Slovenia's song for Eurovision 2024 released: Raiven with "Veronika"
Raiven will represent Slovenia at Eurovision 2024. Her Eurovision song "Veronika" has just been released along with a music video
For the second year in a row, Slovenia's broadcaster RTVSLO decided to throw away their initial (and already announced) plans for a national selection contest and internally pick their artist and song to compete at Eurovision.
Last year, Joker Out's submission of "Carpe Diem" triggered the broadcaster to ditch the selection process, and this time around it was Raiven's "Veronika" that automatically convinced RTVSLO that a new national selection contest wouldn't be necessary.
Despite not holding a competition, the TV broadcaster did host a special show dedicated to Raiven's song that, of course, culminated with the debut of "Veronika" and the music video:
"Veronika" was written by Raiven herself and Bojan Cvjetićanin, the vocalist of last year's Slovenian song, "Carpe Diem."
– We often talked about doing something together, and our musical collaboration on "Veronika" came about very spontaneously, Raiven explained.
Veronika
The song was inspired by Veronika Deseniška, a mysterious figure in Slovenian history. She's associated with a tragic love story that ended in her being murdered at her father-in-law's request, given his opposition to her marriage with his son:
– I am convinced that both the story and the music are strong and expressive enough that their essence and emotional depth will be perceived and understood even by non-Slovenian speakers, she said.
Raiven goes on to explain that the song wasn't created for Eurovision:
– When creating it, I focused primarily on the dramatic quality, which is key to telling Veronika's story effectively. I wanted her story to not only be expressed but also resonate with the year 2024.
Raiven
Sara Briški Cirman, with the stage name Raiven, is a 27-year-old singer-songwriter and actor. Besides singing, Raiven is also a mezzo-soprano and harpist, and has a master's degree from the Ljubljana Academy of Music.
She has competed three times in the Slovenian national selection for Eurovision, EMA:
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest
Slovenia made its debut in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993, and since then has participated 28 times. They have never won the contest, and the best result for Slovenia is two 7th place finishes in 1995 and 2001.
Since the introduction of the Semi-finals in 2004, Slovenia has only managed to qualify for the Grand Final 7 times out of 19.
