Tuesday Jukebox Ponders Ema

As in the Slovene selection for Eurovision (note the spelling of Ema, which is just three random letters thrown together and isn't an acronym).

For me, Ema is all about 3 women, who define the quality of Ema and whose fortunes and failures at Ema have caused it to be pratically revamped every single year.

The first one has to be Karmen Stavec. Karmen pretty much sang her very tall butt off in EMA 2001 only to be beat out by the manic force that is little Nusa Derenda (who we will come to next). That was understandable. What wasn't is how her disco number Se in Se managed to come in 2nd behind the politically advantageous but rather absymal Samo Ljubezen performed by drag act Sestre, only because Sestre won the jury vote and Karmen won the televote (the televote and the "expert" jury vote are given equal weighting). Karmen supposedly stormed out the studios in anger and tears and let's just say that Sestre was not given a warm winner's welcome to the stage by the audience. Nonetheless, here is a comparison between the two "winners." Samo Ljubezen is first.




And here is Karmen performing Se in Se. In my opinion, she pretty much owns the song and stage, and even her amusing "white girl getting down" dance moves near the end work for her. Taking all the farcical voting and glitches into account, I don't blame her for having a full on shit fit, even if it escalated into a homophobic riot and parlamentary discussion.




Which is why Karmen's participation in Ema 2003 was so strange. Yes, Slovenia probably doesn't that many outlets where local musicians can get a proper international debut, but watch this clip from the Ema 2003 postcards between each performance. Karmen's postcard featured her taking out a would be mugger while singing Samo Ljubezen, deliciously giving the refrain a menacing sarcasm to it.





Granted Sestre also took jabs at Karmen both in 2002 & 2003, but Karmen's 2003 win at Ema did have a whiff of sympathy vote for her rather than her song.

This brings us to Ema 2003 aka the super diva Ema because it had not only Karmen Stavec (who was riding a wave of sympathy after the 2002 fracas), but also the aforementioned "manic force" Nuša Derenda who is still well-regarded for being the performer who got Slovenia one of its best placing ever, and just consistently being the right person at the right time with the right talents, plus the Ema debut of Alya and Slovenian jazz & soulstress Alenka Godec (who was at the very first Ema back in 1993).

Suffice to say, it was a year that Ema was going to be high on camp theatrics as evidenced by Pika Bozic's sixth placed entry which features Pika basically acting pissed off while stripping in front of the audience.
Pika Bozic - Ne bom cakala te (EMA 2003)





Meanwhile Alya's own debut performance was the weirdest thing I've ever seen at Ema, but since it seems to be locked away in a vault somewhere, may I present her 3rd placing at this year's Ema with the out-matched Rudi?

Not outmatched by a long set comes Derenda versus Stavec: Ema 03 style.



And here is Karmen's song which still sounds like it is basically Superstar as doo-wop.


Personally, I think they are both thinking the original lyrics to this very song.


Which brings us to one major question.

Why did such a no-name hacky stunt win Ema 2009?