'Sisters' Are Doing It for Themselves

Friday, Feb. 22, 2002
Slovenia defied its reputation for traditional values when a group of three transvestites called The Sisters won the right to represent the country in the upcoming Eurosong contest in Estonia. The result is raising eyebrows in the tiny Alpine nation — nearly three-quarters of the country's 2 million citizens identify themselves as Roman Catholic — and allegations of voting improprieties have compounded the shock to the national system. The debates have even reached as far as the Slovene parliament.

The transvestite trio — made up of lead singer Miss Marlena (whose legal name is Tomaz Mihelic), Daphne (Sr eco Blas), and Emperatrizz (Damjan Levec) — received the maximum available points from the judges for their song, "Only Love." Groups performed ten songs from different musical genres, and the votes of two juries and public "tele-voting", in which viewers call in their picks, were supposed to decide the winner of the 16 February domestic EMA 2002 song contest.

The juries' votes gave the three the win by a single vote, despite apparently overwhelming public "tele-vote" support for the second-place finisher, Karmen Stavec — who actually is a woman — and her song "More and More." Doubts about the fairness of the popular vote count were voiced even before the final results were announced. The results of the five-minute tele-voting period didn't appear as planned, forcing the show's hosts to vamp by revealing the juries' surprise results.

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The tensions among the musicians on the stage of the public TV Slovenia studios mounted as more than 20 minutes passed without the tele-voting results. The musical acts split into two camps, one supporting The Sisters and the others taking Stavec's side, shouting "Karmen, Karmen!" Emotions reached their peak when the results were finally announced. Stavec had overwhelmingly won the telecast vote with 31,944 votes, while the Sisters had received only 8,454 votes. However, the trio's overall points were enough to best Stavec, who fled the stage in tears. The popular singer had placed second in last year's contest as well, again missing the win by a tiny margin.

The Sisters had little chance to savor their victory, however, as it was revealed that their songwriter, Magnifico — who is himself a famous Slovenian singer — had gotten into a backstage brawl with another famous Slovenian songwriter, Patrik Greblo. Greblo reportedly had cheered for Stavec and after the announcement of the Sisters' victory had tried to explain to Magnifico that it hadn't been anything personal. Magnifico apparently was not in the mood for reconciliation and head-butted Greblo. As if that weren't enough scandal, suspicions grew about the long-delayed tele-voting results. Not only the lateness of the tally but also the huge voter turnout were called into question. According to official results, a total of 91,952 votes were cast for the ten songs, effectively doubling last year's tele-voter turnout.

On 19 February, TV Slovenia and two tele-voting companies — the telecommunications provider Telekom, who was in charge of sending the received numbers of votes to a second, private company, Sting, which was to process them and send the results to TV Slovenia — held a press conference to address the increasing controversy. The statements did nothing to clear the air, as it was revealed that the tele-vote had lasted eight minutes — three more than the five allowed and announced — and had started early. The organizers gave no indication as to who had given the green light to open up the phone lines before the starting signal flashed on TV screens across the country.

Misa Molk, the editor in chief of TV Slovenia's Entertainment Program, ultimately announced that the tele-voting had been declared invalid. "But we still have a winner: the trio Sisters with 'Only Love,'" Molk said, explaining that the contest rules stated that in cases of a collapse of the telephone vote only the votes of the juries would count.

With no doubt left as to the identity of the winners, a group of leading Slovenian singers, composers, label-record companies owners, and songwriters yesterday wrote an open letter vowing to never again appear at TV Slovenia's Entertainment Program events. The group said that no respect was being paid to their work, that the irregularities surrounding the public voting results had been poorly justified, and that the jury members had overstepped their mandate with a unilateral decision in favor of The Sisters.

In parliament, Slovene People's Party Deputy Franc Kangler on 19 February asked Culture Ministry officials how they intended to improve the public image of the national television station in the wake of the affair. "Everything is in the hand of the station's management," Bozidar Zorko of the Culture Ministry said tersely. The same day, the general manager of the station, Aleks Stakul, demanded a thorough investigation of the matter.

Miss Marlena, Daphne, and Emperatrizz carefully avoided the post-song contest squabbles, leading observers in Slovenia to wonder if the trio members were already packing their suitcases for Estonia — carefully placing their winning red flight attendant dresses on top. "We came to EMA to win," Miss Marlena said in the group's first response after their triumph. Why shouldn't they succeed in repeating in Estonia?