Kvalifikacija za Millstreet

( en, Preselection for Millstreet, i=yes; french: Présélection pour Millstreet) was a televised song contest held as a qualifying round for the Eurovision Song Contest 1993. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (RTV SLO), the contest was held on 3 April 1993 in Studio 1 of in Ljubljana, Slovenia and presented by Slovenian television presenter .

The contest was organised with the purpose of reducing the number of competing countries in the Eurovision Song Contest as a result of increased interest in participation among countries following the fall of communist regimes in Europe and the formation of new countries due to the breakup of Yugoslavia and dissolution of the Soviet Union. Three places in the 1993 Eurovision Song Contest, held on 15 May in Millstreet, Ireland, were provided for countries which had never taken part before, and seven countries ultimately sent entries to be performed and voted on in the televised contest in Slovenia.

One juror from each of the competing countries voted on the competing entries, and , and were chosen to progress to the contest in Millstreet. A relegation system was introduced to the Eurovision Song Contest, which allowed new countries direct access to the contest in future editions to replace the lowest-scoring countries from the previous year's event. , , and , the countries which failed to progress through , subsequently made their contest debuts in .

Background

The Eurovision Song Contest is an internationally televised songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and featuring participants representing primarily European countries. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed by a chosen artist, with competing countries then casting votes for the other countries' songs to determine a winner. Originally held in with seven competing countries, the contest quickly began to grow as more countries became interested in participating, and by the early 1990s entries from over 20 countries were regularly featured in each year's event.

By 1992 an increasing number of countries had begun expressing an interest in participating in the contest for the first time; this increase in interest was the result of many new countries being formed following the breakup of Yugoslavia and dissolution of the Soviet Union and as part of revolutions leading to the fall of communist regimes in Europe and across the world which took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s. To accommodate this new interest the EBU expanded the maximum number of participating countries for the to twenty-five, with entries from three new countries being joined by twenty-two of the twenty-three countries which had participated in the , with unable to participate after its EBU member broadcaster (JRT) was disbanded in 1992 and its successor organisations (RTS) and (RTCG) were barred from joining the union due to sanctions placed against the country as part of the Yugoslav Wars.

In order to determine which countries would progress to the contest proper, a preselection round was held for the first time in the contest's history, with the top three countries in this round progressing to compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993 held in Millstreet, Ireland. This contest, , took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia and was produced by the Slovenian public broadcaster (RTV SLO). Originally planned to be held in Portorož, the event was ultimately held in Studio 1 of , with Edo Brzin serving as executive producer, Peter Juratovec serving as director, Jože Spacal serving as designer, and Mojmir Sepe serving as musical directors and leading the , and serving as presenter.

Participating countries

Initially broadcasters in as many as fourteen countries registered their interest in competing in the Eurovision Song Contest's first preselection event, including broadcasters in , the , , , and . By February 1993 however the number of competing countries had dropped to six, comprising planned entries from , , , , and . Subsequently Bulgaria's planned entry did not materialise, however and joined the contest, resulting in seven countries competing in total for the three spots available in Millstreet.

Conductors

A separate musical director could be nominated by each country to conduct the orchestra during their performance. The conductors listed below led the orchestra during the performance for the indicated countries.

*
*
* Peeter Lilje
*
* George Natsis
* Petar Ugrin
* Vladimir Valovič

Participants and results

took place on 3 April 1993. The table below outlines the participating countries, the order in which they performed, the competing artists and songs, and the results of the voting.

The three countries which received the most votes once all countries had voted, and thus progressed to the Eurovision Song Contest 1993, were Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. As former constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, all three countries had previously been represented in the Eurovision Song Contest through entries sent by . Estonia, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, which failed to progress through , made their contest debuts , following the introduction of a relegation system for the 1994 contest which resulted in the seven lowest-scoring countries from the 1993 contest losing the right to participate in the following year's event to make room for new countries.

Detailed voting results

Jury voting was used to determine the points awarded by all countries. As telephone communications could not be relied upon to reach juries based in the competing countries, one juror from each country was sent to Slovenia in order to provide votes for their respective country. These jurors was based in the studio and announced their votes live and on camera during the voting segment. Each juror awarded twelve points to their favourite entry, followed by ten points to their second favourite, and then awarded points in decreasing value from eight to five for the remaining songs, excluding the entry from their own country. The respective jurors from each country and the detailed breakdown of the points awarded is listed in the tables below.

;Jurors

* –
* – Ksenija Urličić
* –
* –
* – Aurora Andronache
* – Mojmir Sepe
* – Stanislav Bartovič

Broadcasts

The contest was broadcast via the EBU's Eurovision network, with EBU member broadcasters able to relay the contest via their broadcast channels. Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers. The broadcast was taken by all competing countries, as well as by broadcasters in , , and . Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.

Notes and references

Notes

References

Bibliography

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{{Eurovision years

Eurovision Song Contest 1993
1993 in Slovenia
April 1993 events in Europe