Six Slovenian iconic songs, including one by the Avsenik Ensemble and the theme song of the first Slovenian colour feature film, are featured in the first EU Song Book, launched on 5 November after a decade in the making.

The song book, available in physical form and as an app, features a total of 164 songs, six from each of the 27 EU member states, chosen in public votes by over 87,000 EU citizens.

More than a hundred music organisations and conservatories have been involved in the project and more than 400 media outlets covered the public votes.

The songs are presented with notation and lyrics in the original 25 languages and in singable "European English", as the European Union Songbook Association, the group behind the project, described it.

The six Slovenian entries were picked in 2018 in a vote involving 3,290 people in cooperation with the Ljubljana Academy of Music, the Slovenian Composers' Association, the Slovenian Public Fund for Cultural Activities and five media organisations.

From Day of Love to Kekec's Song

Dan ljubezni (A Day of Love), the evergreen pop song performed by the band Pepel and Kri in the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest, was selected in the category of love songs.

Slovenija, od kod lepote tvoje (Slovenia, Where Do Your Splendours Come From?), the song by the legendary Avsenik Ensemble that has become an unofficial Slovenian anthem, won the vote in the nature & seasons category.

Meanwhile, the Slovenian entry in the freedom & peace section is Oj Triglav, moj dom (Oh, Triglav, My Home), the song that premiered in 1895 when the landmark shelter on top of Slovenia's highest peak was unveiled, sponsored and named after the composer himself, Jakob Aljaž.

Kje so tiste stezice (Where Are the Footpaths) was picked in the folk songs category and the Christmas carol Glej zvezdice božje (Behold the Little Stars of God) won the Slovenian faith song vote.

Kekčeva pesem, (Kekec's Song), the theme song of the second of the three Kekec franchise films about the brave shepherd boy and his adventures in the Alps, has been selected as the Slovenian children's song.

Embodiment of Slovenian spirit

Dušan Bavdek, the EU Song Book editor for Slovenia, noted that Slovenians have a call for peaceful and free coexistence between peoples enshrined in their national anthem.

"To the EU Song Book we are adding six well-chosen expressive songs that embody the Slovenian melodic heritage, rhythm and sound of the Slovenian word, and the Slovenian spirit as a whole," he said.

The Slovenian songs were translated into English by US composer and jazz pianist Steven Klink and translator Boštjan Malus.

They say the challenge was to capture the essence of each of the Slovenian songs in English, the dynamics of their lyrics, meaning and rhymes.

"In our collaborative process, we came up with - and discarded - hundreds of variations and solutions for each of the songs to perfect the verses that have ended up on these pages," they were quoted as saying in a press release.

Way to live less parallel lives in EU

"With the EU Songbook, we hope to enable the 27 populations to live less parallel lives through song exchange," said Jeppe Marsling, founder of the European Union Songbook Association.

The book includes QR-codes leading to original recordings, and a mosaic of introductions, crafted by 61 national editors, provides unique access to European music history over the centuries.

The book and app are available throughout the EU, the UK and the US. The app, which includes all 164 songs and links to YouTube, is free to download via App Store and Google Play.