With the mid-September deadline past, the confirmations for Eurovision 2018 are flooding in. Next to confirm is FYR Macedonia. No more dancing alone for this Balkan nation!

Broadcaster MRT revealed its general broadcast plans for 2018. And on its list is the broadcast of and participation in Eurovision 2018. It’s important to note that the plan still needs final approval, but it’s extremely likely this will be given.

The document confirms that FYR Macedonia will use the contest to “present Macedonian music values through participation in this festival.”

MRT will be budgeting approximately €138,000 for their participation in Eurovision 2018.

There’s no word, however, on how MRT will select their act for Lisbon. The 2018 broadcast plans also mentions MRT’s role as the broadcaster of Skopje Fest 2018.

The song competition has previously been used as a national final for FYR Macedonia, however since 2016 MRT has internally selected their Eurovision act.

FYR Macedonia at Eurovision

FYR Macedonia debuted at Eurovision in 1996. Their best years were the mid 2000s, where from 2004 to 2007 they always qualified for the grand final and took home respectable mid-table finishes. However, the past decade has not been as promising.

In the last ten years, FYR Macedonia has only qualified for the grand final once. That was in 2012, when Kaliopi took her fierce rock anthem “Crno i belo” to a 13th place finish in Baku.

She returned in 2016 with the rock ballad “Dona”, which narrowly missed out on qualifying for the grand final, with an 11th-place finish in its semi-final.

In 2014, pop singer Tijana performed “To the Sky” in Copenhagen, but only managed 13th place in her semi-final. The following year, Skopje Fest winner Daniel Kajmakoski performed “Autumn Leaves”, joined on stage by former members of the ’90s boyband Blackstreet. Their combined talent could only manage a 15th place finish.

Earlier this year, Jana Burceska became an early fan favourite with the studio version of her song, “Dance Alone”. Sadly, the live version of the song couldn’t capture that studio magic and the performance languished in 15th place.

But there was still good news for Jana — she announced her pregnancy in her postcard, and her boyfriend surprised her with a green room marriage proposal.

With FYR Macedonia having been out of the grand final for so long, MRT will no doubt be looking for ways to get their groove back. After all, FYR Macedonia is one of the top 10 countries to have competed the longest without a win. Will 2018 be their time?

What do you think? Who should represent FYR Macedonia in Lisbon? How should the act be selected? Share your thoughts below!

READ MORE FYR MACEDONIA EUROVISION NEWS

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esc43
esc43
6 years ago

I obviously can’t understand what Fyr Macedonia needs to do to qualify..

Justin K.
6 years ago

Everyone pretty much mentioned the staging part of it, but just making sure they have a solid song to begin with is an issue as well. I loved ‘Dance Alone’ and ‘Crno I Belo,’ but was indifferent towards the others, and indifferent doesn’t win votes. FYR Macedonia usually ends up sending good (but not great) songs, or their songs are sometimes bad (but not terrible), so you don’t have a strong opinion on it. Once they can keep the momentum going (because LBR, ‘Dance Alone’ is one of the strongest studio tracks, only behind Belgium IMO), and improve their staging… Read more »

Elmar
Elmar
6 years ago

I would love to see Bobby Andonov (their JESC 2008 representative) at Lisbon stage as representative of Macedonia next year. He’s fabulous!

Boy From Macedonia
Boy From Macedonia
6 years ago

Antonia Gigovska should be the only option for Macedonia. She is young (16 or 17 yo) and amazing singer and everyone knows what happend with Blanchce and Kristian this year. With a great modern ballad, Antonia could’ve finish in Top.10 without any doubts.

Lejla
Lejla
6 years ago

Except of 2007 (Mojot svet) and 2012 (Crno i Belo) entries, I strongly disliked all of their entries. Along with San Marino and Switzerland they are worst eurovision countries, imo.

Ian Gallagher
Ian Gallagher
6 years ago

One of the few countries in Eurovision that really needs some swedish help. Obviously, they just can’t do it alone

Denis
Denis
6 years ago
Reply to  Ian Gallagher

The had Swedish help both in 2015 and 2017. Both were just destroyed by awkward staging.

CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
6 years ago
Reply to  Denis

Aye! In Jana’s case, they should have made the stage look like a mini-rave party, flashing lights, ever-changing and colorful graphics, and maybe lasers to boot, on a mostly-dark stage with a spotlight on her. And they picked the wrong parts of the song to edit out to get it down to 3 minutes; they should have left the last, quiet part in.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago

Ugh, this ROBBED country. They need to come through with the right song in 2018 and snatch that top ten finish they deserved several times since their debut.

Hrvatska
Hrvatska
6 years ago

Happy f.y.r macedonia maybe return a national language and modern song represent danijel Viktoryja Loba

Anabela
Anabela
6 years ago

I’m glad that they don’t give up. But honestly, they are horrible at staging their Eurovision entries.

Polegend Godgarina
Polegend Godgarina
6 years ago
Reply to  Anabela

Their staging in 2006 was definitely one of the best of the year. Sex sells in its purest form, but still!

Tommy
Tommy
6 years ago
Reply to  Anabela

YES, this. Their songs aren’t particularly bad, some actually are really good, but they almost all have TERRIBLE staging! Autumn leaves was lovely song, but back vocals, graphics, everything was 0/10.

Sorry Mcd.

Boy From Macedonia
Boy From Macedonia
6 years ago
Reply to  Tommy

We are horrible at staging because we aren’t Russia or Sweden who has a 1.000.000 euros budget for Eurovision.

Tony
Tony
6 years ago

The problem with Macedonia is that they do choose good songs but f*ck them up when they do them live. So their focus should be how to improve that.

CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
6 years ago
Reply to  Tony

You beat me to it, Tony. Macedonia has become the poster child as the place where excellent songs go to die on stage. Nothing exemplifies that more than Jana Burceska’s “Dance Alone”, which was in many people’s top 5 (I graded her #4 for the song and video before the show), until the rehearsals began and people saw what they were prepared to put on stage; and sadly the stage setup did not fit the song at all. That song was screaming for a rave-party setup.

umerkim
umerkim
6 years ago

In my opinion they should pick the representative from Skopje Fest, upgrade the song just a bit & see where that takes them. Daniel could’ve done decently if they didnt slow down the instrumentation, the language translation was pretty good tbh but the staging killed it. Hopefully a good solid song wins Skopje Fest with a charismatic singer & hope for the best. However staging has always been an issue with FYR Macedonia, their last 4 entries have been pretty good but all fell flat on stage, Jana could’ve had a top 15 finish if they tried to incorporate the… Read more »

CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
6 years ago
Reply to  umerkim

They should have gone with the Macedonian version, “Lisja Esenska”. The music was better with that version than what was presented in the watered-down English version. Daniel might have barely qualified.

umerkim
umerkim
6 years ago
Reply to  CookyMonzta

I don’t mind the change to English but I agree they should’ve kept the music the same. Maybe it could’ve qualified since that semi-final was pretty weak.