung by Austrian singer Simone, therefore breaking the contest rules. The European Broadcasting Union, however, did not see it as a copy, and therefore the song was not disqualified.
At Eurovision[]
In the 2006 contest, Anžej performed the English version of the song, "Mr Nobody".
Because Slovenia failed to qualify in 2005 Anžej was forced to compete in the Eurovision semi-final, where he performed 3rd, following Bulgaria and preceding Andorra. Slovenia came 16th with 49 points, failing to qualify to the Grand Final.[5]
Slovenia
Croatia
Malta
Israel
Finland
