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 21 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.

Prior to 2019, North Macedonia's best result was a 12th-place finish with Elena Risteska in . 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 , when Tamara Todevska qualified and finished in seventh place in the final after winning the jury vote.

History

Prior to 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.Opatijo, oh Fabulous - Yugoslavian selection for the Eurovision Song Contest - statistics by year
, ''Eurodalmatia'' official ESC fan club, Dalmatia, Croatia Also, Macedonian composers wrote songs for candidates from other parts of Yugoslavia.Official Site
of OGAE Macedonia, see section: ''Jugovizija''. 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 1980, but she did not perform in the Eurovision Song Contest 1980 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 , 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 broken in , when the jury vote used in the semi-final chose Sweden as a finalist, despite Tamara, Vrčak having come 10th in the televote.

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

For , the country competed for the first time under its new name, North Macedonia. MRT selected Tamara Todevska as their act of choice, performing the song "Proud". The song managed to qualify through the second semi-final, and reached seventh place in the final, winning the jury vote. This is the first top ten placing as well as the highest placing ever for North Macedonia in the history of the contest. Following two non-qualifications in and , MRT confirmed its absence in the contest, citing financial constraints. However, MRT will still broadcast the 2023 contest with a view to return in 2024.

Participation overview

Awards

Barbara Dex Award

Related involvement

Commentators and spokespersons

* From until , North Macedonia competed as part of .

Photogallery

File:Projeski Eurovision 2004.jpg, Toše Proeski in Istanbul ( 2004)
File:Goceva-ESC2007.jpg, Karolina Gočeva in Helsinki ( 2007)
File:Tamara Todevska - ESC 2008.jpg, Tamara, Vrčak in Belgrade (2008)
File:Next time eurovision 2009.jpg, Next Time in Moscow (2009)
File:Vlatko ilievski eurosong 2011.jpg, Vlatko Ilievski in Düsseldorf (2011)
File:ESC2013 - Macedonia 06.jpg, Esma Redžepova and Vlatko Lozanoski in Malmö (2013)
File:ESC2014 - Macedonia 01.jpg, Tijana in Copenhagen (2014)
File:20150515 ESC 2015 Daniel Kajmakoski 7113.jpg, Daniel Kajmakoski in Vienna (2015)
File:ESC2016 - Macedonia 15.jpg, Kaliopi in Stockholm (2016)
File:Eurovision Song Contest 2017, Semi Final 2 Rehearsals. Photo 198.jpg, Jana Burčeska in Kyiv (2017)
File:Eye Cue (FYR Macedonia 2018).jpg, Eye Cue in Lisbon (2018)
File:Eurovision 2019 North Macedonia.jpg, Tamara Todevska in Tel Aviv (2019)
File:ESC 2021 Rotterdam 1st Semi Jury Show North Macedonia.jpg, Vasil in Rotterdam ()
File:Eurovision 2022 - Semi-final 2 - North Macedonia - Andrea (02).jpg, Andrea in Turin ()

See also

*North Macedonia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
*North Macedonia in the Turkvision Song Contest

Notes and references

Notes

References

External links

Points to and from North Macedonia
''eurovisioncovers.co.uk''
Eurovision North Macedonia

{{Music of North Macedonia

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest