Slovenia made their Eurovision debut back in 1993, and have yet to win the contest. Their best result thus far has been 7th place, and even that result was back in 2001, and previous to that, in 1995. It’s about time that Slovenia hit the top 5, but will this year’s representative Omar Naber finally bring Slovenia to the top of the table? This will be Omar’s second year at Eurovision, with his last participation back in 2005, also in Kyiv. His performance back in 2005 placed him in 12th spot in the semi-final with the song Stop, and it just stopped short of reaching the final.
Bring it forward to 2017, and it’s almost like Omar is sending the same song to Eurovision, and unfortunately, we’d just like it to ‘stop.’ You would expect some sort of growth or development in the 10+ years since we’ve last seen Omar at Eurovision, some sort of demonstration that he’s up with the times but it’s just not in this song. Omar has openly said that he has had this song for 10 years, waiting for the right time to perform it, but the downside to that is it’s easy to tell this has been in storage for 10 years. They did revamp the song, and there’s a more ‘modern’ beat, if we can call it that, but it’s just mutton dressed as lamb. Aside from being dated, it does have some redeeming features. The song is dramatic, and the actual melody of the chorus is catchy and has been stuck in my head a couple of times. It has the key changes which you would expect for a big ballad like this, which lets the song reach a peak, which is a positive. It’s a big musical number which would better suit a theatre show or film soundtrack than it does at Eurovision.
A simple staging would probably suit this song quite well, something with a clever use of lighting. It wouldn’t surprise me if they decided to use the same style of staging that was used in the national final, which shows the transition from black and white to colour, which I do think makes this song feel older. This song does lend itself to backing dancers as well, but it could be the case that Omar wants this to be a one man show.
Overall, I’m not hugely into this song. From the national final, I do think BQL would have at least had a chance of reaching the final, but I’d be quite surprised if Slovenia make it. Kyiv might not be a lucky place for Omar, and it would be ironic if he ends up in 12th place in the semi-final! This song is about a 3/10 for me. Not doing much for me at all…
