The Slovenian act and song was selected on February 1st via the show "EMA 2025". After all the songs were performed, a selection of topical juries selected a top two. There was then a final round where a winner was selected by televoting. Going to Basel is Klemen with the song "How much time do we have left"
Klemen Slakonja is an all-round entertainer with a background in acting, comedy, tv & radio hosting, animation voicing and music. After honing his craft as a local radio station host he found fame through his satirical translations and comic re-imaginings of songs by impersonating the voices of national celebrities and international figures. He then started to star and host many national TV and radio programmes including a number of comedy sketch shows. He hosted EMA on 4 separate occasions, the show he himself would go on to win in 2025, and was the ESC spokesperson during the grand final in 2011.
Klemen starts alone on the stage; dressed very plainly and normally. The stage is dark with flecks of golden light which becomes greater and greater as the song progresses. The structure of the song is a standard verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus. After the first chorus, Klemen is very briefly joined by two male dancers who help him do an extremely nifty trick of singing upside down! As well as being an interesting stage schtick, it proves what a strong singer he is. Klemen moves around the stage naturally and has a very understated performance style with naturalistic gesture-based choreography. The song is a quiet anthemic ballad with a melodic and memorable chorus. Considering the emotional story of his wife's illness behind the lyrics it could be very easy to put the emotion front and centre, but by showing less, you almost feel more.
Considering Klemen's background, this is not the kind of song expected from him in this competition. The performance here is very interesting. Apart from the moment where he sings upside down - the physical metaphor of having one's life turned upside down and being out of control - most of the performance is understated and pared down. It will be interesting to see if this stunt can be pulled off on the stage in Basel... Klemen's voice and delivery is clear and the song allows him to show off the many facets of his voice without feeling like it has been engineered to do so. It puts me in mind of other ballads such as Silent Storm, You Let Me Walk Alone and Arcade. It is not everybody's cup of tea and where one person sees sincerity, another will see schmaltz. This is going to stand out amongst all the noise and hubbub so maybe it is time something quieter had some glory...?
ARTIST - Klemen
SONG - How much time do we have left
WRITING/PRODUCTION CREDITS - Klemen Slakonja, Maja Slatinšek, Ryan Small
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