Slovakia

__**Artist Biography:**__

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after an 11 year break are Kamil Mikulčík & Nela Pocisková. Pocisková is a very successful television and theater actress that hails from the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava. She hit fame young, since she is only 19 years old and is in her 3rd year of study at the Bratislava State Conservatory. Her performance as Maria in West Side Story is highly acclaimed; she is also a starring character of a television series Ordinácia V Ružovej Záhrade (Doctor´s Office In The Rose Garden). Kamil also happens to be her co-star on that series. ====== 

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Mikulčík is very much Pocisková's elder as he is nearly 32 years old. He was born in Trnava and has had an extensive education, studying both theater and economics at a university level. He is not only an actor, but also a playwright and musical composer. ======

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Interestingly, this year's contestants were chosen in a different way than in years past. Slovakia's past three entries were chosen internally, but this year's were chosen by televoting via an on-air singing contest. Kamil and Nela won both the jury and the audience votes. The country doesn't have high hopes of progressing very far this year, and the song ha s been described as passionate, but old-fashioned. [|All information found here.] A video of their performance can be found here.======

**Song Information**

For Eurovision 2009, Slovakia's artists of Kamil Mikulčík & Nela Pocisková perform a duet titled Let' Tmou. This song, sung in their native Slovak tongue, has led this musical duo into the second Semi-Final of the Eurovision Song Contest. In English, Let' Tmou translates to "Fly through the darkness". The translated message describes the singer desperate to ("My musíme vyjsť z tieňov") come out of the shadows and darkness, and asks the Lord and Love for guidance. Over and over throughout the piece, this line presents itself. The singers, obviously, are the male and female pair of Kamil Mikulčík & Nela Pocisková. The lyric writers were both Anna Žigová and Petronela Kolevská. However, the musical genius (composer) behind Let' Tmou is Rastislav Dubovský. The song itself if unbelievably beautiful. It begins only with a soft piano and cello backing. Then, after eight measures, in comes the breathtaking soprano Nela Pocisková. Singing a slow yet passionate, sweet yet soulful melody, she graces the audience with her dynamics and classically trained verbrato. She moves through every note, making every measure new and more intruiging. After a verse from Nela, Kamil Mikulčík takes over vocals for a handful of bars. His tone is perfect; just the right amount of bite and bright mixed with an airy sound. Then, it comes beautifully: the chorus sung in a duet, creating such a lovely impact. The song then stays as a duet, and builds up until the very end piece, where Nele blesses the ears with a graceful high C#. The only genre to put this beautiful of song would be in Classical Duets. The piano and cello, that are both present in this piece, were both highly used in the Baroque and Classical Eras when revoutionary music was being conceived. Thank goodness for this song... media type="youtube" key="R3AzJzA2TT8" height="340" width="560"


 * __How the Song Was Chosen__**

In Slovakia, there were 5 semi-final rounds held, each with 10 artists performing. In the first two rounds, one artist had to drop out, leaving only 9 performances, but one of those two returned to participate in the fifth and final semi-final round, creating eleven artists for that event. Each semi-final was a televised event in which those watching could text to vote for their favorite artist, and the two artists with the most votes, along with one chosen by a professional "jury", got to move on to the finals. Kamil Mikulčík & Nela Pocisková performed Let' Tmou in the last semi-final, and received the most televotes for their act. After 3 people were chosen from each semi-final, a 16th person was chosen as a wildcard by the jury. In the finals, Let' Tmou came out way on top, with 25% of the the votes! The next highest artist only received 15% of the text votes. The jury re-evaluated the performances and agreed that Kamil Mikulčík & Nela Pocisková were the best artists, giving them the spot to represent Slovakia in Moscow. Despite the beauty of the song and the level of skill of the two artists, the fact that they are both well-known TV-series actors may have been a confounding variable in this contest to choose a representative.


 * __Slovakia__****__’s History In Eurovision__**

Throughout Eurovision history, Slovakia has only competed in the event three times. They made their first appearance in 1994. They actually entered the year before, but failed to pass the qualifying rounds. Slovakia has never received better than 17th place in the competition, which they received two years after their debut in 1996. They entered for three straight years, until stopping in 1998. After a ten year break, Slovakia has re- entered the Eurovision competition. Slovenská Televízia (Slovak Television), announced that they wanted to enter the competition in 2008, but did not have the financial stability to go through with the competition. In the past, Slovenska Televizia would just select the Slovakian entry for the contest but this year is actually the first time Slovakia had a national competition to see what song they would enter for Eurovision. Kamil Mikulčík and Nela Pocisková and their song “Let tmou”, were chosen through televoting to represent their country in this year’s Eurovision. Even though Eurovision 2009 has not even ended yet, Slovakia has already begun to talk about the 2010 competition. Slovak Television stated that Slovakia will be entering the 2010 contest.