SLOVENIA

The Slovene Final was held on February 16th at the RTVSLO TV Studios in Ljubljana, hosted by Ajda Smrekar. 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 just by televoting. The winners were Zara Kralj & Gašper Šantl with “Sebi” (Oneself)

The staging for this one is very atmospheric, mirroring the soundscape of the backing track. The studio floor is projected on like stars whilst the rest of the studio is dark. As the song progresses the the lights become a more intense blue and the screens behind them start showing black and white patterns and swirls. The two of them are dressed in white and in front of them in a keyboard/sampler and spend most of the song oblivious of the audience or the cameras and more interested in looking at each other in an intense way.

As a whole song, the piece doesn’t really go anywhere and stays pretty much on the same minimalist level throughout. After a 20 second intro, Zara starts singing. Her voice is very small, almost talkative, but suits the mood of the song. The verses are neither her or there but the chorus is a little more memorable. Considering the pace of the song is quite pedestrian they get 3 renditions of the chorus out over the whole 3 minutes with is pretty good. The ending of the song is pretty weak, although wit a song of this nature it is possibly hard to find any way out.

Kudos has to be given to Slovenia for going for something quite out there in terms of Eurovision. If can be firmly said that the Slovenia public were pretty happy to have this as their winner after achieving 72% of the public vote. I don’t think much needs doing to the song but there might be the odd tweak in terms of staging. There are 2 ways it could go – either pulling the lighting in tight on the couple and focus the camera onto their spot in the huge hall OR to to use dancers or video screens to make the meaning of the song clearer to the majority of people watching not fluent in Slovenian. One way or another, I think there just needs a bit more to keep the viewers at home pulled into the song before making the decision to make a cup of tea instead.

This is a beautiful song and I am really quite happy that it’ll get a chance to shine on a big stage. I think their obvious connection if filmed correctly will make an impact. But in all honesty this almost has no chance of winning Eurovision itself and is probably too introverted and arty to even get through to the final. (...but isn't this what we all said about Salvador though...) In this kind of situation I can only hope the duo has a great time and Tel-Aviv and with this opportunity to showcase their talent who knows what lies ahead next.

                                               

ARTIST – Zara Kralj & Gašper Šantl

SONG – Sebi (Oneself)

MUSIC -  Zala Kralj, Gašper Šantl

LYRICS - Zala Kralj, Gašper Šantl