Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009

EMA 2009 was the 14th 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 2009.

Instead of two semi-finals of ten songs each, with the top five qualifying for the final as in last year's contest, RTV SLO announced that only one semi-final would be held, containing 14 songs. Six songs invited by RTV SLO automatically qualified for the final, with eight or more songs from the semi-final qualifying for the final.[5][6]

Unlike the previous two years, a 50:50 mix of jury and televoting would return to EMA to select the winner, however in previous years, the results of the jury had not been consistent with public opinion and it would be unknown how the jury results would pan out on the night of the contest. As well as this, there would be no superfinal to be held against the top two songs, with only one televoting round being held to select the winner.[6]

Both the semi-final and the final were hosted by Peter Poles and Maja Martina Merljak.[7]

Artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster until 28 November 2008. 113 entries were received by the broadcaster during the submission period, with 6 entries coming from elsewhere than Slovenia: two entries were from Irish authors; two from the United Kingdom; one from Sweden; and another one from Germany.[8] A jury selected 14 acts to compete in the semi-final.

The songwriters of the automatic finalists were those who had achieved remarkable success on EMA in recent years and celebrated some hits in the Slovenian charts. All acts, both semi-final and automatic final qualifiers, were revealed on 3 December 2008, however their song titles were not known until 29 December 2009.[9][10][11]

The semi-final was held on 31 January 2009. The songs and artists that competed were released on 3 December 2008.[9][10] 14 songs in total competed, with 8 qualifying to the final.[12][13]

The interval act for the semi-final included performances by Darja Švajger, who came 7th for Slovenia in 1995, as well as Slovenia's 2007 entry Alenka Gotar, at the time the only Slovene entry to qualify to the final.[7]

The full results of the semi-final were released after the final, and showed that Quartissimo and Martina Majerle came top in both the televote and jury vote. In joint second was Karmen Stavec and Nuška Drašček.[14]

The final of EMA 2009 was held on 1 February 2009.[15][16] 14 songs again competed, consisting of the six automatic finalists and the eight semi-final qualifiers.

The winner of EMA 2009 was Quartissimo with "Love Symphony", composed by Andrej Babić and Aleksandar Valenčić with vocals performed by Martina Majerle. Second was former Slovene entry Omar Naber while Alya & Rudi and Samuel Lucas came joint third.[2][3][4] After the final, however, it became evident that Langa & Manca Špik, who came fifth overall, was the clear favourite with the televoters, gaining 22,294 teleovtes in total, almost 14,000 more than runner-up Čuki and over 17,000 more votes than the overall winner, and 31.5% of the 70,758 total votes.[14]

Interval acts during the show were made by Natalija Verboten, Helena Blagne, the 2008 Slovene entry Rebeka Dremelj and the 2008 winner Dima Bilan.[7]