Slovenia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 with the song "Nanana" written by Martin Štibernik and Karmen Stavec. The song was performed by Karmen, which is the artistic name of singer Karmen Stavec. Slovenian broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTV Slovenija) organised the national final EMA 2003 in order to select the Slovenian entry for the 2003 contest in Riga, Latvia. Sixteen entries competed in the national final where the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the top three entries were selected following the combination of votes from a five-member jury panel and a public televote. In the second round, "Lep poletni dan" performed by Karmen Stavec was selected as the winner entirely by a public televote. The song was later translated from Slovene to English for the Eurovision Song Contest and was titled "Nanana".
Slovenia competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 24 May 2003. Performing as the closing entry during the show in position 26, Slovenia placed 23rd out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 7 points.
Background
Prior to the 2003 contest, Slovenia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eight times since its first entry in . Slovenia's highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been seventh place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 1995 with the song "Prisluhni mi" performed by Darja Švajger and in 2001 with the song "Energy" performed by Nuša Derenda. The country's only other top ten result was achieved in 1997 when Tanja Ribič performing "Zbudi se" placed tenth. At the prior years contest in 2002, "Samo ljubezen" performed by Sestre placed 13th.
The Slovenian national broadcaster, Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTV Slovenija), broadcasts the event within Slovenia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. The Slovenian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest has traditionally been selected through a national final entitled Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA), which has been produced with variable formats. For 2003, the broadcaster opted to organise EMA 2003 to select the Slovenian entry.
Before Eurovision
EMA 2003
EMA 2003 was the eighth edition of the Slovenian national final format Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA), used by RTV Slovenija to select Slovenia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2003. The competition took place at the Gospodarsko razstavišče in Ljubljana, hosted by Miša Molk and Peter Poles and was broadcast on TV SLO1, Radio Val 202 and online via the broadcaster's website rtvslo.si.
Format
Sixteen songs competed in a televised show where the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, the 50/50 combination of points from a five-member expert jury and a public televote selected three songs out of the sixteen competing songs to proceed to a superfinal. The expert jury and the televote each assigned points as follows: 1-8, 10 and 12, with the top three being determined by the songs that receive the highest overall scores when the votes were combined. In the superfinal, public televoting exclusively determined the winner.
Competing entries
An expert committee consisting of Armando Šturman (music editor for Radio Koper), Martin Žvelc (music producer), Branka Kraner (singer) and Aleš Strajnar (musician and composer) selected sixteen artists and songs for the competition from 88 received submissions. The competing artists were announced on 13 December 2002. Among the competing artists was former Slovenian Eurovision contestant Nuša Derenda who represented Slovenia in 2001.
Final
EMA 2003 took place on 15 February 2003. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, Anika Horvat, Manca Izmajlova, Monika Pučelj, Natalija Verboten and Latvian 2002 Eurovision winner Marija Naumova performed as guests. The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, three entries were selected to proceed to the second round based on the combination of points from a five-member jury panel and a public televote. The jury consisted of Naumova, Andi Knoll (Austrian commentator for the Eurovision Song Contest), Paul de Leeuw (Dutch comedian and singer), Drago Ivanuša (composer and musician) and Branka Kraner (singer). In the second round, a public televote selected "Lep poletni dan" performed by Karmen Stavec as the winner.