Slovenia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 with the song "Verjamem" written by Vladimir Graić, Hari Mata Hari and Igor Pirkovič. The song was performed by Eva Boto. Songwriter Hari Mata Hari represented Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 with the song "Lejla" where he placed third in the grand final of the competition. Slovenian broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTV Slovenija) organised the national final Misija EMA 2012 in order to select the Slovenian entry for the 2012 contest in Baku, Azerbaijan. 32 performers competed in the first stage of the national final, Misija Evrovizija, from which two artists qualified to compete in Misija EMA 2012 following a five-month-long competition. In Misija EMA 2012, the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, each artist performed three songs and one song were selected for each performer following the combination of votes from a four-member jury panel and a public televote. In the second round, "Verjamem" performed by Eva Boto was selected as the winner entirely by a public televote.
Slovenia was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 24 May 2012. Performing during the show in position 9, "Verjamem" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Slovenia placed seventeenth out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 31 points.
Background
Prior to the 2012 contest, Slovenia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest seventeen times since its first entry in . Slovenia's highest placing in the contest, to this point, has been seventh place, which the nation achieved on two occasions: in 1995 with the song "Prisluhni mi" performed by Darja Švajger and in 2001 with the song "Energy" performed by Nuša Derenda. The country's only other top ten result was achieved in 1997 when Tanja Ribič performing "Zbudi se" placed tenth. Since the introduction of semi-finals to the format of the contest in 2004, Slovenia had thus far only managed to qualify to the final on two occasions. In 2011, "No One" performed by Maja Keuc qualified to the final and placed thirteenth.
The Slovenian national broadcaster, Radiotelevizija Slovenija (RTV Slovenija), broadcasts the event within Slovenia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. RTV Slovenija confirmed Slovenia's participation in the 2012 Eurovision Song Contest on 24 June 2011. The Slovenian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest has traditionally been selected through a national final entitled Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA), which has been produced with variable formats. For 2012, the broadcaster opted to organise EMA 2012 and launched the newly-created talent selection Misija Evrovizija that acted as a preselector for EMA itself.
Before Eurovision
Misija Evrovizija
Misija Evrovizija was first phase of the 17th edition of the Slovenian national final format Evrovizijska Melodija (EMA), used by RTV Slovenija to select Slovenia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. The competition involved a five-month-long process that commenced on 26 August 2011 and concluded on 8 January 2012. All shows in the competition took place at the RTV Slovenija Studio 1 in Ljubljana, hosted by Klemen Slakonja and 2011 Slovenian Eurovision entrant Maja Keuc and was broadcast on TV SLO1 and online via the broadcaster's website rtvslo.si.