Since their return to the Eurovision Final last year with Maja Keuc’s “No One”, Slovenia seems to have taken a renewed interest in Eurovision.  This year, national broadcaster RTV Slovenia set up an open casting call, “Misija Evrovizija”, in order to find their star for Azerbaijan.  Ongoing since way back in October, we finally have a result: sixteen-year-old Eva Boto will sing “Verjamem” in Baku:

“Verjamem”, or “I Believe”, has a pretty strong pedigree.  The song’s composer, Vladimir Graić, is also one of the men behind 2007’s “Molitva”, which won the ESC for Serbia.  There are definitely a few similarities between “Verjamem” and “Molitva”: the swelling orchestration, as well as how good of a vehicle it is for a strong female voice.  The Second Semifinal is still shaping up, so it’s tough to predict how it will fit in the running order, but I’m generally very impressed by Eva’s voice.  Despite her age, Eva doesn’t sound like a typical teenager!

Coming in second place were the identical twins Eva and Nika Prusnik, with their madcap (and somewhat racially insensitive) song “Konichiwa”, a song that will live on in the Vault of Eurovision Insanity: