STA, 24 February – Lea Sirk, a singer long known as one of the best Slovenian backing vocalists, will represent Slovenia at the Eurovision song contest in Lisbon. She won the national selection on Saturday with Hvala, ne! (No, Thanks!), an anthem to strong, independent women.
Sirk swept up the votes of the six juries to best BQL, two brothers who are darlings of Slovenian teenagers and who expectedly won the popular vote.
The votes of the six juries - which represented groups including fans, previous winners and musicians - and televoting contributed 50% each to the final score.
The 28-year-old native of Koper has been in the music business for well over a decade, having first won public acclaim with a 2006 appearance in a talent show on national TV.
She went on to enter several Slovenian music festivals, including the Slovenian Eurovision selection in 2011, and was backup vocalists for several Eurovision aspirants, including for Tinkara Kovač at the Eurovision contest in Copenhagen in 2014.
Sirk writes a lot of songs alone or with her partner, the producer Gaber Radojevič. The couple have a five-year-old daughter.
She will travel to the Eurovision final in Lisbon to appear in the second semi-final on 10 May.
Her first job will be to surpass the performance of last year's entrant, Omar Naber, who remained stuck in the semi-final.
