Slovenian national broadcaster, RTVSLO, reveals many new details about the Slovenian Eurovision national selection broadcasts, including – the date of revealing the 12 competing songs and the identity of the hosts of the Slovenian Eurovision national selection “EMA 2025”!

Slovenian national broadcaster, RTVSLO, revealed today (Tuesday) many details about the Slovenian Eurovision national selection broadcasts, including the date of publishing the songs competing in the Eurovision national selection, on January 25th, a week before the big final! In the upcoming article, you will know how the preliminary broadcast will be conducted and additional details about the final broadcast that will take place on February 1st!




Slovenian national broadcaster, RTVSLO, decided to add an additional broadcast to the Slovenian Eurovision national selection “EMA 2025” in which no voting will take place, but rather a preliminary performance so that viewers at home can get to know the contestants and their songs. The additional broadcast, named EMA before EMA (in Slovenian: EMA Pred EMA) will take place on January 25th, at 20:00 CET and will be broadcast on channel TV SLO 1, exactly a week before the final of “EMA 2025” which will serve to select the Slovenian representative for Eurovision 2025 on February 1st. The preliminary broadcast will be hosted by Bernarda Žarn and Jože Robežnik, and in it excerpts from the competing songs will be revealed; after this broadcast, the excerpts will be uploaded to the YouTube channel of the local selection and the full songs will be uploaded to the internet portal RTV 365, thus exposing them to the general public.

On February 1st, the Slovenian Eurovision national selection, “EMA 2025,” will be broadcast. As part of it, 12 songs will compete for the coveted ticket to the big stage in Basel, Switzerland. The selection of the winning song in the Eurovision national selection will take place in two rounds:

  • In the first round, five jury members will vote with each of them awarding points to each song, similar to the voting in Eurovision itself. Each jury member will include five judges, and these will be divided by categories – musicians, television people, radio people, members of the Eurovision fan club OGAE and network influencers in the field of Eurovision.
  • In the second round, the two songs with the highest sum of points will compete against each other, and the winner of the Eurovision national selection will be chosen by public telephone voting.




Hosts of Eurovision National Selection “EMA 2025” – Who Are You?

Another thing that Slovenian national broadcaster RTVSLO revealed today is the identity of the hosts of the Slovenian Eurovision national selection. Those who will host are Gregor Strasbergar (known by his stage name Štras), lead singer of MRFY, and Raiven who represented Slovenia at Eurovision 2024 in Malmö, Sweden.

This will be Štras’s first time hosting this television event, and he has many hesitations and doubts about it:

“The thought of hosting EMA still doesn’t bring me much pleasure but rather more stress. Probably half the country will criticize me, but fortunately they will criticize our new representative more.”

In contrast, Raiven took part in the local selection as a contestant in 2016 with her song “Črno bel” (in English: “Black and White”), with which she reached second place just 127 votes away from first place. In 2017 she returned for a second time with her song “Zažarim” (in English: “I Glow”) and reached third place. For her third attempt in 2019 with her song “Kaos” (in English: “Chaos”), she again reached second place in the local selection. At Eurovision 2024 Raiven represented Slovenia with her song “Veronika“, after being chosen by an internal selection and finishing in 23rd place in the competition final.

The experienced Raiven arrives at her first hosting role as well and says excitedly:

“Hosting EMA is a responsibility for me to connect this event to people who follow it with great expectations and passion. The thought of EMA evokes a lot of nostalgia in me. I have experience as a performer and as a host so I mainly want EMA to be a stage where music and creativity meet without unnecessary criticism and pressures.”

We remind you that Slovenian national broadcaster decided to bring back the Eurovision national selection format EMA in its full name “Evrovizijska Melodija” after in recent years it chose Slovenia’s representatives for Eurovision through an internal selection process.




The 12 Participating Artists of EMA 2025

  1. Eva Pavli – “Niti”
  2. Kiki – “O-ou!”
  3. Jon Vitezič – “Vse Ti Dam”
  4. Trine – “Grace”
  5. Klemen – “How Much Time Do We Have Left?”
  6. Žan Videc – “Pusti Da Gori”
  7. ANNA – “Čau”
  8. July Jones – “New Religion”
  9. ZveN – “Divja”
  10. PolarAce – “Kind”
  11. Astrid & The Scandals – “Touché”
  12. RAI – “Frederick’s Dead”




Notable Contestants

Among the contestants, several familiar names stand out:

  • Jon Vitezič – He competed in the preliminary round of the Slovenian Eurovision selection in 2022, “EMA Freš,” with the song “Jesus Style“. He reached the final but did not secure a spot in the main Slovenian Eurovision selection.
  • Klemen Slakonja – He has hosted the Slovenian Eurovision selection four times in the past, in 2011, 2012, 2016, and 2020. It was previously reported that he submitted a song for the 2025 Eurovision selection.
  • July Jones – She competed in the Slovenian Eurovision selection in 2022 with the song “Girls Can Do Anything“, finishing in fifth place. She also wrote the song “Kaos” for Raiven, Slovenia’s representative at Eurovision 2024, which competed in the 2019 national selection and finished second. Jones was also featured in our series of articles about artists we’d like to see at Eurovision.
  • Astrid – Competed under the name Astrid in Avantgarden in the preliminary round of the Slovenian Eurovision selection in 2020, “EMA Freš,” with the song “Sing To Me“, reaching the final but not securing a spot in the main Slovenian Eurovision selection.



Slovenia in Eurovision 2024:

“Veronika” is the name of the song performed by Raiven, who was chosen to represent Slovenia through an internal selection by the national broadcaster. Slovenia advanced to the final after placing ninth in the first semi-final with 51 points, and in the grand final, they finished 23rd with 27 points.

This is the second consecutive time Slovenia has qualified for the final, matching their qualification streaks in 2014-2015 and 2018-2019. However, this is Slovenia’s lowest placement in a final since Eurovision 2014.

Source: RTVSLO.

Eurovision 2025: This will be Slovenia’s 30th participation in Eurovision. Slovenia joined the competition in 1993 and achieved its best result in Eurovision 1995 and Eurovision 2001 after finishing seventh twice..