SLOVENIA

The Slovene Final was held on February 28th at the RTVSLO TV Studios in Ljubljana, hosted by Darja Švajger, Maja Keuc, Tinkara Kovac & Nejc Šmit. The winner was chosen in two rounds of voting - in the first round an "expert" jury selected the top 2 songs and in the second round the winner was chosen by televoting. The winners were Maraaya and their song "Here for you".

This year the EMA final had 8 finalists. I felt however it was a shame that the general public were only allowed to vote on the top 2 chosen by the jury. Part of me would have felt better if the choice had been between a top 3 or 4 or at least a 50/50 split decision for a superfinal.

The song was written by the duo with help from Charlie Mason - one of the co-writers of last year's winning sing. The song starts of slow and starts of unusually with the chorus. The verses are seemingly in a more minor key whilst the chorus is much more upbeat. The changes in beat are also interesting. The use of the violin solos are also very interesting if not mainly due to how it is displayed on screen. At times I feel like this could have been an old 60s or 70s number that has been remixed.

Maraaya consists of married couple Marjetka Vovk & Raay, hence the portmanteau name and have both had hands in Slovene finals in the past as well as the 2014 Junior Eurovision entry. Marjetka has a very distinctive voice quality having quite a nasal Americanised twang to the ends of her lines and particularly on high notes but this style does suit the song and gives it some kind of character. Raay is found on his keyboard/piano but does get a fair bit of camera time. A visual schtick of this song seems to be the styling of headphones which both members of the duo wears. Although slightly confusing it is an interesting visual image and one that sticks in your mind.

The staging of the song was very dark and minimal, which in a way suited the song. The close ups of Marjetka really worked, bearing in mind the whole headphone thing. The use of lighting at the start needs to be low and intense and then grow like the song. They might even put something mechanical or industrial in the background to hone down the action on the people on stage. They also need to keep the dancer and her wonderful suit - although they could do with maximising her camera position. I don't think much needs to be done to the song because it just works as it is.

On first snippet of listen this didn't stand out but as a 3 minute piece of work it really grows on you. The tune is very simplistic in the chorus and you get into it quite quickly. She has a very interesting voice, although I could imagine her twanginess being a bit over the top for some viewers. This has surprised me somewhat as it is not something I would have expected Slovenia to come up with. Seeing it is in the second half of semi 2 this could be a great finishing number and it if is could find it's way to a good placing in the final.

ARTIST - Maraaya

SONG - Here for You

MUSIC - Raay, Marjetka Vovk,

LYRICS - Raay, Charlie Mason