Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021

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Eurovision Song Contest 2021
Country Slovenia
National selection
Selection processInternal selection
Selection date(s)Artist: 16 May 2020
Song: 27 February 2021
Selected entrantAna Soklič
Selected song"Amen"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Semi-final resultFailed to qualify (13th)
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2020 2021 2022►

Slovenia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands with the song "Amen" written by Ana Soklič, Bojan Simončič, Žiga Pirnat and Charlie Mason. The song was performed by Ana Soklič, who was internally selected by the Slovenian broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTVSLO) to represent Slovenia in the 2021 contest, having previously been selected to represent Slovenia in 2020 with the song "Voda", before its eventual cancellation due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Ana Soklič was revealed to be Slovenia's representative on 16 May 2020, with the song "Amen" being released as the Slovenian entry on 27 February 2021.

Slovenia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 18 May 2021. Performing during the show in position 2, "Amen" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Slovenia placed thirteenth out of the 16 participating countries in the semi-final with 44 points.

Background[]

Prior to the 2021 contest, Slovenia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-six times since its first entry in 1993.[1] Slovenia's highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been seventh place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 1995 with the song "Prisluhni mi" performed by Darja Švajger and in 2001 with the song "Energy" performed by Nuša Derenda. The country's only other top ten result was achieved in 1997 when Tanja Ribič performing "Zbudi se" placed tenth. Since the introduction of semi-finals to the format of the contest in 2004, Slovenia had thus far only managed to qualify to the final on six occasions. In 2018, Slovenia was represented by Lea Sirk and the song "Hvala, ne!", which qualified to the final and placed twenty-second. One year later, in 2019, Slovenia qualified for the final again with Zala Kralj and Gašper Šantl, finishing in fifteenth place with the song "Sebi".

The Slovenian national broadcaster, Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTV Slovenija), broadcasts the event within Slovenia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. RTV Slovenija confirmed Slovenia's participation in the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest on 16 May 2020. The Slovenian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest has traditionally been selected through a national final entitled Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA), which has been produced with variable formats. For 2021, the broadcaster opted to organise an internal selection to select the Slovenian entry. To this point, the broadcaster has only foregone the use of the national final in 2013 when the Slovenian entry was internally selected.

Before Eurovision[]

Internal selection[]

On 16 May 2020, RTV Slovenija confirmed that Ana Soklič would remain as Slovenia's representative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2021.[2] Following the announcement of Soklič as the selected artist, composers were able to submit their songs to the broadcaster between 13 July 2020 and 30 September 2020.[3] 191 songs were received by the broadcaster during the submission period. An expert committee consisting of Soklič, Darja Švajger (singer, vocal coach and 1995 and 1999 Slovenian Eurovision entrant) and Vladimir Graić (composer of Serbia's winning Eurovision entry "Molitva" in 2007) shortlisted three songs from the received submissions, with the Slovenian entry being determined by an alternate expert committee consisting of Darja Švajger, Mojca Menart (Head of the publishing business of ZKP RTV Slovenija) and Matevž Šalehar (musician and singer-songwriter) from the three shortlisted songs.[4]

The selected song, entitled "Amen", was presented during the special show EMA 2021 which took place on 27 February 2021 at the RTV Slovenija Studio 1 in Ljubljana, hosted by Lea Sirk and Nejc Šmit. The 2021 edition of EMA also simultaneously celebrated Slovenia's 60th anniversary since their first appearance in the Eurovision Song Contest (including Slovenia's appearances as part of Yugoslavia).[4] The song was written by Bojan Simončič, Žiga Pirnat, Charlie Mason and Ana Soklič herself. Mason had previously co-written the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 winning entry "Rise Like a Phoenix".[5]

At Eurovision[]

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete in the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. For the 2021 contest, the semi-final allocation draw held for 2020 which was held on 28 January 2020, was used for 2021 contest. Slovenia was placed into the first semi-final, which was held on 18 May 2021, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[6]

Once all the competing songs for the 2021 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Slovenia was set to perform in position 2, following the entry from Lithuania and preceding the entry from Russia.[7]

At the end of the show Slovenia was not announced among 10 qualifiers of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final.

Voting[]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Slovenia in the first semi-final, as well as by the country in the final. Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting.[8] The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country's jury and televoting were released after the final; the individual results from each jury member were also released in an anonymised form. Slovenia's jury consisted of Bojan Cvjetićanin, Nuša Derenda,  [sl], Amaya, and Raay.[9] In the first semi-final, Slovenia placed 13th with a total of 44 points, thus failing to qualify for the final. The performance received 8 televoting points, while the jury points added to 36, including 7 from Romania.[10] Over the course of the contest, Slovenia awarded its 12 points to Cyprus (jury) and Croatia (televote) in the first semi-final, and to Italy (jury) and Serbia (televote) in the final.[11][12]

Points awarded to Slovenia[]

Points awarded to Slovenia (Semi-final 1)[11]
Score Televote Jury
12 points
10 points
8 points
7 points  Romania
6 points  Cyprus
5 points  Croatia  Malta
4 points
3 points  North Macedonia
2 points
1 point

Points awarded by Slovenia[]

Detailed voting results[]

The following members comprised the Slovene jury:

Detailed voting results from Slovenia (Semi-final 1)[11]
Draw Country Jury Televote
Juror A Juror B Juror C Juror D Juror E Average Rank Points Rank Points
01  Lithuania 10 13 10 11 10 12 12
02  Slovenia
03  Russia 2 2 2 3 14 2 10 4 7
04  Sweden 12 7 12 8 8 11 9 2
05  Australia 11 12 11 15 15 14 15
06  North Macedonia 13 4 8 14 3 7 4 3 8
07  Ireland 15 14 15 12 12 15 14
08  Cyprus 1 3 3 2 2 1 12 10 1
09  Norway 9 6 7 9 9 8 3 5 6
10  Croatia 8 5 5 1 4 4 7 1 12
11  Belgium 4 10 1 13 5 6 5 7 4
12  Israel 6 9 13 10 6 9 2 11
13  Romania 14 15 14 7 13 13 13
14  Azerbaijan 3 8 4 5 1 3 8 8 3
15  Ukraine 7 11 9 6 11 10 1 2 10
16  Malta 5 1 6 4 7 5 6 6 5
Detailed voting results from Slovenia (Final)[12]
Draw Country Jury Televote
Juror A Juror B Juror C Juror D Juror E Average Rank Points Rank Points
01  Cyprus 13 9 15 7 12 15 15
02  Albania 10 12 9 15 5 11 12
03  Israel 5 11 8 14 7 10 1 22
04  Belgium 6 17 4 20 4 5 6 19
05  Russia 2 1 1 9 13 3 8 10 1
06  Malta 11 3 12 5 17 6 5 13
07  Portugal 14 20 19 18 18 19 18
08  Serbia 16 5 11 10 15 13 1 12
09  United Kingdom 20 25 25 26 26 25 25
10  Greece 18 10 10 11 2 8 3 3 8
11   Switzerland 4 2 6 4 3 4 7 6 5
12  Iceland 1 6 3 1 8 2 10 8 3
13  Spain 22 21 21 23 21 21 23
14  Moldova 23 26 24 22 19 23 26
15  Germany 24 24 22 24 24 24 17
16  Finland 12 14 13 3 6 7 4 7 4
17  Bulgaria 19 18 16 19 20 20 20
18  Lithuania 21 22 20 16 10 18 14
19  Ukraine 8 15 7 12 11 12 4 7
20  France 7 8 5 8 16 9 2 5 6
21  Azerbaijan 9 16 14 17 9 16 16
22  Norway 17 4 17 13 14 14 9 2
23  Netherlands 25 23 23 25 25 26 24
24  Italy 3 7 2 2 1 1 12 2 10
25  Sweden 15 13 18 6 23 17 11
26  San Marino 26 19 26 21 22 22 21

References[]

  1. ^ "Country Profile: Slovenia". European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  2. ^ Jumawan, Tim (16 May 2020). "Ana Soklič to represent Slovenia in Eurovision 2021". escXtra. Retrieved 6 February 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ^ Jumawan, Tim (13 July 2020). "Slovenia opens search for Eurovision 2021 entry". escXtra. Retrieved 6 February 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ a b "Evrovizija in Ema po covidnem načrtu". rtvslo.si (in Slovenian). 5 February 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ "'Amen' for Slovenia's Ana Soklič". Eurovision.tv. 27 February 2021. Retrieved 28 February 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. ^ Groot, Evert (17 November 2020). "2020 Semi-Final line-up to stay for 2021". eurovision.tv. Eurovision Song Contest. Archived from the original on 18 November 2020. Retrieved 17 November 2020.
  7. ^ "Semi-Final running orders revealed". Eurovision.tv. 30 March 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  8. ^ "Voting–Eurovision Song Contest". European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Archived from the original on 26 May 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  9. ^ Muldoon, Padraig (23 May 2021). "Eurovision 2021: EBU publishes the names of the 39 professional juries". Wiwibloggs. Archived from the original on 23 May 2021. Retrieved 24 May 2021.
  10. ^ "Results of the Second Semi-Final of Rotterdam 2021". European Broadcasting Union (EBU). Archived from the original on 28 May 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2022.
  11. ^ a b c d "Results of the First Semi-Final of Rotterdam 2021". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 28 May 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  12. ^ a b c "Results of the Grand Final of Rotterdam 2021". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 28 May 2021. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
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