Slovenia are another country that haven’t had a great run at Eurovision.  In 11 years, they’ve only reached their top position (7^th) twice.  Interestingly, Slovenia are the only south-eastern European country (apart from Bulgaria) to not make the Final since the new format was introduced.  Their success of late hasn’t been great, managing 7^th in 2001, 13^th in 2002 and 23^rd in 2003.  they then proceeded to notch up 21^st out of 22 in the 2004 Semi-Final, saved from the bottom by Switzerland’s ‘nul points’.  2005 saw Slovenia enter a great entry, but even with a great song, performance and draw, they still failed to qualify, coming 12^th.  With such misfortune it was hard to see how Slovenia could have qualified with a weaker song and poorer draw - so they find themselves in the 2007 Semi-Final again - fourth year on the trot. 

 

 

Slovenia chose Alenka Gotar to represent them in May and she will be singing upbeat operatic number ‘Cvet Z Juga’.  Alenka gave a strong live performance at the National Selection and it’s easy to see why the singer/song combination won.  The song’s a catchy one, and will pick up lots and lots of eastern votes and should have that haunting appeal to pick up votes in Western and particularly Nordic Europe – this is what Eurovision used to be about, and while song’s sounding like they should have been entered 10 years (or more) earlier (i.e. Bosnia & Herzegovina 2005) the beautiful nostalgic melody in this should strike a chord with voters.  The downside is that it may come across sounding something like a strangled cat, so an extremely strong and flawless vocal is paramount here.  If Alenka can manage this, she has every chance – it’s a good song, but then again Slovenia have had their difficulties with great songs (2005 to mention one) but I hope this looks, sounds and hence does well.

 

 

I don't think Slovenia have what it takes this year to make the Final.  The recorded version of the song is a beautifully haunting melody - but the live National Performance was a grating, teeth grinding affair which sounded like a cross between nails on a chalk board and a cat being dragged through a thorn bush backwards by the tail.  With such good performances in 2005 and 2006, I doubt something which has as high a risk factor as this can:

a) pull it off

b) make the Final

Sorry Slovenia!!

 

 

Alenka gave a smashing performance which could go on to win the whole thing.  I hope she does, it's a beautiful song and she captured the haunting melody perfectly - something I didn't think she'd manage to do.  This would be the perfect winner after Hard Rock Hallelujah - bring Eurovision back to earth with a bump.

 

 

I constantly underestimated the power of this song and never really saw it doing many great things until I saw it in the Semi-Final and ended up voting for it.  Alenka was one of, if not THE best singer of the night, and pulled of Cvet Z Juga with considerable ease.  The presentation of the song was beautiful, the backing singers sang well and there was no messy or complicated choreography to get wrong.  After their performance in the Semi-Final, many expected them to have pulled through in one of the top few placings, so it was surprising for many to see them finish in 7^th.  It’s not however hard to pin point what went wrong in the Final though, when Alenka gave an equally impressive performance but could only muster up enough points to manage 15^th place: the same thing happened with Hungary and Macedonia who all pulled much poorer draws in the Final compared to fairly good draws in the Semi-Final.  Nonetheless, for the first year since the Semi-Final was introduced, Slovenia pulled through, which was a mini victory for them in their own right.  As for my prediction, it seems I underestimated the strength of the Slovenian entry in the Semi-Final and over-estimated in the Final, so I think I’m rather wrong on this one!