Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

EMA 2018 was the 22nd edition of the Slovenian national final format Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA). The competition was used by RTV Slovenija to select Slovenia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The 2018 edition of EMA took place at the RTV Slovenija Studio 1 in Ljubljana, hosted by Vid Valič and Raiven (final-only) and consisted of two shows: a semi-final and a final. The competition was broadcast on TV SLO1, Radio Val 202, Radio Koper, Radio Maribor and online via the broadcaster's RTV 4D platform.[2]

Sixteen songs competed in two televised shows consisting of a semi-final on 17 February 2018 and a final on 24 February 2018. Sixteen songs competed in the semi-final with a seven-member expert jury and public televoting selecting eight finalists out of the sixteen songs to proceed to the final. The televote selected the first four finalists and the jury selected the other four finalists. The jury consisted of Maja Keuc (musician, singer and 2011 Slovenian Eurovision entrant), Hannah Mancini (singer-songwriter and 2013 Slovenian Eurovision entrant), Raiven (musician and singer), Robi Pikl (singer and guitarist), Žiga Klančar (music editor for Radio Val 202), Emi Den Baruca (video artist designer) and Mario Galunič (responsible editor of the entertainment program). In the final, the winner was selected by the 50/50 combination of points from six thematical juries and public televoting. Each jury awarded 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 to their top six songs and the televote awarded 12, 24, 36, 48, 60 and 72 points to their top six songs. All competing songs were required to be performed in Slovene during the semi-final portion of the competition, however in the final the song was required to be performed in the language that the artist intended to perform in at the Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon.

Artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 15 September 2017 and 15 November 2017.[3] 108 entries were received by the broadcaster during the submission period. An expert committee consisting of Maja Keuc, Eva Hren (musician and guitar teacher), Jernej Vene (music editor for Radio Val 202) and Tadej Košir (musician, guitarist and songwriter) selected sixteen artists and songs for the competition from the received submissions.[4] The competing artists were announced on 8 December 2017. Among the competing artists were former Slovenian Eurovision contestants Tanja Ribič who represented Slovenia in 1997 and ManuElla who represented Slovenia in 2016.[5]

The semi-final of EMA 2018 took place on 17 February 2018. Eight entries proceeded to the final. The sixteen competing entries first faced a public vote where the top four proceeded: "Ptica" performed by BQL, "Zdaj sem tu" performed by Lara Kadis, "Hvala, ne!" performed by Lea Sirk and "Ne zapusti me zdaj" performed by Nuška Drašček. A seven-member jury panel selected an additional four entries out of the remaining twelve to proceed: "Ukraden cvet" performed by Proper, "Blizu" performed by Marina Martensson, "V nebo" performed by Ina Shai and "Vesna" performed by Indigo.

The final of EMA 2018 took place on 24 February 2018. The competing entries in the final were required to be performed in the language intended for the Eurovision Song Contest. Two entries were performed in English: "Promise" performed by BQL and "Glow" performed by Ina Shai, while the remaining six entries were in Slovene. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2005 and 2017 Slovenian Eurovision entrant Omar Naber, 2011 Slovenian Eurovision entrant Amaya and co-host Raiven performed as guests. The combination of points from six thematical juries and a public vote selected "Hvala, ne!" performed by Lea Sirk as the winner.[6] The juries consisted of members from OGAE Slovenia, songwriters, radio personalities, television personalities, music performers and international artists.

Slovenia performed seventeenth in the second semi-final, following Montenegro and preceding Ukraine. At the end, Slovenia was announced as one of the ten countries who had qualified for the grand final, making it their first qualification since 2015 and making them one of two former Yugoslav countries to qualify (the other being Serbia with "Nova deca"). Subsequently, Lea Sirk joined the other semi-final two winners in a press conference where they drew which half of the final they would participate in. Slovenia was drawn to compete in the first half of the grand final.

Slovenia performed third in the grand final, following Spain and preceding Lithuania.

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

The following five members comprised the Slovene jury: [10]

• Sara Briški Cirman (Raiven) – Chairperson – singer, musician, harpist
• Martin Štibernik (Mistermarsh) – composer, singer, producer
• Nikola Sekulovič – musician
• Mitja Bobič – musician, singer, producer
• Alenka Godec – singer

Split voting results from Slovenia (Semi-final 2)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Raiven	Mistermarsh	N. Sekulovič	M. Bobič	A. Godec	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Norway	8	4	6	3	2	4	7	2	10
02	Romania	2	5	11	7	5	5	6	16
03	Serbia	5	9	9	9	8	7	4	1	12
04	San Marino	15	11	15	16	16	16		17
05	Denmark	14	12	7	11	14	12		3	8
06	Russia	16	10	14	17	15	15		11
07	Moldova	9	7	3	5	6	6	5	5	6
08	Netherlands	4	2	4	2	3	2	10	10	1
09	Australia	6	8	17	10	7	9	2	7	4
10	Georgia	12	13	10	13	10	14		14
11	Poland	17	17	16	15	17	17		15
12	Malta	3	3	2	6	4	3	8	12
13	Hungary	7	16	5	8	13	8	3	6	5
14	Latvia	10	6	12	14	11	11		13
15	Sweden	1	1	1	1	1	1	12	9	2
16	Montenegro	13	14	13	4	9	10	1	4	7
17	Slovenia
18	Ukraine	11	15	8	12	12	13		8	3

Split voting results from Slovenia (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		Raiven	Mistermarsh	N. Sekulovič	M. Bobič	A. Godec	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Ukraine	24	20	24	25	24	24		13
02	Spain	21	13	13	22	18	20		21
03	Slovenia
04	Lithuania	16	11	11	15	7	12		24
05	Austria	2	3	8	1	2	2	10	9	2
06	Estonia	3	12	5	5	22	6	5	16
07	Norway	18	14	18	12	8	17		6	5
08	Portugal	25	21	25	23	23	25		25
09	United Kingdom	22	19	15	10	10	18		23
10	Serbia	9	16	9	17	13	15		1	12
11	Germany	11	17	19	18	5	14		7	4
12	Albania	8	10	6	7	4	7	4	10	1
13	France	5	7	10	13	16	9	2	11
14	Czech Republic	7	8	22	9	3	8	3	3	8
15	Denmark	20	23	14	24	25	22		4	7
16	Australia	19	18	23	20	21	23		14
17	Finland	4	15	21	19	17	13		22
18	Bulgaria	17	9	20	16	15	19		20
19	Moldova	12	5	3	6	12	5	6	15
20	Sweden	1	2	1	2	1	1	12	19
21	Hungary	15	24	17	21	20	21		8	3
22	Israel	23	22	2	11	19	10	1	12
23	Netherlands	6	4	7	3	6	4	7	18
24	Ireland	14	25	16	8	11	16		17
25	Cyprus	10	1	4	4	9	3	8	5	6
26	Italy	13	6	12	14	14	11		2	10