Jonathan Currinn
Last weekend sure was busy for the Eurovision world, so it wasn’t surprising when we noticed that the word Eurovision was trending on Twitter. Another act that was announced last weekend was Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl for Slovenia, with the Slovene song “Sebi”, which means “Oneself” in English.
This duo is a brand new group that were formed in 2018. Zala Kralj was initially only credited as a featured artist in their early song releases and that connection led them to become a duo. They’ve released a few singles and an EP to date, and “Sebi” is set to give them a massive platform on the Eurovision stage.
The Slovenia national selection show is titled Evrovizijska Melodija, or EMA for short, which means Eurovision Melody in English, and it has been running for 23 years. The show was televised, and 10 acts performed. Each member of the jury panel gave out a score between 1-5, with five being the highest score, and the top two acts went on to compete in a Super Final. This is where the televote came into play, and Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl with “Sebi” won against Raiven who competed with the song “Kaos”, by 4666 votes to 1735.
Watch Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl Perform Their Eurovision Song “Sebi” On EMA 2019, here:
The song has an ambient ballad feel to it with an electronic indie sound. Zala Kralj’s voice is passionate and matches the instruments well. Gašper Šantl can be seen playing the guitar and a looping device, the latter of which is also used by Zala Kralj. It’s not something new, as Netta herself brought a looping device to the stage, just last year, and she won; it’s definitely something we’ll see more of as the years go on. “Sebi” just feels like a stable song, as if it doesn’t go anywhere.
Last year, Slovenia managed to make the Grand Final with Lea Sirk’s “Hvala, ne!”, after failing to qualify for two years in a row. Can Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl follow suit? The country has never won, and has only managed to reach the Grand Final 14 times out of their 24 entries. The closest they came to winning was 7th place, in 1995 and 2001.
Over half the acts have now been revealed, with some big countries currently showing their national selections. Announced acts so far are Srbuk for Armenia, Tamta for Cyprus, Jonida Maliqi for Albania, Eliot for Belgium, Miki for Spain, Serhat for San Marino, Duncan Laurence for The Netherlands, Tamara Todevska for North Macedonia, Michela Pace for Malta, Bilal Hassani for France, Lake Malawi for the Czech Republic, PÆNDA for Austria, Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman for Finland. Michael Rice for the United Kingdom, Sergey Lazarev for Russia, Mahmood for Italy, Kate Miller-Heidke for Australia, D-Moll for Montenegro, Kobi Marimi for Israel, Katerina Duska for Greece, Victor Crone for Estonia, Tulia for Poland, Carousel for Latvia, and Roko for Croatia, and Ester Peony for Romania. The other countries are expected to reveal their acts in the forthcoming months.
The 2019 Eurovision Song Contest will be hosted at the Expo Tel-Aviv in Israel after Netta won last year with the song “Toy”. The two Semi-Finals will take place on 14 May and 16 May with the Grand Final taking place on 18 May. A total of 42 countries will compete in the contest.
