Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004


Slovenia was represented by Platin in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the song "Stay Forever".
Platin is a Slovenian music duet consisting of Simon Platin and Diana Platin. They married in Turkey, while they were representing Slovenia in Eurovision Song Contest 2004.

Before Eurovision

EMA 2004

EMA 2004 was the 9th edition of the Slovenian national final format Evrovizijska Melodija . The competition was used by RTV Slovenija to select Slovenia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2004.

Format

EMA 2004 consisted of four semi-finals on 11, 18, 25 January and 11 February 2004 and a final on 15 February 2004. Thirty-two artists competed in EMA 2004, with 8 songs in each semi-final. In the four semi-finals, 4 songs qualified to the final as three songs were selected by the Slovenian public and the other song was selected by the jury. The public vote in the semi-finals were open for 5 minutes during an interval act of Eurovision medleys performed by the semifinal participants. The winning song in the final was selected over two rounds of voting: in the first round, the combination of points from the public vote and a jury panel selected three songs out of the sixteen finalists to proceed to a superfinal. In the superfinal, public televoting exclusively determined the winner.
All shows took place in Hall A of the Gospodarsko Razstavišče in Ljubljana, hosted by Miša Molk, Peter Poles and Bernarda Žarn. Poles and Žarn appeared in the final as co-presenters in the green room as well as being the spokespeople of the public vote results.

Competing entries

83 entries were received by RTV SLO. A four-member jury then selected 32 songs from the received submissions to compete in the national final.
ArtistSongComposer
Aljoša Kovačič"Sanje"Milan Dekleva, Aljoša Kovačič
Alya"Fluid"Cvetka Omladič, Bor Zuljan
Ana Dežman"Ni bilo zaman"Milan Dekleva, Patrik Greblo
Chantal Hartmann"Here and There and Everywhere"Chantal Hartmann
Damijana Godnič"Moja moč"Jurko Starc, Igor Potočnik
Diona Dim"If You"Ana Soklič, Simona Franko, Bojan Simončič, Gašper Kačar
Jasmina Cafnik"Si tukaj al' te ni"Drago Mislej, Danilo Kocjančič
Johnny Bravo"Kar me ne ubije, me krepi"Leon Oblak
Kalamari"Boš prišla"Jože Jež
Katrinas"Živa"Štefan Miljevič, Katrinas, Rok Golob
Kristina Oberzan"Mavrica"Milan Krapež, Milan Ferlež, Aldorica Bronson
Maja Slatinšek"Slovo brez mej"Mojca Seliškar, Maja Slatinšek, Raay
Marijan Novina"Svet se vrti nazaj"Marijan Novina, Urša Mravlje Fajon
Mikola"Pot do sreče"Mikola
Mojca Brecelj"Brez mej"Mojca Brecelj
Monika Pučelj"Nič ne ustavi me"Anja Rupel, Aleš Klinar
Natalija Verboten"Cry on My Shoulder"Urša Vlašič, Matjaž Vlašič
November"No Reason to Cry"Maja Osrajnik-Mithans, Grega Samar
Number One"Lights Into My Eyes"Roland Makovec, Franko Reja, Branko Kumar
Panda feat. Trkaj"Tvoj svet"Suzana Jeklic, Trkaj, Andej Pompe
Platin"Stay Forever"Diana Lečnik, Simon Gomilšek
Polona"Kralj neba"Drago Mislej-Mef, Sašo Fajon
Pop Design"In ti greš"Tone Košmrlj, Zvone Hranjec
Prava stvar"Junak"Aleš Štefančič
Regina"Plave očij"Feri Lainšček, Aleksander Kogoj
Rebeka Dremelj"Ne boš se igral"Rebeka Dremelj, Frenk Nova
Rožmarinke"Kliše"Boris Benko
Tulio Furlanič"O, ženske, ženske"Damjana Kenda-Hussu, Marino Legovič
Victory"Kako naj vem"Karmen Stavec, Martin Štibernik
Yuhubanda"Če zdaj odideš sama"Urša Vlašič, Matjaž Vlašič
Ylenia Zobec"Tvoj glas"Damjana Kenda-Hussu, Marino Legovič
Žana & RnB Wannabes"Požar"Ropo & Hellga, Raay

'''Semi-final 1'''

The first semi-final of EMA 2004 took place on 11 January 2004. Four acts qualified for the final. The eight competing entries first faced a public vote where the top three songs advanced to the final. The other qualifier was selected from the remaining five entries by the jury.

'''Semi-final 2'''

The second semi-final of EMA 2004 took place on 18 January 2004. Four acts qualified for the final. The eight competing entries first faced a public vote where the top three songs advanced to the final. The other two qualifiers were selected from the remaining five entries by the jury.

'''Semi-final 3'''

The third semi-final of EMA 2004 took place on 25 January 2004. Four acts qualified for the final. The eight competing entries first faced a public vote where the top three songs advanced to the final. The other qualifier was selected from the remaining five entries by the jury.

'''Semi-final 4'''

The fourth semi-final of EMA 2004 took place on 1 February 2004. Four acts qualified for the final. The eight competing entries first faced a public vote where the top three songs advanced to the final. The other qualifier was selected from the remaining five entries by the jury.

Final

The final of EMA 2004 took place on 15 February 2004. The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the combination of points from a public vote and a five-member jury panel selected the top three entries to proceed to the superfinal: "Fluid" performed by Alya, "Kliše" performed by Rožmarinke and "Stay Forever" performed by Platin. The jury consisted of Daniela Tami, Karolina Gočeva, Manuel Ortega, Drago Ivanuša and Lara Baruca. In the superfinal, a public vote selected "Stay Forever" performed by Platin as the winner.

Controversy

Like in many previous editions of EMA, the public televote and the jury awarded conflicting scores. This caused some controversy, because the strongest televote favorite Natalija Verboten, received 0 points from the jury. Similarly, Bepop in 2003, Karmen Stavec in 2002, and Tinkara Kovač in 1999 were also televote favorites. These entries usually came 2nd, or failed to qualify for the semifinals, because the points awarded by the jury outweighed the points they received from the televotes. The controversy resulted in the 2005 EMA scores basing solely on the results of the televote.

At Eurovision

For the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, a semi-final round was introduced in order to accommodate the influx of nations that wanted to compete in the contest. Because Slovenia placed 23rd at the 2003 contest, country was forced to compete in the first Eurovision semi-final, held on 12 May 2004. They performed 16th, following Macedonia and preceding the Estonia It finished on second last 21st place with only 5 points, failing to qualify to the Grand Final. Therefore, Slovenia will have to compete in the semi-final again in ESC 2005.

Points awarded by Slovenia

Semi final

Final

Points awarded to Slovenia