Darja Švajger

Darja Švajger is a Slovenian pop singer, born in Maribor in 1965, whose work also reaches into jazz and chanson. She is best known for representing Slovenia twice at the Eurovision Song Contest, and her seventh place in 1995 is still one of the country's best results.

She began her career with the ensemble of Brane Klavžar, and in the first half of the 1980s she sang Slovenian folk songs with the group Slovenska gruda. She studied classical solo singing and jazz in Graz. Her breakthrough came in 1993: she finished second at EMA, the Slovenian Eurovision selection, with "Naj vidimo ljudi", and won the Slovenian jury's first prize at Melodije morja in sonca with "Pogrešam te". Her first album, V objemu noči, followed in 1994.

In 1995 she won EMA with the ballad "Prisluhni mi" by Primož Peterca and Sašo Fajon and went to the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, where she was among the favourites and finished seventh. The song was named Slovenia's song of the year, and in 1996 she received the Zlati petelin award for pop singer and pop song. She came second at EMA again in 1997 with "Vsakdanji čudeži" and released the album Trenutki in 1998, with songs including "Ti si čas ustavil", "Ljubezen ne odhaja" and "Čas je slab slikar", the last with lyrics by Zoran Predin.

In 1999 she won EMA a second time with "Še tisoč let" and sang its English version, "For a Thousand Years", in Jerusalem, finishing eleventh. With two wins, two second places and a third she is counted as the most successful EMA performer. The album Plameni followed in 2001, and in 2008 the concert programme Moji obrazi.

Slovenska popevka brought her more success later on. In 2010 "Otok ljubezni" won the expert jury's grand prize and the award for best interpretation, and in 2014 the ballad "Sončen dan" won the audience vote. In 2012 she sang "Ljubljena" there, with lyrics by Anja Rupel.

She has also worked in theatre and television. She hosted EMA twice, in 2002 with Nuša Derenda and in 2015, sat on the EMA 2015 jury with Tinkara Kovač and Maja Keuc, and was a judge on Misija Evrovizija. In 2015 she earned a doctorate at AGRFT in Ljubljana, where she teaches solo singing, as she does at the Academy of Music.