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Joker Out is a five-member Sloveneindie rock band formed in 2016, who describe their genre as "Shagadelic Rock n' Roll".[1] They had represented Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 with the song "Carpe Diem", placing 21st.[2] Their discography includes three studio albums: Umazane misli (2021), Demoni (2022), and Souvenir Pop (2024).
Career
2016–2021: Formation and Umazane misli
The group was formed in May 2016 after the breakup of Apokalipsa, which included Bojan Cvjetićanin, Martin Jurkovič, Matic Kovačič and Luka Škerlep. Three of them (Cvjetićanin, Jurkovič, and Kovačič) were joined by Kris Guštin and Jan Peteh from Buržuazija, and Joker Out was born.[3] In November they released their first single "Kot srce, ki kri poganja", for which they also recorded their first music video.[4] On June 17, 2017, they became the winners of the 4th season (2016/17) of the Špil league (a competition for student musical groups and soloists).[5] In November they released their second song "Omamljeno telo".[6][7] The group also performed at many festivals.
Their next single "Gola", on which they first collaborated with producer Žare Pak, was released on September 12, 2019. On November 2, they had their first completely independent concert, held at the Ljubljana Castle.[8] "Gola" was followed by the fourth single "Vem da greš" in March 2020, followed by "Umazane misli" (October 2020) and "A sem ti povedal" (July 2021). Jure Maček replaced drummer Matic Kovačič between the releases of "Umazane misli" and "A sem ti povedal". The composition "Umazane misli" was chosen by the audience as the Best New Slovene Song of the Past Year at the first edition of the Frišno/Fresh music festival, which took place on October 1, 2021.[9][10]
Their first album Umazane misli was released in October 2021. It was originally planned to be released in April 2020, but the release was postponed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was presented at two consecutive concerts on October 20 and 21, 2021 in Cvetličarna, both of which were sold out in 2020. The second concert was recorded by Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTV Slovenija). In these two years, they received two Zlata piščal (Golden Flute) awards – the first in 2020 for Newcomers of the Year, and the second in 2021 for Artists of the Year.[11]
2022–present: Demoni and Eurovision Song Contest
In April 2022, they released the music video for the last single from their first album "Barve Oceana". On May 12, at the eighth edition of the Zlata piščal Awards, they were nominated for "Artist of the Year" for the second year in a row. On August 31, they released their second album Demoni, which was preceded by the song "Katrina". They held a presentation concert for the album on September 9 at the Križanke outdoor theatre in Slovenia's capital Ljubljana. On October 10, they announced on Instagram that bassist Martin Jurkovič was leaving the band to study abroad and was being replaced by Nace Jordan, a member of "Diamanti", the house band of the "V petek zvečer" show.[12][13] "Katrina" was followed at the end of October by "Demoni", their first Serbian-language single, which represents their first official release for the former Yugoslav market.[14]
On 8 December 2022, RTV Slovenija announced that Joker Out would represent Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool. Recording for their Eurovision song took place within the month of December 2022 in Hamburg, Germany, over a 12-day period.[15] The band stated that they wanted to keep the entire song in the Slovene language, saying: "we want to translate Slovenian into a universal language of dance and entertainment that all countries understand."[16] In January 2023, the band shot their music video in Ljubljana, at the Grand Hotel Union.[17]
On the same day that the band was announced to be internally selected by RTV Slovenija, the broadcaster announced that their song, later revealed to be titled "Carpe Diem", would premiere on a special Eurovision broadcast on TV SLO 1 called Misija Liverpool on 4 February 2023, along with the Eurovision Song Contest premiering the music video on their YouTube channel.[18] On 31 January, Joker Out was drawn to perform in the second half of the second semi-final on 11 May.[19]
As part of the promotional tour, in March and April they took part in the Eurovision pre-parties in Barcelona, Warsaw, Tel Aviv, Madrid, Amsterdam and London, and before leaving for Liverpool, they said goodbye to their home audience with a concert at Ljubljana's Novi Trg [sl] on April 25. In March, they were included in the list of 100 noteworthy music performers in Europe (Artists to Watch 2023), by the Association of Independent Music Labels IMPALA. On April 21, they released the single "New Wave" (an English-Slovene version of their song "Novi val"), recorded with Elvis Costello.[20]
At Eurovision, they performed in the second semi-final and qualified for the final, where they finished in 21st place. Following the contest, the band embarked on a European tour across Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, as well as Ireland and the United Kingdom. In June, they announced a Nordic tour for September, including shows in Norway, Sweden and Finland. They sold out 12,000-capacity arena gig in their hometown Ljubljana, on October 6, in Arena Stožice.[21]
Joker Out thank their fans after finishing a concert in Tavastia, Helsinki in 2023
