Skopje Fest

Skopje Fest (Macedonian: Скопје Фест) or Festival na zabavni melodii Skopje (Фестивал на забавни мелодии Скопје) is one of the main musical events in the Republic of North Macedonia.

Skopje Fest
Genre	Music, entertainment
Country of origin	North Macedonia
Original language(s)	Macedonian
No. of series	20
Release
Original network	MRT
Original release	1969 (1969) – present

SkopjeFest began in 1968 in the Universal Hall in Skopje, and continued until 1980. In this short time, the festival became one of the biggest music events in Yugoslavia. Skopjefest was the place where famous Macedonian singers such as Slave Dimitrov, Zafir Hadzimanov, Nina Spirova made their performances together with eminent Yugoslav performers. Audiences enjoyed over 50 songs.

After Macedonia gained its independence peacefully from Yugoslavia, SkopjeFest was revived in 1994, and has since taken over from MakFest as North Macedonia's premier music festival.

The show involves some of North Macedonia's finest performers, singing original tracks submitted to MRT (Makedonska Radio Televizija), usually accompanied by the orchestra of MRT (excluding some of its latest editions).

It has also been used as the Macedonian national selections for the Eurovision Song Contest, since the late 1990s. The first Macedonian representative in Eurovision, was Macedonian singer Vlado Janevski who won SkopjeFest 1998 with the song "Ne Zori Zoro", for the Eurovision Song Contest 1998. This was Macedonia's first participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Ever since, SkopjeFest has been shadowed by many controversial debates regarding the strategies behind the song selections and the lack of transparence concerning the winner. Such allegations are not new to this contest. However, they intensified as the Eurovision participation became a factor. After the decision to make SkopjeFest the National Pre-Selection round for Macedonia's representative to Eurovision, the traditional point award ceremony was eliminated and replaced by the controversial announcement of only the Top 3 places. Neither the points of the jury nor the televoting results are made public.

Up until 2002, SkopjeFest used to be the biggest musical activity in the country. However, it faced financial problems. In 2003, the festival wasn't held in order to save money for the next year when Macedonia was going to particate in the Eurovision Song Contest. In the meantime, MRT made new criteria for the national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, the festival returned in 2004 only to celebrate the 60th anniversary of MRT. After that, financial problems increased and it wasn't organised until 2008, again as an ESC national final.

After the first details about selecting the Macedonian participant for the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 were revealed, it was announced that Skopje Fest will continue being held as an independent event without being involved in the Macedonian selection process for the Eurovision Song Contest.[1] On 15 July 2014, it was announced that Skopje Fest will return as the Macedonian national final for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015.[2]

Winners

Year	Song	Artist	Final	Points	Semi	Points
1968	"Sramežlivi lugje" (Срамежливи луѓе)	Violeta Tomovska, Ljupka Dimitrova, Zafir Hadžimanov & Dime Tomovski[3]	Did not participate
1969	"Soul Makedonijo" (Соул Македонијо)	Bezimeni
1971	"Samo ti" (Само ти)	Zoran Milosavljević
		Miki Jevremović
1972	"Odi si" (Оди си)	Dragan Mijalkovski
	"Prispivna za rekata" (Приспивна за реката)	Senka Veletanlić
1973	"Tivko tivko" (Тивко тивко)	Goce Nikolovski
	"Na ovoj den" (На овој ден)	Nina Spirova
1974	"Golubica" (Голубица)	Dragan Mijalkovski
	"V oblak sonce" (В облак сонце)	Maja Odžaklievska
1978	"O, ljubov neverna" (О, љубов неверна)	Zafir Hadžimanov
1994	"Ne me dopiraj" (Не допирај ме)	Maja Odžaklievska
1995	"Što te nema" (Што те нема)	Lidija Kočovska
1996	"Samo ti" (Само ти)	Kaliopi	Did not qualify		26	14
1997	"Manastirski son" (Манастирски сон)	Pece Ognenov	Did not participate
1998	"Ne zori, zoro" (Не зори, зоро)	Vlado Janevski	19	16	No semi-finals held
1999	"Sejačot" (Сејачот)	Sašo Gigov Giš	Did not participate
2000	"100% te ljubam" (100% те љубам)	XXL	15	29	No semi-finals held
2001	"Nostalgija" (Носталгија)	Andrijana Janevska	Did not participate
2002	"Od nas zavisi" (Од нас зависи)	Karolina Gočeva	19	25	No semi-finals held
2007	"Mojot Svet" (Mojoт Свет)	Karolina Gočeva	14	73	9	97
2008	"Vo ime na ljubovta" (Во име на љубовта)	Tamara, Vrčak, and Adrian	Did not qualify		10	64
2009	"Nešto što kje ostane" (Нешто што ќе остане)	Next Time			10	45
2010	"Jas ja imam silata" (Јас ја имам силата)	Gjoko Taneski feat. Billy Zver & Pejčin			15	37
2011	"Rusinka" (Русинкa)	Vlatko Ilievski			16	36
2013	"Kje te čekam jas" (Ќе те чекам јас)	Lambe Alabakovski	Did not participate
2014	"Lisja esenski" (Лисја есенски)	Daniel Kajmakoski	Did not qualify		15	28
2015	"Ubava" (Убава)	Eye Cue	Did not participate

References

1. Миленковска, В. (19 November 2011). "Калиопи на Евросонг, Скопски фестивал во ноември". Вест. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
2. Granger, Anthony (15 July 2014). "FYR Macedonia: 2015 Participation Is Confirmed". Eurovoix. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
3. "Aleksandar Džambazov". And the conductor is... Retrieved 20 September 2015.