"Samo ljubezen" ("Only love") was the entry in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2002 The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 was the 47th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tallinn, Estonia, following the country's victory at the with the song "Everybody" by Tanel Padar, Dave Benton and 2XL. Organised by the E ...

. The lyrics were written by Barbara Pešut and the music by Robert Pešut. It was performed by Sestre, a trio of

transvestite Transvestism is the practice of dressing in a manner traditionally associated with the opposite sex. In some cultures, transvestism is practiced for religious, traditional, or ceremonial reasons. The term is considered outdated in Western ...

men dressed as airflight attendants, and marked the first time an entire ensemble had performed at Eurovision in

drag Drag or The Drag may refer to: Places * Drag, Norway, a village in Tysfjord municipality, Nordland, Norway * ''Drág'', the Hungarian name for Dragu Commune in Sălaj County, Romania * Drag (Austin, Texas), the portion of Guadalupe Street adj ...

, sparking anti-gay protests in Slovenia as well as debate in the

Slovenian Parliament The Slovenian Parliament ( sl, Slovenski parlament) is the informal designation of the general representative body of the Slovenian nation and the legislative body of the Republic of Slovenia. According to the Constitution of Slovenia, the ge ...

and the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adop ...

about the song and the public reaction. It came equal thirteenth on 33 points with and . The trio Sestre (meaning "Sisters"), consisting of Miss Marlena (real name Tomaž Mihelič), Daphne (Srečko Blas) and Emperatrizz (Damjan Levec), won the Slovenian national final, EMA 2002, defeating the favourite Karmen Stavec after positive reviews from the expert jury. Controversy ensued, as a technical issue with the public televoting portion of the result failed when the voting period ran overtime, leading to the nullification of the televote which Stavec won. This led to a portion of the Slovenian public, anti-gay activists, to take to the streets of the capital

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the a ...

, protesting the selection of the song, which they saw as a slight to Slovenia. Furthermore, speeches calling for the group to be disendorsed reached the Slovenian Parliament,Weekly News
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/ref> and beyond to the European Parliament, leading to some European politicians claiming that Slovenia should not be admitted into the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

on account of the social attitudes to homosexuality. Emperatrizz had himself won the second runner-up award at the European Miss Transvestite 1997 pageant.esctoday.com , Samo ljubezen
/ref> The group appeared at Eurovision dressed as flight attendants, wearing white shirts, white gloves, white stockings, high heels, red cap, lipstick, glittery red suits and skirts, and all sporting short brown hair. The song did not involve dancing, and they were backed by two male and one female singer dressed as airline pilots, in a full white suit, trousers and cap. Their visual appearance at the national contest was co-designed by Uroš Belantic and Meta Podkrajšek from the Diggiloo Thrush.Samo ljubezen – lyrics – Diggiloo Thrush
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Citations

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2002 Eurovision songs of Slovenia Eurovision songs of 2002 Slovene-language songs