Slovenia was set to be represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 with the song "" written by Ana Soklič and Bojan Simončič, and performed by Soklič herself. The Slovene participating broadcaster, (RTVSLO), organised the national final in order to select its entry for the contest. 18 entries competed in the first stage of the national final, EMA FREŠ 2020, from which two entries qualified to compete in EMA 2020 following a two-month-long competition. Twelve entries competed in EMA 2020 where the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the top two entries were selected by a three-member jury panel. In the second round, "" performed by Ana Soklič was selected as the winner entirely by a public vote.
Slovenia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2020. However, the contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Background
Prior to the 2020 contest, (RTVSLO) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Slovenia twenty-five times since its first entry . Its highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been seventh place, achieved on two occasions: with the song "" performed by Darja Švajger and with the song "Energy" performed by Nuša Derenda. The country's only other top ten result was achieved when Tanja Ribič performing "" 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 2019, "" performed by Zala Kralj and Gašper Šantl qualified to the final and placed fifteenth.
As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, RTVSLO organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster confirmed its participation in the 2020 contest on 1 August 2019. RTVSLO has traditionally selected its entry through a national final entitled (EMA), which has been produced with variable formats. To this point, the broadcaster has only foregone the use of this national final when the entry was internally selected. For 2020, the broadcaster opted to organise (EMA 2020) to select the entry and launched the newly created associated competition that acted as a preselector for EMA itself.
Before Eurovision EMA FREŠ 2020 was the first phase of the national final format used by to select Slovenia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The final of the competition was broadcast on TV SLO 1 and online via the broadcaster's RTV 4D platform.
Format Eighteen songs competed over three stages between 4 November 2019 and 18 January 2020. The eighteen songs competed in nine daily duels in the first stage with three duels per week. In each week, online voting held between Monday and Wednesday selected the duel winners to proceed to a weekly final, while the remaining entries proceeded to the second stage. In each weekly final, an expert jury and online voting selecting two of the three songs to proceed to the final. The online vote selected the first finalist and the jury selected the other finalist, while the remaining entry proceeded to the second stage. The second stage was a Second Chance round where the remaining twelve songs competed in six daily duels with three duels per week. The same process of the first stage was applied which resulted in the elimination of eight songs. The third stage was the final, during which a three-member expert jury and public televoting selected two of the ten songs to proceed to EMA 2020. The televote selected the first qualifier and the jury selected the other qualifier.
Competing entries Artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 1 August 2019 and 19 September 2019. All artists were required to be under the age of 26 and have three or less commercially released songs. An expert committee consisting of Maja Pinterič (social media influencer), Rebeka Tomc (social media influencer), Denis Živcec (journalist and Eurovision expert), Klemen Kopina (television presenter) and Bojan Cvjetićanin (singer-songwriter) selected eighteen artists and songs for the competition from the received submissions. The competing artists were announced on 21 October 2019. Artist Song Songwriter(s) Alfirev "" Patrik Šimenc, Žan Vončina, Tia Alfirev Astrid in Avantgarden "Sing to Me" Astrid Ana Kljun, Janez Hace, Martin Štibernik Klarity "" Klara Klasinc Brglez, Primož Jurendić, Niki Kozoderc Lana Hrvatin "Dream" Lana Hrvatin, Enej Žagar Ljudmila Frelih "" Jean Markič, Domn Grace Marko Škof "" Domen Kumer, Mirna Reynolds Marmoris "" Matic Skok, Blaž Horvat, Andraž Kos Martina "" Martina Nuša Pliberšek "" Nuša Pliberšek Parvani Violet "Cupid" Veronika Steiner, Anže Zaveršnik, Aljaž Šumej, Florjan Ajdnik, Jaka Jeršič, Anže Lečnik Petra Ceglar "" Petra Ceglar Pia Nina "" Pia Nina Stružnik Štefe, Jernej Kržič Sara Petešič "/Dream" Sara Petešič Saška "" Jure Skaza, Matic Mlakar Soulution "" Patrik Mrak, Nace Jordan, Žiga Bahor Stella "" Špela Jezovšek Tilen Lotrič "" Tilen Lotrič Younite "The Cure" Jakob Zlatinšek, Pija Lucija Kralj
Duels The duels stage of took place over three weeks between 4 and 22 November 2019, hosted by Bojan Cvjetićanin, who would later go on to represent Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 as lead singer of Joker Out, Klemen Kopina, Denis Živčec, Maja Pinterič and Rebeka Tomc. In each week a daily online vote selected one of the two competing entries in each of the three duels to proceed to the weekly final. The remaining three entries proceeded to the Second Chance round. In each weekly final, the three entries first faced an online vote where the winner proceeded directly to the final of . An additional qualifier was then selected out of the remaining two entries by a jury panel.
+ Daily Duels 1 – 4–6 November 2019 Duel Date Artist Song Votes Result I Stella "" 869 Weekly final Pia Nina "" 800 Second Chance II Soulution "" 1,136 Second Chance Younite "The Cure" 1,150 Weekly final III Astrid in Avantgarden "Sing to Me" 811 Second Chance Martina "" 1,126 Weekly final + Weekly Final 1 – 8 November 2019 Artist Song Jury Online Place ResultVotesPoints Stella "" 2 669 2 2 Final Younite "The Cure" 1 1,148 1 1 Final Martina "" 3 558 3 3 Second Chance
+ Daily Duels 2 – 11–13 November 2019 Duel Date Artist Song Votes Result I Klarity "" 1,098 Weekly final Tilen Lotrič "" 829 Second Chance II Marko Škof "" 688 Second Chance Petra Ceglar "" 965 Weekly final III Parvani Violet "Cupid" 1,008 Weekly final Sara Petešič "/Dream" 347 Second Chance + Weekly Final 2 – 15 November 2019 Artist Song Jury Online Place ResultVotesPoints Klarity "" 3 799 1 2 Final Petra Ceglar "" 2 617 3 3 Second Chance Parvani Violet "Cupid" 1 766 2 1 Final
+ Daily Duels 3 – 18–20 November 2019 Duel Date Artist Song Votes Result I Saška "" 1,240 Weekly final Ljudmila Frelih "" 279 Second Chance II Nuša Pliberšek "" 688 Weekly final Alfirev "" 831 Second Chance III Marmoris "" 723 Weekly final Lana Hrvatin "Dream" 554 Second Chance + Weekly Final 3 – 22 November 2019 Artist Song Jury Online Place ResultVotesPoints Saška "" 1 773 1 1 Final Nuša Pliberšek "" 3 516 3 3 Second Chance Marmoris "" 2 679 2 2 Final
Second Chance The Second Chance round of took place over three weeks between 25 November and 6 December 2019, hosted by Bojan Cvjetićanin, Klemen Kopina, Denis Živčec, Maja Pinterič and Rebeka Tomc. In each week a daily online vote selected one of the two competing entries in each of the three duels to proceed directly to the weekly final. The remaining three entries proceeded to the Second Chance round. In each weekly final, the three entries first faced an online vote where the winner proceeded to the final of . An additional qualifier was then selected out of the remaining two entries by a jury panel.
+ Daily Duels 4 – 25–27 November 2019 Duel Date Artist Song Votes Result I Pia Nina "" 429 Weekly final Sara Petešič "/Dream" 158 Eliminated II Marko Škof "" 277 Eliminated Nuša Pliberšek "" 307 Weekly final III Alfirev "" 1,050 Weekly final Soulution "" 863 Eliminated + Weekly Final 4 – 29 November 2019 Artist Song Jury Online Place ResultVotesPoints Pia Nina "" 1 337 2 2 Final Nuša Pliberšek "" 3 260 3 3 Eliminated Alfirev "" 2 934 1 1 Final
+ Daily Duels 5 – 2–4 December 2019 Duel Date Artist Song Votes Result I Lana Hrvatin "Dream" 324 Weekly final Martina "" 165 Eliminated II Astrid in Avantgarden "Sing to Me" 808 Weekly final Petra Ceglar "" 649 Eliminated III Ljudmila Frelih "" 240 Eliminated Tilen Lotrič "" 270 Weekly final + Weekly Final 5 – 6 December 2019 Artist Song Jury Online Place ResultVotesPoints Lana Hrvatin "Dream" 2 326 2 2 Final Astrid in Avantgarden "Sing to Me" 1 398 1 1 Final Tilen Lotrič "" 3 261 3 3 Eliminated
Final The final of took place on 18 January 2020 at the Studio 2 in Ljubljana, hosted by Maja Pinterič and Bojan Cvjetićanin. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Fed Horses, Lumberjack and Raiven performed as guests. Two entries qualified to EMA 2020. The ten competing entries first faced a public vote where the winning song proceeded. An additional qualifier was then selected out of the remaining nine entries by a three-member jury panel. The jury consisted of Urša Mihevc (singer-songwriter and member of Fed Horses), Rok Ahačevčič (singer-songwriter and member of Lumberjack) and Jernej Vene (music editor for Radio Val 202).
+ Final – 18 January 2020 Artist Song Jury Televote Result Votes Rank 1 Stella "" 9 588 2 Eliminated 2 Younite "The Cure" 4 417 7 Eliminated 3 Alfirev "" 6 461 6 Eliminated 4 Klarity "" 8 474 4 Eliminated 5 Marmoris "" 10 464 5 Eliminated 6 Saška "" 5 684 1 Advanced 7 Pia Nina "" 3 154 10 Eliminated 8 Lana Hrvatin "Dream" 7 211 9 Eliminated 9 Parvani Violet "Cupid" 1 570 3 Advanced 10 Astrid in Avantgarden "Sing to Me" 2 285 8 Eliminated
EMA 2020 EMA 2020 was the 24th edition of the Slovenian national final format . The competition was used by as the second phase of the national final to select Slovenia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020 and was broadcast on TV SLO 1 and online via the broadcaster's RTV 4D platform.
Competing entries Artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 1 August 2019 and 19 November 2019. 74 entries were received by the broadcaster during the submission period. An expert committee consisting of Raiven (musician and singer), Mojca Menart (head of the publishing business of ZKP RTV SLO) and Jernej Vene (music editor for Radio Val 202) selected ten artists and songs for the competition from the received submissions. The competing artists were announced on 20 December 2019. Among the competing artists were former Slovenian Eurovision contestant Tinkara Kovač who represented Slovenia in 2014 and former Slovenian Junior Eurovision contestant Lina Kuduzović who represented Slovenia in Junior Eurovision 2015. Božidar Wolfand – Wolf represented Yugoslavia in Eurovision 1984 as a backing vocalist.
In 2020, it emerged that the Serbian pop star Jelena Karleuša had applied to EMA in 2020, but was not on the list of selected participants. At the end of 2020, she confirmed that she "had received an invitiation from Slovenian organizers to represent Slovenia at Eurovision 2020", and that she prepared the song "" featuring Pabllo Vittar for the occasion, but that it didn't sound the way she had intended. In 2023, she reconfirmed this, stating that the Spanish-English-Slovenian languaged song was written for Eurovision, but that she withdrew it due to "technical issues". Pabllo hasn't commented on these claims. "" was released on 20 August 2023, without Pabllo making an appearance in the song.
Final