EMA Freš 2022 returned as the first phase for Slovenia's selection for the Eurovision Song Contest for the second time after its first appearance in 2020, with a revamped format from the first edition. Newcomer artists who were not more than 30 years old and had released a maximum of three songs were eligible to apply for via a submission period opened by RTVSLO on 8 October 2021. A total of 24 artists were selected to take part in the selection, which commenced on 29 November 2021. After a series of nights, each showcasing a duel, 14 entries advanced to take part in the televised final on 28 January 2022. The remaining fourteen entries competed for four places in
EMA 2022, two selected by public voting and two selected by a jury.
Format Twenty-four songs competed in a series of duels starting in November 2021 for four weeks. After the duels, the fourteen winning songs competed in a televised live final selection show, which took place on 28 January 2022. The selection show saw the remaining fourteen songs compete for four places in the emerging category of
EMA 2022. After the four duels held each week (on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday), a weekly final was held on each Saturday where three out of the four weekly winners advanced: one selected via a public online vote and the other two by a committee composed of
Joker Out singer Bojan Cvjetićanin, singer
Eva Boto, who represented
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, and rapper Arne Međedović. Non-qualifiers were given a Second Chance on the following week (20 to 24 December), when one more act was chosen among three every day, for a total of fourteen finalists. On 28 December 2021, revealed that over 48,000 votes were cast during the online voting rounds of between 29 November and 24 December. The full results were revealed after
EMA 2022 on 20 February 2022. The 14 remaining entries were then originally meant to compete in two final selection shows, in which two entries would qualify from each show. However, on 12 January 2022, it was revealed by RTVSLO that all 14 entries would compete in one show on 28 January 2022 due to programming issues and the effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia at the time. The final saw four songs qualify for
EMA 2022, with two songs chosen by the public and two by the jury.
Competing entries Artists and composers were able to submit their entries to the broadcaster between 8 October 2021 and 22 November 2021. All artists were required to be under the age of 30 and have three commercially released songs or fewer. Two days after the closing of the submission window, RTVSLO announced a total of 127 applications had been received for both competitions. Among the competing composers was , who represented
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 as member of the
1X Band, and
Raay, who represented
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 as member of
Maraaya.
Contestant progress 2022 began with the first week of duels on 29 November 2021 and concluded with a live final on 28 January 2022.
Duels The first duel rounds took place between 29 November and 18 December 2021. All of the twenty-four competing entries were divided into three separate weeks. Each week featured four daily duels from Monday to Thursday with one qualifier from each duel progressing to the weekly final. The runners-up of each duel were given a Second Chance round after all of the other duels had taken place. The results were determined via an international online vote on RTVSLO's website from 8:00 (CET) to 19:00 (CET) on the day of each duel. Each week rounded up with an online webcast final that featured the four duel winners of the week. Three of the artists advanced to the final selection show, while the last place finisher advanced to the Second Chance round. The results of the weekly final were determined via a combination of both jury voting and internet voting. The jury panel that voted in the weekly finals consisted of the show presenters
Bojan Cvjetićanin, who would go on to represent
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 as lead singer of
Joker Out,
Eva Boto, who represented
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, and Arne Međedović.
Second Chance The remaining fifteen artists were given a Second Chance round between 20 and 24 December 2021. All fifteen performers were divided into five rounds, of which one from each would qualify for the final selection show. Similarly to the initial duel rounds, the results were determined by an international online vote held on RTVSLO's website.
Final The final of took place on 28 January 2022 at 's Studio 1 in
Ljubljana, and featured the fourteen remaining artists. The show saw four artists advance to
EMA 2022, with two qualifiers determined by an expert jury panel, consisting of
Maja Keuc, Maša Kljun and Matjaž Vlašič, and two by a public vote. The qualified entrants were Stela Sofia, Leya Leanne,
LPS and LUMA. The show was hosted by TV presenter Melani Mekicar, singer
Eva Boto, who represented
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012, and rapper Arne Međedović. The exact running order for the show was revealed on 13 January 2022. Having only sung a small snippet of their songs live in the duel stage, between 14 January 2022 and 18 January 2022, RTVSLO released official studio cuts of the remaining fourteen entries via their social media platforms. In addition to the competing entries, co-presenters Arne Međedović performed his new single "Loverboy" and Eva Boto performed her new single "".
EMA 2022 EMA 2022 was the twenty-fourth edition of Slovenia's annual national final for the Eurovision Song Contest
EMA. After RTVSLO internally selected Slovenia's entrant in 2021, the broadcaster confirmed the return of the selection process on 8 October 2022. The event consisted of two semi-finals, which were held on 5 and 12 February 2022, and a grand final on 19 February 2022 at the in
Ljubljana. The venue previously hosted the
EMA final in , , and . All shows were hosted by Melani Mekicar and Bojan Cvjetićanin, with Nejc Šmit reporting live from the green room in the final. A live after-party and analysis of the results was also broadcast on TV SLO 2 with green room host Nejc Šmit following the final.
Format Upon announcing the return of
EMA for 2022, RTVSLO revealed that, for the first time since 2017, the event would be held over three evenings. Twenty artists participated in two live semi-finals, with four newcomer acts chosen via and sixteen established acts chosen via a submission period opened by in October 2021. In each semi-final, eight established artists and two newcomer () artists competed to advance to the final. Public voting selected three finalists and a jury selected another three. In the final, five five-member juries (50%) and public voting (50%) decided which of the 12 finalists would represent Slovenia in Turin.
Competing entries RTVSLO opened a submission period between 8 October 2021 and 22 November 2021 for artists and composers to submit their entries. All applicants were required to be at least sixteen years old on 1 February 2022, and the main performer (or at least half of the main performers in multi-performance ensembles) of the submitted composition must have permanent or temporary residence in the Republic of Slovenia. Two days after the closing of the submission window, RTVSLO announced a total of 127 applications had been received for both competitions. An expert jury panel consisting of
Maja Keuc, Matjaž Vlašič, Žiga Pirnat, Maša Kljun and Žiga Klančar selected sixteen established acts to progress to
EMA 2022. The first sixteen established competing acts were revealed on 19 December 2021, with the final newcomer four acts selected via on 28 January 2022. Among the competing acts were
BQL, who participated in both
EMA 2017 and
EMA 2018 and finished as runners-up respectively, and Slovene-British performer
July Jones, who wrote "Kaos" for
Raiven which finished second in
EMA 2019. Among the competing songwriters were
Maraaya, who won
EMA 2015 and represented
Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015.
Raay also wrote the
EMA 2014 winning song and Slovenian Eurovision entry "
Round and Round" for
Tinkara Kovač and wrote the Slovenian Junior Eurovision entries in both
2014 and
2015.
Semi-finals The two semi-finals took place on 5 and 12 February 2022 at 20:20 (CET) and were broadcast on TV SLO 1. Each show featured ten performances, eight established artists and two newcomer artists, with six qualifying to the
EMA 2022 final based on votes from a jury vote and public vote. The running order for the semi-finals was revealed on 19 January 2022, with 30 second snippets of all of the established competing performances revealed by RTVSLO from 20 to 21 January 2022. The songs were also promoted with further interviews and snippets on
Radio Val 202 on 2 and 3 February 2022. Both semi-finals were opened with a Eurovision medley performance from co-host Bojan Cvjetićanin with "".
Final The final took place on 19 February 2022 at 20:20 (CET) and was broadcast on TV SLO 1,
Radio Val 202,
Radio Koper, Radio Maribor and via a live satellite broadcast on the broadcaster's website
www.rtvslo.si. The show featured the twelve acts that qualified from the semi-finals. The combination of points from five thematical juries and a public vote selected
LPS with "" to represent Slovenia in Turin. The juries consisted of members from
OGAE Slovenia, songwriters, radio and television personalities and music performers. The running order for the final was revealed on 14 February 2022. In addition to the competing entries, co-host Bojan Cvjetićanin and
Amaya performed a cover of the winning entry of the
Eurovision Song Contest 2021 for "".
Ratings Promotion LPS made several appearances across Europe and in Slovenia to specifically promote "" as the Slovenian Eurovision entry. The band first performed at the Eurovision in Concert at
Amsterdam's
AFAS Live on 9 April, which was hosted by
Edsilia Rombley and
Cornald Maas. On 9 May 2022, the day before the first semi-final, the band released an English language version of the song. == At Eurovision ==