Slovenia

Next we travel down to the Adriatic coast and find ourselves at the third country in the First Semi Final:  Slovenia.  Represented from 1961 through 1991 as part of Yugoslavia, independent Slovenia's debut was in 1993 in Millstreet, Ireland, with 1X Band.  Though the song made it through the pre qualification round (this was the procedure before the introduction of the Semi Final(s)), it received only 9 points and placed 22nd.  That year Slovenia bestowed its first Douze Points to Ireland, helping the hosting nation score another win.  In 1994's contest in Dublin, Slovenia fared better by placing 7th Darja Svajger's ballad sung in Slovenian.  Since then Slovenia's participation in the Contest has been a mixed bag, though the ballads sung in Slovenian by female singers have been more successful than other entries.

Case in point:  Maja Keuc, who was the country's representative to the 2011 Contest in Dusseldorf, placed third in her Semi Final, but placed 13th on the night of the Final.  [Keith and I actually got this little diva in action live on stage that year and lovingly nicknamed her Slovetina, because her vocals reminded us so much of Christina Aguillera's range].  It is still my contention that had Maja sung Vanilija in Slovenian (the version that won her the right to represent her country), she would have fared better than the "Engrish" version that lost itself in the shuffle of the Final.  See for yourselves (I'm posting both the Slovenian and English versions of the song for comparison):

In Slovenian:

In English:

This year Slovenia is trying a different tact.  Perhaps influenced by Euphoria, the upbeat/electronica song that won the contest last year, the Slovenes have decided to send Hannah to Malmo with a song in English (Straight into Love).  The song is built on elements of dub-step beats (and has a light Skrillex feel), and will be presented with a highly produced background dance and lazer show.  Slovenia  is favored by Eurovision fan blogs to place in the Top Ten, but Oddschecker, the odds-crunching online betting site, gives the song a 1/80 odds of winning (though other sites have the song with odds ranging from 1/33 to 1/200).  Here's the official Eurovision intro clip of the performance.  What do we think:  Winner or dud?