Darja Švajger

Darja Švajger (born 1965 in Maribor, SR Slovenia, SFR Yugoslavia) is one of Slovenia's most popular singers, perhaps best known internationally for having represented her country in the Eurovision Song Contest on two occasions.

Music entered Darja's life when she was still a child. After finishing secondary school, she entered the College of Music and attended art classes in Graz, Austria, where she studied classical solo singing and jazz. In 1997, she graduated magna cum laude. Already during her studies she had started performing as a solo vocalist with various bands and symphony orchestras. Since 1992 she has been engaged in several projects of the Slovene National Theatre in Maribor. In 1993, the international jury of the Melodies of the Sea and the Sun pop music festival, held in Koper, awarded her first prize in the Slovenian section of the international category. Her first album, In the Arms of the Night, soon followed.

The year 1995 was of great importance to Darja. She represented Slovenia in the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin, performing the song Prisluhni mi ("Listen to me") by Primoc Peterca and Saso Fajon. The ballad achieved seventh place: Slovenia's best ever result to the contest. Darja won the 1995 and 1996 Pop Singer of the Year awards in Slovenia. In the following years, she became very active and her second album, Moments, was released in 1998.

In 1999, RTV, the national television broadcaster, chose Darja to represent the country in the Eurovision Song Contest held in Jerusalem. Peterca and Fajon again wrote a ballad for her, entitled For A Thousand Years. The composer stated that he had been inspired by the city of New York during his four-month stay there. RTV had high hopes and indeed the song was in first place during the first minutes of the voting: it even got a 12 points high score from Ireland. The song finally scored a total of 50 points and was ranked 11th among the 23 entries.

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