Regina

Regina is a Slovenian pop singer, born Irena Jalšovec on 4 July 1965 in Murska Sobota. She is best known for "Dan najlepših sanj", the song with which she represented Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1996, and she has taken part in the Slovenian Eurovision selection more often than any other performer.

Her career began in 1987 in the group Duo Regina, which brought her to her first major festival, Pop delavnica, in 1988 with "Vem" and again in 1989 with "Ne vabi me"; her first solo record also came out in 1988. In 1990 she reached the shortlist for the Slovenian entries to Jugovizija. At the German Yamaha festival she finished fourth with "Joey", and her 1994 album Liza ljubi jazz mixed Slovenian songs with English ones.

Almost all of her songs are written by her husband, the film director and composer Aleksander Kogoj, whom she married in 1995 and who has also directed most of her music videos. With his "Naj ljubezen združi vse ljudi" she was fourth at the first Slovenian selection, EMA 1993. In 1996 she won EMA with "Dan najlepših sanj", arranged by Jože Privšek, and went to Oslo, where the song survived the pre-qualifying round and finished 21st of 23 in the final on 18 May. She sang at EMA eight times in all, a Slovenian record: "Glas gora" was third in 1998, and with "Proti vetru" she was the reserve jury's winner in 2005. Her last EMA entry, "Alive in Every Way", came in 2016.

At Slovenska popevka she appeared nine times between 1998 and 2011. "Ujemi moj nasmeh" won the jury's award for the best production in 1999, and in 2000 "Moje ime", sung with Gloria, was the jury's winner and also took the award for the best music video. The album Moje ime (2000) became her best-selling record. Later songs include "Moja zemlja", the duet "Čaša ljubezni" with Diego Barrios Ross, the Prekmurje dialect song "Plave očij" and "Poljubi me". At the 2007 Festival narečnih popevk her "Tvoje očij" won the awards for the best song and the best dialect lyrics.

Regina also works as a sound engineer on television commercials and has lent her voice to many children's cartoons, among them Bloom in the Slovenian version of Winx Club. Her 2012 album Tebe pa ni was followed by the singles "Pokliči ljubezen", "Ritem ulice" and "Ljubezen beži", and in 2024 she returned to Melodije morja in sonca with "Zopet plešem".