Slovenia originally planned to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020. The Slovenian broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija will use the national selection EMA 2020 to decide their representative. However, due to 2019-20 pandemic of Coronavirus, the contest was cancelled.
Background
Prior to the 2020 Contest, Slovenia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty-five times since its first entry in. Slovenia's highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been seventh place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 1995 with the song "Prisluhni mi" performed by Darja Švajger and in 2001 with the song "Energy" performed by Nuša Derenda. The country's only other top ten result was achieved in 1997 when Tanja Ribič performing "Zbudi se" 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 2018, Slovenia was represented by Lea Sirk and the song "Hvala, ne!", which qualified to the final and placed twenty-second. One year later, in 2019, Slovenia qualified for the final again with Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl, finishing in fifteenth place with the song "Sebi". The Slovenian national broadcaster, Radiotelevizija Slovenija, broadcasts the event within Slovenia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The Slovenian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest has traditionally been selected through a national final entitled Evrovizijska Melodija , which has been produced with variable formats. To this point, the broadcaster has only foregone the use of this national final in 2013 when the Slovenian entry was internally selected. For 2020, the broadcaster opted to organise EMA 2020 to select the Slovenian entry.
Before Eurovision
On 1 August 2019 RTVSLO announced the launch of their national final EMA 2020 and the associated competition, EMA FREŠ. EMA FREŠ acted as a preselector for EMA itself, with eighteen artists participating at EMA FREŠ and two qualifying for EMA 2020. EMA FREŠ was held in late 2019.
EMA FREŠ
Format
EMA FREŠ took place in late 2019, beginning on 4 November 2019 and finishing on 6 December 2019. All competing artists must be under the age of 26 and have three or less released songs. Eighteen songs in total have been chosen for the competition, which will take place online. Two competing songs were released every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 4-20 November 2019. Online voters picked their preferred song of the two released each day, with the winners of each of these duels moving forward to another round on the Friday of that week. Online voters picked one song to qualify for the EMA FREŠ final, and a jury picked another qualifier. Two songs qualified each week for three weeks, leaving six songs in the final. The remaining twelve competing entries went through the same process again, with duels on 25-27 November 2019 and 2-4 December 2019 and the next rounds on the 29th of November or the 6 December 2019. After this process was complete, ten songs qualified for the EMA FREŠ final.
Competing entries
Duels (4–20 November)
Weekly finals (8–22 November)
Second chance (25 November–6 December)
Final
The contest was held on 18 January 2020 at RTV Slovenija Studio 2 in Ljubljana. The ten songs that qualified from the weekly finals and the second chance round competed in the final for one of the two spots in EMA 2020. One song was determined by a public vote, and another by the jury to compete in EMA 2020. The jury consisted of Urša Mihevc, Rok Ahačevčič and Jernej Vene.
''EMA 2020''
EMA 2020 was the 24th edition of the Slovenian national final format Evrovizijska Melodija . The competition was organised by RTV Slovenija to select Slovenia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020.
EMA 2020 took place on 22 February 2020 at the RTV Slovenija Studio 1 in Ljubljana, hosted by comedian, actor and television anchor Klemen Slakonja. The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, a three-member jury panel selected two entries, "Voda" performed by Ana Soklič and "Man Like U" performed by Lina Kuduzović, to proceed to the second round. The jury consisted of Maja Keuc, Darja Švajger and Nuša Derenda. In the second round, a public vote selected the song "Voda" performed by Ana Soklič as the winning entry.
At Eurovision
According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2020, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Slovenia was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 12 May 2020, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show. However, due to 2019-20 pandemic of Coronavirus, the contest was cancelled.
