ESC Covers has asked Chris Hockman, a journalist from the USA and big Eurovision fan to look for at the artists returning to Eurovision this year.

Here is the first one – SLOVENIA

Omar Naber is returning after 12 years and to the same city as well. Naber competed for Slovenia in 2005 with his song STOP, failing to make it out of the semi-finals.

Naber’s song adds to the plethora of ballads in Eurovision 2017, and he does have an impressive voice with his powerful performance, with just a hint of a dance beat in the chorus. In his national final performance he had the verses shot in black and white, indicating a desire for a more artful performance which could translate well in Kiev, depending on how much RTVSLO wants to put in to it.

For Naber his return to Eurovision comes after attempting four different times unsuccessfully since 2005. That included an attempt last year to go through Switzerland but he failed to get through to the televised rounds.

Obviously Naber was a lot younger in 2005, at just 23 years old and he has clearly matured in the intervening years. His voice in 2005 showed signs of power, but he just didn’t have the range to pull that off, but now in 2017 he has clearly grown in to his voice.

In 2005 his song was in Slovene, which may have hurt his chances, and this time he is coming in with a fully English song which will boost his chances. Naber will close out the first semi-final, and going later will be better than going first but last can mean that fatigue hits the viewers voting. That said going with dance elements instead of rock elements to break up the ballad nature of the song will make it more popular than Stop in 2005. It’s a strong enough song to potentially make the semi-final but it could well be close, in a tough semi-final.