Macedonia (officially under the provisional appellation "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", abbreviated "FYR Macedonia") participated in the

Eurovision Song Contest 2006 The Eurovision Song Contest 2006 was the 51st edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Athens, Greece, following the country's victory at the with the song "My Number One" by Helena Paparizou. Organised by the European Broadcasti ...

with the song "Ninanajna" written by

Darko Dimitrov Darko Dimitrov ( mk, Дарко Димитров ; born January 21, 1973) is a Macedonian songwriter, record producer, arranger and record executive. Highly acclaimed for revitalising the Yugoslav mainstream pop music scene, which also influence ...

and Rade Vrčakovski. The song was performed by

Elena Risteska Elena Risteska ( mk, Елена Ристеска, ; born 27 April 1986), sometimes known as simply Elena, is a Macedonian singer. She represented Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006 in Athens with the song "Ninanajna", and finished in 1 ...

. The Macedonian broadcaster

Macedonian Radio Television Macedonian Radio Television (MRT; mk, Македонска радио-телевизија (МРТ), Makedonska radio-televizija (MRT)), officially National Radio-Television ( mk, Национална Радиотелевизија, Nacionalna ...

(MRT) organised the national final ''Specialen Evroviziski Den'' in order to select the Macedonian entry for the 2006 contest in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, Greece. Twenty entries competed in the competition on 4 March 2006 where "Ninanajna" performed by Elena Risteska was selected exclusively by a public televote, receiving 6,999 votes. Macedonia competed in the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 18 May 2006. Performing during the show in position 11, "Ninanajna" was announced among the top 10 entries of the semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 20 May. It was later revealed that Macedonia placed tenth out of the 23 participating countries in the semi-final with 76 points. In the final, Macedonia performed in position 11 and placed twelfth out of the 24 participating countries, scoring 56 points.

Background

Prior to the 2006 contest, Macedonia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest five times since its first entry in . The nation's best result in the contest to this point was fourteenth, which it achieved in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

with the song "

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

" performed by

Toše Proeski Todor "Toše" Proeski ( mk, Тодор "Тоше" Проески, ; 25 January 1981 – 16 October 2007) was a Macedonian multi-genre singer and songwriter. Considered a top act of the local Macedonian and Balkan music scene, Proeski's music w ...

. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Macedonia had featured in every final. The Macedonian national broadcaster,

(MRT), broadcasts the event within Macedonia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Macedonia had previously selected their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest through both national finals and internal selections. MRT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest on 20 December 2005. Since 1996, Macedonia selected their entries using a national final, a procedure that continued for their 2006 entry.

Before Eurovision

Specialen Evroviziski Den

''Specialen Evroviziski Den'' ("Special Eurovision Day") was the national final organised by MRT that selected Macedonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2006. Twenty entries participated in the competition which took place on 4 March 2006 at Studios 2 and 3 of MRT in

Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...

, hosted by Biljana Dragičević and Zoran Ljutkov and was broadcast on

MTV 1 MTV is a British pay television channel focusing on reality TV and music programming operated by Paramount Networks UK & Australia. The channel launched as part of MTV Networks Europe localisation strategy in 1997. MTV UK (previously MTV UK & ...

and MTV Sat.

Competing entries

A submission period was opened for interested artists and composers to submit their songs between 20 December 2005 and 15 January 2006. MRT received 51 submissions at the closing of the deadline and twenty entries were selected by a four-member committee consisting of

Ilija Pejovski Ilija Pejovski (Macedonian: Илија Пејовски) (born 1947) is a Macedonian composer, arranger and pianist. One of the Macedonian composers who began to treat jazz professionally and evolve the genre of Macedonian Jazz, Twenty entries competed and public televoting exclusively selected "Ninanajna" performed by

as the winner. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the competition featured a guest performance by the Rebis Ballet Studio.

Promotion

Elena Risteska specifically promoted "Ninanajna" as the Macedonian Eurovision entry on 11 March 2006 by performing the song during the Serbian and Montenegrin Eurovision national final '' Evropesma-Europjesma 2006''.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country, the " Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the ten highest placed finishers in the

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

contest are required to qualify from the semi-final on 18 May 2006 in order to compete for the final on 20 May 2006; the top ten countries from the semi-final progress to the final. On 21 March 2006, a special allocation draw was held which determined the running order for the semi-final and Macedonia was set to perform in position 11, following the entry from

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

and before the entry from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. At the end of the show, Macedonia was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Macedonia placed tenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 76 points. The draw for the running order for the final was done by the presenters during the announcement of the ten qualifying countries during the semi-final and Macedonia was drawn to perform in position 11, following the entry from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and before the entry from

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. Macedonia placed twelfth in the final, scoring 56 points. The semi-final and final were broadcast in Macedonia on

and MTV Sat with commentary by Karolina Petkovska. The Macedonian spokesperson, who announced the Macedonian votes during the final, was

Martin Vučić Martin Vučić ( mk, Мартин Вучиќ, sr-Cyrl, Мартин Вучић) is a Macedonian pop musician. Biography He finished elementary school in Skopje and expressed his interests in music at an early age. He started playing drums at ...

who previously represented Macedonia at the contest in

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Macedonia and awarded by Macedonia in the semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to Albania in the semi-final and to Bosnia and Herzegovina in the final of the contest.

Points awarded to Macedonia

Points awarded by Macedonia

References

{{Eurovision Song Contest 2006

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Countries in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006

Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...