Eurovision 2019 spotlight: Slovenia's Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl with "Sebi"

We're moving on with my spotlight on the countries and songs that will competing in this year's Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, Israel. 41 countries, two less from last year, will be sending artists to perform a song that will come up to a jury vote and televote. I've been rolling down the running order of the semi finals, then barrel through the "Big Five" of the UK, Italy, Germany, France, and Spain, along with the host country. You can catch up with my series by clicking here...

After Poland's Slavic Bananarama homage we have another song in a different language, this time from the former Yugoslavic republic of Slovenia. Last year the country made the finals with the upbeat dance-pop nugget "Hvala, Ne!" ("No Thanks!") from the affable and attractive Lea Sirk, which ended up coming in 22nd. It was a dark horse in the contest as it was, and a welcome fan favorite in the final show last year. Well, this year they switch gears to a duo that is bringing us spacey eeriness bordering on creepy...

Slovenia - "Sebi" by Zala Kralj & Gašper Šantl

After a national contest voted on by the public and regional music juries in this year's Evrovizijska Melodija, the duo of singer Zala Kralj and instrumentalist Gašper Šantl won out with their song "Sebi" ("Oneself"). Hailing from the city of Maribor in the Lower Styrian northeast of the country, the pair had been performing together for a bit, with Zala originally a featured singer before being billed as a duo. The song itself is produced in a way that the circular lyric and melodic structure of the song is hypnotic, but not necessarily in a good way. As they performed onstage, Zala was staring at Gasper strumming his guitar without a look out like a child trafficking victim, while she's there punching buttons on whatever electronic device is supposed to me making those sounds in the back. And with it being in Slovene, you really don't know what is being said unless you know the language, so the circular melody can get to be sonically repetitive. And in the end to me it sounds like an acoustic translated version of "Enjoy The Silence" (wow two "Enjoy The Silence" references in two days) that is translated to the music video which someone puts tracksuited Zala on a chartered plane for some reason...

In the end, "Sebi" is a nice little neo-newage number that would probably be very soothing in a massage parlor or on holiday reading a book, but on stage amongst all these more interesting and "bigger" songs will probably drown out this one. However, it does have a following, and in this final, they have Montenegro, Serbia, Greece, and Hungary that could bring it local votes, so I wouldn't count them out. It's just to monotone for me. (Rating: 3/10)

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Slovenia had been competing as part of Yugoslavia in Eurovision since 1961 through 1992, with Slovenian acts appearing in four of the years. Of those four, the best showing was in 1966 with Berta Ambrož performing "Brez Besed" ("Without Words"), which came in 7th place...

After gaining independence in 1991, Slovenia began competing in Eurovision in 1993, with only two years where they didn't show. They've reached the top ten three times, with two songs again making 7th place - first in 1995 with "Prisluhni Mi" ("Listen To Me") from Darja Švajger...

 The country reached 7th again in 2001 when Nuša Derenda performed "Energy"...

But my personal favorite (for better or worse) came in 2002 when the drag queen act Sestre came in 13th in the finals and created a firestorm in their own country with "Samo Ljubezen" ("Only Love")...