North Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest

North Macedonia, previously presented in the contest as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (F.Y.R. Macedonia), has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 19 times since its official debut in 1998. The country had attempted to participate in 1996, but failed to qualify from the audio-only qualifying round. The current Head of Delegation is Meri Popova.

North Macedonia
◄ Yugoslavia
Member stationMacedonian Radio Television
National selection events
Participation summary
Appearances19 (9 finals)
First appearance1998
Best result7th: 2019
External links
MRT page
North Macedonia's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see
North Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2020

Prior to 2019, North Macedonia's best result was a 12th-place finish with Elena Risteska in 2006. Having qualified from the semi-final round only once in ten of the previous eleven contests (2008–18), North Macedonia achieved its best result to date in 2019, when Tamara Todevska qualified and finished in seventh place in the final after winning the jury vote.

History

Prior declaring independence in 1991, as a constituent country of SFR Yugoslavia, the Socialist Republic of Macedonia participated in the Yugoslav pre-selection called among the other Yugoslav federal units.[1] Also, Macedonian composers wrote songs for candidates from other parts of Yugoslavia.[2] However, the Macedonian entries never managed to win, and the SR Macedonia was the only federal state never to send a Yugoslav entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. An exception occurred when Maja Odžaklievska won the Yugoslav competition in 1979,[1] but she did not perform in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 due to the Yugoslavian decision not to participate that year.

As the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYR Macedonia), the country submitted its first entry, "Samo ti" (Само ти) sung by Kaliopi, for the 1996 edition. However, the country failed to qualify through the non-broadcast pre-selection round. Its efforts to enter the contest were again hindered in 1997, when another new system was introduced where countries with the lowest average scores over the previous four years were excluded from participating. The country made its debut in 1998, with Vlado Janevski's "Ne zori, zoro".

The country's best result before 2019 (and the best result with its old name) was in 2006, when Elena Risteska sang "Ninanajna" (Нинанајна) in Athens, Greece and came 12th. It is the only country to have qualified from every semi-final from 2004 to 2007 (other countries have qualified for every final but due to them finishing in the top 10 the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-final). Despite never finishing in the top 10, their record of qualifying for every final was only broken in 2008, when the jury vote used in the semi-final chose Sweden as a finalist, despite Tamara, Vrčak and Adrian having come 10th in the televote. Since then, only in 2012 did they make the final.

Macedonian Radio Television, which broadcasts the event, has used the Skopje Fest festival to select the national entry since the country's debut, although it made several changes in the national final format, so the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2012 national finals were organised outside the Skopje Festival.

For 2019, the country competed for the first time under its new name, North Macedonia.[3] MRT selected Tamara Todevska as their act of choice, performing the song "Proud". The song managed to qualify through the second semifinal, and reached seventh place in the final, winning the international jury vote. This is the first top ten placement for the country, and also broke the record as the highest place ever for North Macedonia in the history of the contest.

Contestants
For contestants prior to 1996, see Yugoslavia in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Table key
2
 Second place
X
 Entry selected but did not compete
Year Artist Language Title Final Points Semi Points
1996
 Kaliopi Macedonian "Samo ti" (Само ти) Failed to qualify[lower-alpha 1] 26 14
1998
 Vlado Janevski Macedonian "Ne zori, zoro" (Не зори, зоро) 19 16 No semi-finals
2000
 XXL Macedonian, English "100% te ljubam" (100% те љубам) 15 29
2002
 Karolina Macedonian "Od nas zavisi" (Од нас зависи) 19 25
2004
 Toše Proeski English "Life" 14 47 10 71
2005
 Martin Vučić English "Make My Day" 17 52 9 97
2006
 Elena Risteska English, Macedonian "Ninanajna" (Нинанајна) 12 56 10 76
2007
 Karolina Macedonian, English "Mojot svet" (Мојот свет) 14 73 9 97
2008
 Tamara, Vrčak and Adrian English "Let Me Love You" Failed to qualify 10[lower-alpha 2] 64
2009
 Next Time Macedonian "Nešto što kje ostane" (Нешто што ќе остане) 10[lower-alpha 2] 45
2010
 Gjoko Taneski, Billy Zver & Pejčin Macedonian "Jas ja imam silata" (Јас ја имам силата) 15 37
2011
 Vlatko Ilievski Macedonian, English "Rusinka" (Русинкa) 16 36
2012
 Kaliopi Macedonian "Crno i belo" (Црно и бело) 13 71 9 53
2013
 Esma & Lozano Macedonian, Romani "Pred da se razdeni" (Пред да се раздени) Failed to qualify 16 28
2014
 Tijana English "To the Sky" 13 33
2015
 Daniel Kajmakoski English "Autumn Leaves" 15 28
2016
 Kaliopi Macedonian "Dona" (Дона) 11 88
2017
 Jana Burčeska English "Dance Alone" 15 69
2018
 Eye Cue English "Lost and Found" 18 24
2019
 Tamara Todevska English "Proud" 7 305 2 239
2020
 Vasil English "You" Contest cancelled[lower-alpha 3] X

Awards

Barbara Dex Award
Further information: Barbara Dex Award
Year Performer Host city Ref.
2005 Martin Vučić Kiev
[4]
2018 Eye Cue Lisbon
[5]

Commentators and spokespersons
Year Commentator Spokesperson Ref.
1992 John Ilija ApelgrenDid not participate
1993 Antonio Dimitrievski and Ivan Mircevski
1994 Milanka Rašik
1995 Vlado Janevski
1996
1997 Dragan B. Kostik
1998 Milanka RašikEvgenija Teodosievska
1999 Ivan MircevskiDid not participate
2000 Milanka RašikSandra Todorovska
2001 Did not participate
2002 Biljana Debarlieva
2003 Did not participate
2004 Ivan MircevskiKarolina Petkovska
2005 Karolina Gočeva
2006 Karolina PetkovskaMartin Vučić
[6]
2007 Milanka RašikElena Risteska
2008 Ognen Janeski
2009 Karolina PetkovskaFrosina Josifovska
[6]
2010 Milica Roštikjl
[6]
2011 Eli TanaskovskaKristina Talevska
2012 Karolina Petkovska
[6][7]
2013 Dimitar Atanasovski
[6][8]
2014 Marko Mark
[6][9]
2015
[6][10]
2016 Dijana Gogova
[6][11]
2017 Ilija Grujoski
[6][12]
2018 Jana Burčeska
[6][13]
2019 Toni CifrovskiNikola Trajkovski
[14][15]

Photogallery

See also

Notes and references

Notes
  1. Macedonia unsuccessfully attempted to participate in 1996, when there was an audio-only pre-qualifying round for all countries (excluding hosts Norway). The official Eurovision site does not count 1996 in North Macedonia's list of appearances.
  2. Whilst 10th place in the televote would have been sufficient to qualify in previous years, in 2008 and 2009 only the top nine places qualified automatically and the tenth place was decided based on the votes of the backup juries. North Macedonia did not progress to the final in either year: in 2008 Sweden beat Macedonia to the final, while the same occurred in 2009 with Finland.
  3. The 2020 contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

References
  1. Opatijo, oh Fabulous - Yugoslavian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest - statistics by year Archived 2008-02-26 at the Wayback Machine, Eurodalmatia official ESC fan club, Dalmatia, Croatia
  2. Official Site of OGAE Macedonia, see section: Jugovizija.
  3. Herbert, Emily (6 March 2019). "North Macedonia: EBU Confirms Name Change". Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  4. Adams, William Lee (9 July 2015). "Poll: Who was the worst dressed Barbara Dex Award winner?". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  5. van Rossem, Aline (20 May 2018). "Barbara Dex Award 2018: F.Y.R Macedonia's Eye Cue win Eurovision's Worst Dressed". Wiwibloggs. Retrieved 8 December 2019.
  6. Granger, Anthony (8 April 2018). "FYR Macedonia: Karolina Petkovska Returns To Commentary Booth for Tenth Eurovision Song Contest". eurovoix.com. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  7. Roxburgh, Gordon (26 May 2012). "Running order for the voting tonight". eurovision.tv. EBU. Archived from the original on 18 June 2012. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  8. Roxburgh, Gordon (18 May 2013). ""Good evening Malmö" - Voting order revealed". eurovision.tv. EBU. Archived from the original on 19 May 2013. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  9. Granger, Anthony (10 May 2014). "ESC'14: Voting Order Announced". eurovoix.com. Archived from the original on 6 October 2018. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  10. Roxburgh, Gordon (23 May 2015). ""Good evening Vienna" - Voting order revealed". eurovision.tv. EBU. Archived from the original on 24 May 2015. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  11. Roxburgh, Gordon (14 May 2016). "The 42 spokespersons for the 2016 Grand Final". eurovision.tv. EBU. Archived from the original on 15 May 2016. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  12. Jensen, Charlotte (13 May 2017). "Voting order and spokespeople for Grand Final 2017". eurovisionary.com. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  13. Farren, Neil (11 May 2018). "FYR Macedonia: Jana Burceska Announced as Spokesperson". eurovoix.com. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
  14. Taušanska, Marija (20 May 2019). "Тамара со "Proud" ни го донесе најдобриот евровизиски пласман досега". Nova Makedonija.
  15. "Eurovision 2019 Spokespersons – Who will announce the points?". eurovisionworld.com. 18 May 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.