Happy New Year! To celebrate the end of 2015 and the start of something new, George, our Greece correspondent, recently visited Skopje, where he met Eurovision fan favourite Kaliopi. The FYR Macedonian Eurovision Diva has already represented her country twice — in 1996 and 2012 — and is busy preparing for her third appearance at Eurovision this May. During the chat, which you can watch in full below, she told us all about it…
Kaliopi talked about her fond memories of Eurovision 2012 and how she’s looking forward to Eurovision 2016. She also discusses why she loves working with her ex-husband and noted composer Romeo Grill: “He understands me very well…he is an author who doesn’t flirt with styles or trends. He is focused on my own expression.”
You can also hear her sound off on Måns Zelmerlöw, why Esma & Lozano, Tijana and Daniel Kajmakoski failed to qualify, and much, much more. And don’t miss her rendition of R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly”!
Kaliopi on Eurovision 2016 (Interview)
Kaliopi at Eurovision 2012
So what do you think? Let us know in the comment box below…
@Charles My point exactly bloc voting is old news, It is better to have a strong diaspora than to be a small chain in some bloc ……. U will never benefit from It. Take Croatia or Macedonia, part of the Yu bloc and in recent years they get kinda looked over most of the time, on the other hand you have Serbia and Bosnia that have huge diaspora and always manage to pull in points and qualify ….. Slovenia is an example of a country that send authentic songs each year and qualifies thanks to the effort they put in… Read more »
@Leaf: I couldn’t care less for what the UK sends … remind you, my criteria is music first and not the flag the song is representing, an element a lot of people have a hard time remaining separated … Then, for someone like me who grew up in the 80s and 90s … nothing would mean the most if native languages were to come back in a more evident, cuz even for a Brit like me, singing in English is irrelevant and it’s not what fascinates me in music ,,, singing in your language has one very important element: authenticity… Read more »
@Charles
Honestly I am sick of the excuse of bloc voting
No Balkan country has won since 2007, almost every year we miss out on the final and some of our songs get nothing from the west …… SO dunno who is concerned about music over politics.
The top 10 is always the same countries more or less.
And let’s face it …. Impossible if not a set up.
@Charles I understand what you said, but since you are British most of the song in the contest are in English and people from your country can understand the lyrics to 36/40+ countries every year. When it comes to the Balkans, people get only 1-2 native language songs a year, and the average viewer here ….. I picture a 35+ demographic that speaks some English but far from fluently (doesn’t understand most) would vote for something they know. And we are not such a huge problem as u makes us out to be …… P.S UK sent flight attendants in… Read more »
@Leaf: Since Ruslana won in 2004 the bloc voting became a terrible issue .. but answering your question about 2007 – the only year I intentionally decided not to watch Eurovision because there was no point for me to only have one song I liked and that was Serbia, which gladly won, … as far as everything else is concerned 2007 proved to be a year where the intentions for these countries, specially eastern, were to get those votes, go to the final and nothing else … no truly and worthy musical input either from east or west … Western… Read more »
@Charles
Well in 2007, Balkan countries had decent songs. What would u have voted for, the Latino Grandma from Norway or the flashy Cher impersonator from Denmark?
The only crimes that year were Portugal, Estonia and Cyprus not qualifying.
Slovenia, Serbia and Macedonia all had great songs worth of qualifying.
Croatia deservedly missed the final (even tho I love the song, It had more of a radio impact than stage impact.)
Charles
We see how democratic juries votes for song from ex Yugoslavia in 2013, and interesetin that ex yugoslav countries got so small points from baltic and ex soviet countries and some from western countries.
@Ben: “all Yugoslavia countries are taking part this year so she should receive at least 6 from each of these” .. and you say that with a tremendous amount of joy because the idea that all former Yugoslavs sharing points among each other is something to be happy about and applaud … while ignoring the rest of the songs due to geopolitical and cultural differences … Thank God 50% of the voting comes from the juries otherwise this would be 2007 all over again, God forbid. The only time this bloc of countries allowed their ears to realize there is… Read more »
I love Kaliopi, and I reckon she can bring Macedonia to the final (of course it depends on the song, but her voice is fantastic). As for why Esma & Lozano, Tijana and Daniel failed, it’s simple facts rather than luck. Lozano was good but Esma put people off, and I don’t think Europe connected with her style of singing. Tijana had a great song, but the live vocals, dress and performance let her down. There should have been more movement really,kinda like “Na Inat” with Poli. Daniel’s stage show was him trying to be all R&B singing a pretty… Read more »
Ben, I think you’re underestimating the Yugoslavian-countries’ love for Kaliopi – she should at least get 8 from each; which would make 48 points (assuming she only gets the 8 from each, she could get more) and then points from neighbouring Bulgaria, Greece (maybe) and then some smaller points from miscellaneous countries so potential for around 70/80 points which would be enough for 11th in recent years.
Macedonia’s best placing in ESC was 12th in 2006. Kaliopi came 13th in 2012 and was just 1 point off 12th, which would’ve equaled their best ever result. I hope Kaliopi has a good song and defeats that record and she just might – she’s talented as we saw in 2012 and all Yugoslavia countries are taking part this year so she should receive at least 6 from each of these. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed.