On December 8th Slovenia’s broadcaster RTVSLO made the announcement that Joker Out has been internally selected to represent them at Eurovision 2023 in Liverpool, and their song “Carpe Diem” was released on February 4th. Shortly after the song release, we had the opportunity to sit down with the band to discuss the group’s origin story, their decision to do Eurovision, and what fans can expect to see from them on the big Eurovision stage.
During the interview, Kris and Bojan recount how the band first formed in 2016, as Bojan’s band Apokalipsa was tapped to record the school’s official anthem, and Kris was selected to report the story. After that experience Kris learned to play guitar and met Jan to form his own band, and after the breakup of Apokalipsa Bojan’s former bandmates and Kris’ band merged to create Joker Out.
Bojan also explained that the most stressful part of the Eurovision experience has been over-evaluating their song “Carpe Diem” and reading all the comments and feedback on social media, while Kris revealed that the broadcaster has decided to schedule their release for early February in place of the originally planned national selection EMA. They also teased that there are additional versions of their Eurovision entry that will be released at a later date.
They said that despite being a very popular band in Slovenia and amongst the Eurovision fanbase, they have yet to create an official name for their fans. But they are open to suggestions – should you have one. In order to learn more about them and their Eurovision journey up until now make sure you check out the full interview linked above!
Joker Out will be competing in the second half of the second semi-final in Liverpool, and will be attempting to bring Slovenia back to the grand final for the first time since the 2019 contest. To date their song has received a total of 1,440,000 plays across the official Eurovision YouTube channel, the RTVSLO channel, and the band’s personal channel.
Are #YOU a big fan of Joker Out and Carpe Diem? Let us know on social media @ESCUnited, on our discord, or on our forum page
