The Slovenian song was revealed on February 4th during a special TV show called "Misija Liverpool" as well as the simultaneous official music video premiere on youtube. Earlier in December, RTV SLO revealed that the band Joker Out had been internally selected as their act. Their song is called "Carpe Diem"
The band was formed from the remnants of two other bands that had split up in Ljubliana in 2016. Joker Out consists of Bojan (vocals) Jure (drums) Nace (bass) and Kris and Jan (both guitarists). Their first single as Joker Out was released in November that year. They have had many festival appearances in Slovenia and were the winners of the 4th series of the Špil league - a established student band contest - in June 2017. Over the past 5 years they have released 9 singles, with their Eurovision entry being their tenth. They have alo received three Zlata Piščal (golden flute) awards for their success in the Slovenian music scene: in 2020 for newcomers of the year, and in 2021 and 2022 as performers of the year.
Although the song has a Latin title, the whole song is in Slovenian. The studio is thronged by an audience who are very enthusiastically waving their hands, jumping up and down and being generally encouraging and energetic. The song begins with an intro, which is actually the second half to the chorus, then flows nicely into a long verse, pre-chorus and chorus with a lengthy but catchy instrumental break before another verse, pre-chorus and chorus. There is very little in terms of choreography the guys move naturally and seem to gave the knack of playing to the area as well as noticing the camera at the right points. They are dressed casually, in muted neutral colours, with a slightly floaty bohemian look..
The song has a funky rock feel - almost a bit like a slightly hipster Måneskin. You can tell that they have experience of performing live and have a good sense of self. The singer in particular gives an effortless performance physically and vocally and it feels like there is a lot more to give from them all. The song has an interesting structure and the tune is rather memorable although not in an annoying or deliberate earwormy way. Oddly the very start of the chorus remind me of "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John but in a very different way. The Slovenian language seems to suit the song but it leaves the listener a little unaware as to what the song is about - especially from the live performance - and I wonder if anything from the video or some other kind of narrative device will be used to make the meaning more memorable. I guess this is also why they have used a snappy Latin title whose meaning links directly to the songs theme.
I also have to commend the team behind the staging of this. The use of a young crowd really makes the song come alive, makes it dynamic but also makes it feel relevant to the music world right now. I can imagine the stadium rocking out to this in the arena as well as having a bit of a boogie. This has good crossover appeal and inhibits that Harry Styles space where genres and styles collide. Although they need to do more to get the songs meaning across they need to make sure they don;t do too much as this may break up the camaraderie of the band. I hope this does well for everybody involved.
ARTIST - Joker Out
SONG - Carpe Diem
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Todd Burke, Bojan Cvjetićanin, Kris Guštin, Nace Jordan, Jure Maček, Žarko Pak, Jan Peteh
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