Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Macedonia
◄ Yugoslavia
Member station	Macedonian Radio Television
National selection events	Skopje Fest 1996 1998 2000 2002 2005 2008–2011 2015 Nacionalen Evrosong 2006–2007 Internal Selection 2004 2012–2014 2016
Appearances
Appearances	16 (8 finals)
First appearance	1998
Best result	12th: 2006
Worst result	16th SF: 2011, 2013
External links
MRT page
Macedonia's page at Eurovision.tv

Macedonia, presented in the contest as Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,^[1] officially debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998. However, the country had already made efforts to enter the contest two years before since the Eurovision Song Contest 1996's pre-selection round where it submitted its first song entry, "Samo ti" (Само ти) sung by Kaliopi, which failed to qualify to the final thus eliminating the nation from competing for the first time. Macedonia's 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's best result was in 2006, when Elena Risteska sang "Ninanajna" (Нинанајна) in Athens, Greece and came 12th. Macedonia 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 and not saved by the jury. Since then, only in 2012 Macedonia have made the final.

Macedonian Radio-Television (MRT), 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.

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.^[2] Also, Macedonian composers wrote songs for candidates from other parts of Yugoslavia.^[3] However, the Macedonian entries never managed to win, and the SR Macedonia was among the few federal states never to send a Yugoslav entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. An exception occurred when Maja Odžaklievska won the Yugoslav competition in 1979,^[2] but she did not perform in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 due to the Yugoslavian decision not to participate that year.

Contestants

Table key

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 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. 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. If a country had won the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. The other reason being that back in 2004-2007, the top ten countries who were not members of the big four did not have to compete in the semi-finals the following year. If, for example, Germany and France placed inside the top ten with Spain and the United Kingdom finishing after 13th place, the countries who placed 11th and 12th were advanced to the following year's grand final along with the rest of the top ten countries.

Voting history

As of 2015, Macedonia's voting history is as follows:

Most points given in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  Turkey 79  Albania 79 2  Bosnia and Herzegovina 66 3  Serbia 57 4  Croatia 56 Most points received in the grand finals only Rank Country Points 1  Croatia 57 2  Bosnia and Herzegovina 43 3  Slovenia 37 4  Albania 30 5  Serbia and Montenegro 27

Most points given in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  Albania 157 2  Turkey 125 3  Bosnia and Herzegovina 116 4  Serbia 103 5  Croatia 97 Most points received in the semis and finals Rank Country Points 1  Bosnia and Herzegovina 114 2  Albania 113 3  Croatia 109 4  Slovenia 95 5  Bulgaria 84

Commentators and spokespersons

• From 1961 until 1991 Macedonia participated as part of Yugoslavia

Photogallery

• 

  Toše Proeski at Istanbul (2004)

• 

  Karolina Gočeva at Helsinki (2007)

• 

  Tamara, Vrčak and Adrian at Belgrade (2008)

• 

  Vlatko Ilievski at Düsseldorf (2011)

• 

  Esma Redžepova and Vlatko Lozanoski at Malmö (2013)

• 

  Tijana at Copenhagen (2014)

See also

• Macedonia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
• Macedonia in the Türkvizyon Song Contest

References

External links

• Points to and from Macedonia eurovisioncovers.co.uk
• Eurovison Macedonia

Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest   Participation 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016   Artists 1990s Kaliopi 1997 Vlado Janevski 1999 2000s XXL 2001 Karolina Gočeva 2003 Toše Proeski Martin Vučić Elena Risteska Karolina Gočeva Tamara, Vrčak and Adrian Next Time 2010s Gjoko Taneski, Billy Zver & Pejčin Vlatko Ilievski Kaliopi Esma and Lozano Tijana Daniel Kajmakoski Kaliopi   Songs 1990s "Samo ti" 1997 "Ne zori, zoro" (Не зори, зоро) 1999 2000s "100% te ljubam" 2001 "Od nas zavisi" 2003 "Life" "Make My Day" "Ninanajna" "Mojot svet" "Let Me Love You" "Nešto što kje ostane" 2010s "Jas ja imam silata" "Rusinka" "Crno i belo" "Pred da se razdeni" "To the Sky" "Autumn Leaves" (Note: Entries scored out are when Macedonia did not compete)

Music of the Republic of Macedonia Festivals Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest Macedonia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest Ohrid Fest Ohrid Summer Festival Si-Do Skopje Fest MakFest Skopje Jazz Festival Genres Folk music Starogradska muzika Čalgija Pop Rock Hip hop See also Music of the geographical region of Macedonia Music of Southeastern Europe Radio stations in the Republic of Macedonia