Photo Credit: Klemen
After an exciting EMA, Slovenia have chosen Klemen to represent their country at Eurovision 2025. In this article, we take a look at Klemen from his early career, his many impersonations, to now.
Early Life and Career
Klemen was born in Breลพice in the east of Slovenia. Ever since high school, Klemen began impersonating different people and was talented at it. He studied at the Ljublijana Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television. This enabled him to develop his craft of impersonating, acting and singing.
His breakthrough came in 2007 at a homecoming for Slovenian hammer throw athlete Primoลพ Kozmus where his town was celebrating a silver medal at the Athletics World Championships. Klemen was invited as a performer and he sang a traditional Christmas song but altered the lyrics and impersonated many popular singers. This performance was noticed by a radio host who invited him to present on a satirical radio show called Radio Ga Ga which mocked Slovenian politicians and this radio show was broadcasted on a national level. He then became an overnight success and began co-hosting a TV show in 2008 for a couple of years.
He was later employed at the Ljublijana National Theatre between 2010-2018 where he continued to developing his acting and impersonating skills.
Early Eurovision Involvement
His first involvement with Eurovision and Slovenia’s national final EMA was where he hosted EMA in 2011. During the show, he performed a unique interval act where he sang a medley of all 16 songs which had won EMA over the years, in his own unique composition which was met with huge praise.
He later was confirmed to be the spokesperson for Slovenia at Eurovision 2011 in Germany where he paid tribute to ‘Paul’ the psychic German Octopus who predicted every match correctly during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and announced the Slovenian 12 points by choosing one of two flags.
He continued to impersonate Slovenian singers and politicians as well as international singers such as Anastacia, Shakira, and Tom Jones.
TV + Music Career and YouTube Breakthrough
In 2013, Klemen hosted his first own comedy show “Zadetek v petek” (Full on Friday) which lasted one season and then “Je bella cesta” (Damn) which lasted two seasons. The following year he wrote a song called “Zadลพuskaj” (Juice it) which was later featured on an advert in Slovenia and became the unexpected summer hit of 2015.
He then began to release political parodies on his YouTube channel where he impersonated political figures such as Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Angela Merkel. His Putin impersonation video called ‘Putin Putout’ went viral and has had over 57 million views to date.
EMA 2020
Klemen hosted EMA for a fourth time in 2020. As part of the interval act, he impersonated all of the previous Slovenian contestants from what they wore on the night, and how they sounded. Over the years Slovenia have sent lots of different songs and different styles of music so this shows just how talented as an impersonator he is to replicate everyone so well.
EMA 2025
On 13th December 2024, Slovenia announced the 12 acts hoping to represent Slovenia at Eurovision 2025 and to many people’s surprise Klemen was on the list. This was the first time that Klemen had ever competed as a contestant in the show, so this surprised many and he had tough compeition with fan favourite July Jones also being in the lineup.
Klemen’s song was called ‘How Much Time Do We Have Left?’ and on his Instagram, he explained how the song came about:
“After the success of Putin’s video, Putout, I thought I was flying, but a month and a half later, my partner Mojca Fatur received a difficult diagnosis of an incurable disease.
The world has turned on our heads. But what resonated most in my head was the question of how much time we had left. I wrote How Much Time Do We Have Left as a reflection of my personal experience. Despite being told it was incurable, she made a full recovery. We now live a happier life together with our three kids.”
He also stated that he felt like this song was a turning point for him and he was going to be singing as Klemen for the first time and not of his characters or impersonations.
Klemen went into EMA as one of the big favourites to win and he did not disappoint winning the jury vote, and winning the televote superfinal against July Jones earning him the right to represent Slovenia at Eurovision. After all his years impersonating celebrities and previous Eurovision contestants, he was now set to become one!
You can listen to his song right here:
Slovenia will be performing in the 1st half of the Semi Final 1 on Tuesday 13th May 2025. Slovenia have had some success in recent years qualifying for the final in 2023 and 2024. Will Klemen be able to continue the qualification streak in May?
What do you think of his song? Let us know in the comments!
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