re: SLOVENIA 2014 - Tinkara Kovač - Sped (Round & Round)
First of all, I'm familiar with the situation and I know that we didn't even confirm our participation yet. However, despite the impression that you get by reading comments under the articles, Eurovision IS popular in Slovenia and the viewing numbers can prove it. Another thing that gives me hope is that we finally have a member in the Reference group again.
Second of all, even if we do confirm our participation, I have no idea what road RTVSLO will take. I think that both; internal decision and NF are a possibility, but the latest rumours talk about this (copied from RTVSLO forum; info is supossed to come from Miša Molk):
Apparently we're likely to be in and there is an idea to bring back Misija Evrovizija, however not as a talent show, but more as a documentary/reality series with one or few established artists involved.
Well, let's leave the method of choosing aside and take a look at the names that are coming up the most.
Nina Pušlar is IMO the best option for Slovenia (yeah, I'm her big fan
), but I think that there's little to no chance to see her represent Slovenia in 2014. She just recorded her new album, which will be released sometime in October (
click for her newest single).
Maja Keuc is even less likely, because she's still studying in The Netherlands. She does come to Slovenia from time to time; latest example was her little tour with a group Xequfitz (Hannah Mancini was a longtime member of this group), but nah, I just can't see it happening. Some people mention
Neisha as well. She's a great singer, but I can only see her representing Slovenia as a songwriter. She just released her new album (
latest single) and she doesn't seem to like Eurovision too much. However, she did write a song for Nuša Derenda in 2010 so she might be willing to do that again.
And now, let's take a look at the singers that are more probable. The first one that comes to my mind is
Manca Špik. She's literally taking part in every Slovenian contest this year. Well, we only have two big ones anyway: Melodije morja in sonca and Slovenska popevka (
her entry) and she also have a big wish to represent Slovenia in Eurovision (we can assume that by the number of her EMA participations). I believe that there's a strong chance we'll see someone from Misija Evrovizija as well. Definitely not the winner, Eva Boto, but
Nika Zorjan or
Manuella Brečko seem pretty probable. Nika participated in Melodije morja in sonca (
click) and Manuella participated in Slovenska popevka (
click), which means that they're not avoiding contests. I remember
Nuša Derenda saying (last year) that she's willing to participate, but she needs RTVSLO to give her enough time to come up with a great entry. She didn't participate in any contest this year (in contrast to last year, when she participated in both big Slovenian contests + Sunčane skale), but this might be the calm before the storm. She did release a new album just a few month ago though, but it mostly contains her "old" songs.
These are just speculations, of course. And I'm not very good at speculations ... For example, Hannah Mancini didn't come to my mind AT ALL last year, so I was completely surprised to see her representing Slovenia.
And sorry for such a long post. I tend to write a lot when I actually post something in this topic. There are maaaaaaaaany more names to discuss, so I'm pretty sure there'll be a follow-up.