North Macedonia at the Eurovision Song Contest

Balance sheet

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Broadcasting company

First participation

1998

Number of participations

19 (as of 2019)

Highest ranking

7 ( 2019 )

Highest Score

305 ( 2019 )

Lowest Score

16 ( 1998 )

Points average (since first post)

59.26 (as of 2019)

Average points per voting country in the 12-point system

1.26 (as of 2019)

This article deals with the history of North Macedonia as a participant in the Eurovision Song Contest .

Due to the name dispute with Greece until the Eurovision Song Contest in Lisbon 2018, the name of the country was the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia ( English Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) , French Ancienne République Yougoslave de Macédoine (ARYM) ). FYR Macedonia or MKD was used as an abbreviation . When the ESC took place in Athens in 2006 , the entire name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was used once . After the country in 2019 Northern Macedonia was renamed, gave EBU announced on 6 March 2019 that the country in the future under the names at the event Northern Macedonia (English North Macedonia , French Macédoine du Nord will) occur.

Participation before 1996

→ Main article : Yugoslavia at the Eurovision Song Contest

North Macedonia indirectly participated in the Eurovision Song Contest as part of the SFR Yugoslavia since 1961, but there was no Yugoslav contribution made by the Macedonian broadcaster "TV Skopje". TV Skopje took part in Jugovizija , the Yugoslav preliminary decision, with its own contributions between 1964 and 1991 , but could not even prevail.

Regularity of participation and successes in competition

Tamara Todevska achieved the best result so far in the competition for North Macedonia in 2019

North Macedonia wanted to take part in the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1996 and submitted the title Samo ti, sung by Kaliopi Grill . In the internal preselection of the EBU, however, the song did not make it into the top 23. After the disappointment, North Macedonia decided not to participate in 1997 and was represented in Birmingham for the first time in 1998 . There, the country only achieved a below-average result in 19th place, so that in 1999 the country had to suspend again. In 2000 North Macedonia was able to participate again, but the country only achieved an average result with 15th place. 2001 had to be suspended. Also in 2002 the result was not really good with 19th place, so that North Macedonia had to sit out again in 2003. Macedonia was only allowed to participate again in 2004, but had to compete in the newly introduced semi-finals. Toše Proeski reached place 10 there and qualified for the final. The best result to date was achieved with 14th place. North Macedonia also reached the final in 2005, but was only able to achieve average here with 17th place. Also in 2006 the final was reached, where Elena Risteska achieved the best result for North Macedonia with 12th place. In 2007 North Macedonia also reached the final and got the same result as 2004 with 14th place. In 2008, however, the country failed for the first time in the semi-finals.

Finally, in 2008 a new qualification rule was introduced, where the best nine titles of the televoting as well as a contribution selected by a back-up jury make it to the finals. Here, North Macedonia failed both in 2008 and 2009 as tenth in the televoting in the final qualification. Macedonian television therefore advocated a rule change at the EBU in 2009 and even threatened to withdraw from the Eurovision Song Contest. As a result, from 2010 - like the final ranking in 2009 - half of the semi-final ratings were made up of the televoting and half of the jury ratings. However, this rule change was of little use to the country in 2010, because North Macedonia clearly missed qualifying with 15th place in the semifinals. Also in 2011, qualifying for the final was clearly missed with 16th place. It wasn't until 2012 that a Macedonian contribution made it to the final again.

In 2012, North Macedonia made it to the finals again after four years with Kaliopi , which should have started in 1996, and even ended up in 13th place in the finals. This result was followed by North Macedonia's worst result until then. Esma Redžepova & Vlatko Lozanoski only reached the penultimate place in the semi-finals. Tijana Dapčević also missed the final in 2014 with 13th place in the semi-finals. In 2015, the result of 2013 was repeated and North Macedonia then landed again on the penultimate place. In 2016 Kaliopi was sent again, who had already participated in 2012. With 11th place in the semi-finals, she just missed the final. In 2017, North Macedonia did not reach the final either and ended up in 15th place in the semifinals.

Originally, the country was supposed to forego participation in 2018 for the first time due to financial difficulties. The reason was the accumulation of a considerable amount of debt by the station MRT with the EBU , which is why North Macedonia was initially not allowed to participate. However, an agreement was later reached and North Macedonia did participate in 2018. Participation was then a new low. North Macedonia only reached 18th place in the semi-finals and thus the worst result to date. After this further failure, North Macedonia, which first competed under this country name in 2019, took part in the following year. That was where the great and surprising success came. After a long dry spell of non-qualifications since 2012, the country reached the final in 2019 for the first time in seven years with Tamara Todevska and was even able to secure the best result in the history of North Macedonia at the Song Contest - a seventh place in the final, which is the first place in North Macedonia among the top ten, as well as a second place in the semi-finals. With 305 points, a new maximum number of points was achieved for the country.

Overall, only three of the 19 entries ended up in the left half of the table. In addition, the country has already missed the semi-finals ten times, making it one of the countries that have been eliminated most often in the semi-finals. Only Switzerland was eliminated more often (eleven times) in the semi-finals. In return, North Macedonia was never last, but reached the penultimate place three times. Thus, despite the success in 2019, North Macedonia is one of the most unsuccessful countries in the competition.

List of posts

Color legend: - 1st place. - 2nd place. - 3rd place. - Equal points with last place. - Eliminated in the semifinals / in the qualification / in the Eastern European preliminary decision. - no participation / not qualified. - Cancellation of the Eurovision Song Contest.      

year	Interpreter	Title Music (M) and Text (T)	language	translation	final		Semi-final / qualification		National preliminary decision
					space	Points	space	Points
1996	Kaliopi Калиопи Грил	Samo ti (Само ти) M / T: Kaliopi Grill	Macedonian	Only you	Not qualified qualifying round		26/29	14th	internal selection
1997	No participation
1998	Vlado Janevski Владо Јаневски	Ne zori, zoro (Не Зори, Зоро) M: Grigor Koprov ; T: Vlado Janevski	Macedonian	May the sun not go down	19/25	16	Qualified directly for the final		Skopje Festival 1998
1999	Not qualified
2000	XXL	100% te ljubam (Сто посто те љубам) M: Dragan Karanfilovski; T: Orče Zafirovski, Vlado Janevski	Macedonian, English	I love you one hundred percent	15/24	29	Qualified directly for the final		Skopje Festival 2000
2001	Not qualified
2002	Karolina Каролина	Od nas zavisi (Од нас зависи) M: Nikola Perevski; T: Vladimir Krstevski	Macedonian	It is up to us	19/24	25th	Qualified directly for the final		Skopje Festival 2002
2003	Not qualified
2004	Toše Proeski Тоше Проески	Life M: Jovan Jovanov; T: Ilija Nikolovski	English	The life	14/24	47	10/22	71	National preliminary decision
2005	Martin Vučić Мартин Вучиќ	Make My Day M: Dragan Vučić; T: Branka Kostić	English	Save my day	17/24	52	9/25	97	Skopje Festival 2005
2006	Elena Risteska Елена Ристеска	Ninanajna (Нинанајна) M: Darko Dimitrov; T: Rade Vrčakovski	English, Macedonian	Ninanaina	12/24	56	10/23	76	Nacionalen Evrosong 2006
2007	Karolina Каролина	Mojot svet (Мојот свет) M: Grigor Koprov ; T: Ognen Nedelkovski	Macedonian, English	My world	14/24	73	9/28	97	Nacionalen Evrosong 2007
2008	Tamara , Vrčak & Adrian Тамара Тодевска, Раде Врчаковски, Адриан Гаџа	Let Me Love You M / T: Rade Vrchakovski-Vrcak	English	let me Love You	Eliminated		10/19	64	Skopje Festival 2008
2009	Next time	Nešto što kje ostane (Нешто што ќе остане) M / T: Damjan Lazarov, Jovan Jovanov	Macedonian	Something that's left over	Eliminated		10/18	45	Skopje Festival 2009
2010	Gjoko Taneski	Jas ja imam silata (Јас ја имам силата) M / T: Kristijan Gabrovski	Macedonian	I have the power	Eliminated		15/17	37	Skopje Festival 2010
2011	Vlatko Ilievski	Rusinka (Русинкa) M: Grigor Koprov ; T: Grigor Koprov, Vladimir Dojcinovski, Jovan Jovanov, Marko Marinkovic	Macedonian, English	Russian woman	Eliminated		16/19	36	Skopje Festival 2011
2012	Kaliopi Калиопи	Crno i belo (Црно и бело) M: Romeo Grill; T: Kaliopi	Macedonian	black and white	13/26	71	9/18	53	internal selection
2013	Esma Redžepova & Vlatko Lozanoski Есма Реџепова & Влатко Лозаноски	Pred da se razdeni (Пред да се раздени) M: Darko Dimitrov, Lazar Cvetkoski, Simeon Atanasov; T: Magdalena Cvetkoska	Macedonian, Romani	Just before dawn	Eliminated		16/17	28	internal selection
2014	Tijana Dapčević Тијана Дапчевиќ	To the Sky M: Darko Dimitrov, Lazar Cvetkoski; T: Elena Risteska	English	To the sky	Eliminated		13/15	33	internal selection
2015	Daniel Kajmakoski Даниел Кајмакоски	Autumn Leaves M: Joacim Persson; T: Aleksandar Mitevski, Daniel Kajmanoski	English	Fall foliage	Eliminated		15/16	28	Skopje Festival 2015
2016	Kaliopi Калиопи	Dona (Донa) M: Romeo Grill; T: Kaliopi	Macedonian	lady	Eliminated		11/18	88	internal selection
2017	Jana Burčeska Јана Бурческа	Dance Alone M / T: Joacim Persson, Alex Omar, Florence A., Bobi-Leon Milanow	English	Dancing alone	Eliminated		15/18	69	internal selection
2018	Eye cue	Lost and Found M / T: Bojan Trajkovski	English	Lost and found	Eliminated		18/19	24	internal selection
2019	Tamara Todevska Тамара Тодевска	Proud M: Darko Dimitrov, Lazar Cvetkoski, Robert Bilbilov; T: Kosta Petrov, Sanja Popovska	English	Proud	7/26	305	2/18	239	internal selection
2020	Vasil Васил	YOU M: Nevena Neskoska; T: Nevena Neskoska, Kalina Neskoska, Alice Schroeder	English	You	Cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic by the EBU				internal selection

National preliminary decisions

All Macedonian contributions to the Eurovision Song Contest up to 2011 were determined as part of a national preliminary decision, whereby different modes were used. Since 2012 - with the exception of 2015 - both the contribution and the interpreter have been selected internally and presented to the public in a TV broadcast.

1996 to 2002

From 1996 to 2002 the preliminary rounds took place on a large scale with many participants (between 18 and 22). In addition, two preliminary rounds with 15 and 14 participants were held in 1996. Elections were made in 1996 by a jury, in 1998 by televoting and in 2000 and 2002 by a jury, televoting and with the help of the studio audience.

2004

Toše Proeski was selected internally in 2004 to represent North Macedonia in the Istanbul competition. In the preliminary round, he presented eight titles. The winning song was determined by a jury, televoting and the singer himself.

2005

In 2005, singer and song were chosen separately: The two best singers selected from a total of 128 applications presented four songs each in the preliminary round, the winner was determined by a jury, televoting and the studio audience.

2006 and 2007

In 2006 and 2007 the “classic” preliminary decision was reintroduced: 20 artists took part in 2006 and 15 in 2007, each with one title. The winner was determined exclusively by televoting, although this was regionally split for the first time in 2007. Nevertheless, the winner Karolina received the highest score of twelve points from all twelve regions.

2009 and 2010

In 2009, the preliminary decision was supplemented by two preliminary rounds of 16 candidates each, from which the best eight qualified for the final. As in 2008, voting was carried out by jury and televoting. In 2010 there were 14 songs in the semi-finals instead of 16.

2008 and 2011

In 2008 there was also a classic preliminary decision with 15 candidates, elected by jury and televoting, each with a weighting of 50%. In 2011, 20 instead of 15 songs took part.

2015

For 2015, the Skopje Festival returned as a national Macedonian ESC preliminary decision. 20 performers took part in the show, which took place on November 13, 2014. This means that North Macedonia is the earliest country to select its contribution in 2015, ahead of Malta on November 22nd. The result was determined 50% by televoting and 50% by international juries from Austria , Azerbaijan , Bulgaria , Romania , Turkey , the Netherlands and Croatia .

languages

After songs no longer had to be sung in the national language from 1999, only Od nas zavisi 2002, Nešto što kje ostane 2009, Crno i belo 2012 and Dona 2016 were presented completely in the national language. All other titles were either presented completely in English, were presented as English-Macedonian mixed versions or contained a further language in addition to Macedonian. The 2006 post was mostly in English but ended in Macedonian. In 2000 and 2007 it was the other way around; the songs were mostly in the local language with the last refrain in English. In addition to Macedonian, the 2011 article also contained a few lines in English. In 2013, the article even contained a few lines in Romani in addition to the Macedonian language. However, since all contributions had to be sung in Macedonian in the preliminary round, there is also a version in the national language of many contributions. There was controversy over the language in 2002 when Karolina initially refused to perform her song in Macedonian, but eventually bowed to the television station's guidelines.

Scoring

The following countries received the most points from or awarded the most points to North Macedonia (as of 2019):

Most of the points awarded in the final space country Points 1  Albania 117 2  Serbia 104 3  Turkey 79 4th  Croatia 77 5  Bosnia and Herzegovina 66

Most in the final received points space country Points 1  Croatia 75 2  Slovenia 51 3  Albania 48 4th  Serbia 46 5  Bosnia and Herzegovina 43

Most of the points awarded space country Points 1  Albania 253 2  Serbia 184 3  Bulgaria 160 4th  Croatia 152 5  Turkey 125

Most total obtained points space country Points 1  Albania 183 2  Croatia 157 3  Serbia 135 4th  Bosnia and Herzegovina 114 5  Bulgaria 109

Award of the highest rating

Since 1996, North Macedonia has awarded the maximum number of points to twelve different countries, eight times to Albania. In the semi-finals, however, North Macedonia awarded the maximum number of points to seven different countries, eight of them to Albania.

Highest rating (final) year country Place (final) 1996 Not qualified 1997 No participation 1998  Croatia 5 1999 Not qualified 2000  Romania 17th 2001 Not qualified 2002  Romania 9 2003 Not qualified 2004  Albania 7th 2005  Albania 16 2006  Bosnia and Herzegovina 3 2007  Serbia 1 2008  Albania 17th 2009  Turkey 4th 2010  Albania 16 2011  Bosnia and Herzegovina 6th 2012  Albania 5 2013  Denmark 1 2014  Montenegro 19th 2015  Albania 17th 2016  Ukraine (J) 1  Serbia (T) 18th 2017  Bulgaria (J&T) 2 2018  Estonia (J) 8th  Albania (T) 11 2019  Italy (J) 2  Albania (T) 17th 2020 Competition canceled

Highest rating (semi-finals) year country Place (semifinals) 2004  Albania 4th 2005  Croatia 4th 2006  Albania 14th 2007  Serbia 1 2008  Albania 9 2009  Turkey 2 2010  Albania 6th 2011  Bosnia and Herzegovina 5 2012  Serbia 2 2013  Malta 4th 2014  Malta 9 2015  Serbia 9 2016  Serbia (J) 10  Albania (T) 16 2017  Bulgaria (J) 2  Serbia (T) 11 2018  Bulgaria (J) 7th  Albania (T) 8th 2019  Albania (J&T) 9 2020 Competition canceled

Trivia

• North Macedonia is one of three countries that won the Barbara Dex Award twice ( 2005 and 2018 ). Otherwise only Serbia ( 2010 and 2013 ) and Portugal ( 2006 and 2019 ) won the award several times. The award "honors" the worst outfit of the respective year.
• The singer Tamara Todevska took part in the ESC for the fourth time in 2019, the second time as a solo performer. After Lys Assia , Corry Brokken and Valentina Monetta, she is the fourth candidate to have represented a country four times at the ESC.

Impressions

• 

  Toše Proeski 2004

• 

  Karolina Gočeva 2007

• 

  Tamara, Vrčak and Adrian 2008

• 

  Next Time 2009

• 

  Vlatko Ilievski 2011

• 

  Esma Redžepova and Vlatko Lozanoski 2013

• 

  Tijana Dapčević 2014

• 

  Daniel Kajmakoski 2015

• 

  Kaliopi 2016

• 

  Jana Burčeska 2017

• 

  Eye Cue 2018

• 

  Tamara Todevska 2019

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ryan Cobb: EBU confirms name change to North Macedonia ahead of Eurovision 2019. In: escxtra.com. March 6, 2019, accessed on March 16, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Macedonia laments injustice ( Memento from December 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Anthony Granger: FYR Macedonia: MRT Will Not Participate in Eurovision 2018 As Things Stand. In: www.eurovoix.com. October 30, 2017, accessed September 18, 2018 . 
4. ↑ http://www.eurovision.de/news/ESC-2018-doch-mit-Mazedonien,mazedonien430.html
5. ^ National Finals homepage
6. ↑ Karolina Goceva back for FYR Macedonia ( Memento from March 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ diggiloo.net