Slovenia: Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl win 'EMA 2019' and go to Tel Aviv!

16 February 2019 at 22:19 CET

Zala Kralj & Gašper Šanti, winners of 'EMA 2019' in Slovenia Adrijan Pregelj / RTVSLO

It was showtime in Slovenia tonight as their national selection final 'EMA' took place in capital Ljubljana. The duo Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl have been selected to represent the country in Tel Aviv in May with their song 'Sebi' (Oneself).

This year's edition of EMA, or Evrovizijska Melodija, was hosted by Ajda Smrekar. Ten finalists performed with the hope of becoming Slovenia's representative at this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, among them Ula Ložar, who previously represented Slovenia at the 2014 Junior Eurovision Song Contest:

Kim - Rhythm Back to You
Renata Mohorič - Three Bridges
René - Ne poveš
Fed Horses - Ti ne poznaš konjev
Ula Ložar - Fridays
Lumberjack - Lepote dna
Okustični - Metulji plešejo
INMATE - ATMA
Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl - Sebi (1st)
Raiven - KAOS (2nd)

All ten songs competed in the first round of voting, after which a jury panel selected two super-finalists: Raiven and Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl. In the second round, TV viewers determined the winner exclusively by televoting: Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl won with 72,89% against 27,11% for Raiven.

To watch all performances, visit the official EMA channel on YouTube.

About Zala and Gašper

Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl are a music duo that began their journey in the summer of 2017 when they recorded their first joint song Valovi. This happened after a mutual friend introduced them to each other. Valovi received several music awards in Slovenia. Before their collaboration, both them were already involved in music; Zala playing covers and wrote her own songs, Gašper played the guitar and was involved in music production. The duo consider the strength of their project to be the ability to write and perform their songs to each other.

Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Slovenia first took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1993. In 1995 and 2001 Slovenia reached a 7th place, its best result to date. Since the introduction of a Semi-Final in 2004 Slovenia managed to qualify for the Grand Final five times.

Slovenia will perform in the first half of the first Semi-Final of the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, 14th of May.