Slovenia: Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl wins EMA 2019
Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl will represent Slovenia at Eurovision Song Contest 2019 after winning Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA) 2019 with the song "Sebi"
Slovenia held the the 23rd edition of Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA) tonight, to select the Slovenian representative for Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv.
Ten candidates competed in EMA 2019, but the main name tonight was Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl who won EMA 2019 with the song Sebi. Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl will represent Slovenia at Eurovision 2019.
EMA 2019 – Result
- Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl – "Sebi" (73% of the votes in the superfinal)
- Raiven – "Kaos" (27% of the votes in the superfinal)
- Kim – "Rhythm Back to You"
- Ula Ložar – "Fridays"
- Renata Mohorič – "Three Bridges"
- René – "Ne poveš"
- Fed Horses – "Ti ne poznaš konjev"
- Lumberjack – "Lepote dna"
- Okustični – "Metulji plešejo"
- INMATE – "Atma"
Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl
The duo Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl began their journey together in the summer of 2017 when they recorded their first song. Already before they created the duo, each of them was influenced by music. Zala was playing the tunes and started writing songs herself. Gašper began playing guitar in childhood and practically practiced until he soon became interested in music production.
EMA 2019
The ten artists competing in this year's Evrovizijska Melodija were revealed back in December 2018, along with a snippet of their songs. The finalists were selected among 103 songs submitted to the broadcaster by a 4-member jury: Lea Sirk (Slovenia 2018), Mojca Menart, Žiga Klančar and Aleksander Radić.
Hosts of EMA 2019 were Tanja Kocman and Rokom Bohincem, and guest performances included last year's representative Lea Sirk, inoT and Smaal Tokk.
The voting if this year's EMA consisted of two rounds. In the first round, a jury panel chose the best two songs to proceed to a superfinal: Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl and Raiven. In the superfinal it was solely the public televoters who decided the winner of EMA 2019 – and the ticket to Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv.
Slovenia in Eurovision Song Contest
Slovenia had its debut in Eurovision Song Contest 1993, and since then participated 24 times in Eurovision. They have never won the contest, and the best result for Slovenia is two 7th places in 1995 and 2001.
Since the introduction og Semi-finals in 2004, Slovenia only managed to qualify for the Grand Final 5 times out of 15.
