Slovenia was represented by

Anžej Dežan Anžej Dežan (born 17 June 1987) is a Slovenian singer. Biography Anžej began his musical career by winning the TV show ''Karaoke'' only ten years old. His first major success though was in the 2005 talent show ''Spet Doma'' on RTV Slovenija, ...

with the song "Mr Nobody". The song is written by Urša Vlašič and composed by Matjaž Vlašič.

Before Eurovision

EMA 2006

''EMA 2006'' was the 11th edition of the Slovenian national final format '' Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA)''. The competition was used by RTV Slovenija to select Slovenia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 and was broadcast on TVS 1 and online via the broadcaster's website ''rtvslo.si''.

Competing entries

Artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 18 September 2005 and 20 November 2005. 107 entries were received by the broadcaster during the submission period. An expert committee consisting of Jaka Pucihar (composer), Rok Lopatič (music producer), Jernej Vene (music editor for Radia Slovenija), Mitja Ciuha (Eurovision expert) and Mario Galunič (television presenter) selected fourteen artists and songs for the competition from the received submissions. The competing artists were announced on 28 November 2005.

Final

EMA 2006 took place on 29 January 2006 at the

RTV Slovenija Radiotelevizija Slovenija ( en, Radio-Television of Slovenia) – usually abbreviated to RTV Slovenija (or simply RTV within Slovenia) – is Slovenia's national public broadcasting organization. Based in Ljubljana, it has regional broadcastin ...

Studio 1 in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

, hosted by Janez Škof, Aljoša Ternovšek and Boris Koba. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2001 Slovenian Eurovision entrant

Nuša Derenda Nuša Derenda (, born Anuška Žnideršič on March 30, 1969 in Brežice, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Slovenian singer who represented Slovenia at the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen, Denmark where she achieved 7th place. B ...

and Alya performed as guests. The combination of points from a five-member jury panel, a public telephone vote and a public SMS vote selected "Plan B" performed by

as the winner. The jury consisted of Martin Žvelc (music producer), Nataša Assejev (editor for RTV Slovenija), Cole Moretti (singer-songwriter and guitarist, represented Slovenia in 1993 contest as part of 1X Band), Dragan Trivič (musician) and Črt Sojar Voglar (composer).

Controversy

EMA veteran Saša Lendero won both the telephone and SMS votes while in the end, the jury decided the outcome and Anžej Dežan won the competition, causing much controversy. This was second time in 3 years that voting jury expelled the televoting winner from their votes. In 2004 also Natalija Verboten with "Cry On My Shoulder" had won the public vote, but the jury gave her 0 points. If they had get only 1 point - both, Lendero in 2006 or Verboten in 2004 would have won EMA. Many polemics and discussions were raised after this - people and media wondering if jury did this on purpose. More dispute was caused when accusations were made that "Plan B" was a copy of a song called "Santa Maria" sung by

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n singer Simone, therefore breaking the contest rules. The

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of Public broadcasting, public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who ar ...

, however, did not see it as a copy, and therefore the song was not disqualified.

At Eurovision

In the 2006 contest, Anžej performed the English version of the song, "Mr Nobody". Because Slovenia failed to qualify in 2005 Anžej was forced to compete in the Eurovision semi-final, where he performed 3rd, following

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

and preceding

Andorra , image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg , symbol_type = Coat of arms , national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin)"United virtue is stro ...

. Slovenia came 16th with 49 points, failing to qualify to the Grand Final.

Voting

Points awarded to Slovenia

Points awarded by Slovenia

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2006

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...