Joker Out

Joker Out is a pop rock band from Ljubljana. They describe their style as “shagadelic rock’n’roll”.

The band was formed in May 2016, after the breakup of the band Apokalipsa, in which Bojan Cvjetićanin, Martin Jurkovič, Matic Kovačič and Luka Škerlep played. Three of them – Cvjetićanin, Jurkovič and Kovačič – were joined by Kris Guštin and Jan Peteh from the group Bouržuazija and Joker Out was born. Their first public performance was at the Festival Na Gaj in May 2016. In November of the same year, they released their first single “Kot srce ki kri poganja”, for which they also recorded a music video. A few days later, on November 10, they had their first (preliminary) appearance in the Špil Liga, a talent show for bands.

In the following months, they performed a lot on festivals and in television shows. They also competed for a performance in the finals of the Volkswagen Rocks tour. In the final of the Špil Liga they became the winners of its 4th season. In November, their second song “Omamljeno telo” was released. They kept on performing a lot in live shows, also in 2017 and 2018.

Their next single “Gola”, in which they collaborated for the first time with producer Žaret Pak, was released on September 12, 2019. Before that, they had a break of about 8 months, which was the result of Cvjetićanin wanting to try a solo career, but in the end he found that working in a group suited him better. On 2 November 2019 they had their first completely independent concert, at the Ljubljana Castle, and in December they performed again at the Rhythm of Youth.

“Goli” was followed by the fourth single “Vem da greš” in March 2020, and then “Umazane misli” (October 2020) and “A sem ti sajal” (July 2021). Jure Maček replaced drummer Matic Kovačič between the releases of “Umazanih misli” and “A sem ti sila”. The composition “Umazane misli” was chosen by the audience as the “newest Slovenian composition of the last year” at the festival Frišno/Fresh – Dan Nove Slovenske Glasbe, which took place on October 1, 2021. Their first album “Umazane misli” was released in October 2021. It was originally supposed to be released in April 2020, but its release was postponed several times due to COVID19. In those two years, they received two golden flutes: in 2020 for Newcomer of the Year and in 2021 for Artist of the Year.

In April 2022, they released the music video for the last single from the first album, “Barve oceana”. On May 12, at the eighth awarding of the Golden Pipes, for the second year in a row, they celebrated in the performer of the year category. On August 31, they released their second album “Demoni”, which was announced by the song “Katrina”. On October 10, they announced on Instagram that bassist Martin Jurkovič was leaving the band due to studying abroad. For now, they continue as a quartet, and Nace Jordan accompanies them on their performances. “Katrina” was followed at the end of October by “Demoni”, their first single in Serbian, which represents their first official release for the market of the former Yugoslavia.

On December 8, 2022, RTV Slovenia announced that Joker Out will represent Slovenia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool. With their song, “Carpe Diem”, they reached the final and were 21st there.