Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015

Daniel Kajmakoski performing at Skopje Festival 2014

Skopje Fest 2014 was a song contest organized by MRT that served as Macedonia's national final to select their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. The competition took place on 12 November 2014 at the Metropolis Arena in Skopje, hosted by Vasil Zafircev and was broadcast on MRT 1, MRT Sat and online via the broadcaster's official website mrt.com.mk.[4]

A submission period was opened for interested artists and composers to submit their entries between 26 May 2014 and 31 July 2014.[5] MRT received over 180 submissions at the closing of the deadline.[6] Thirteen entries were selected from the open submissions, while an additional seven entries were submitted by well-known composers directly invited by MRT for the competition.[7] The twenty competing artists and songs were announced on 26 September 2014 during the MRT programme Stisni Plej.[8][9]

Among the competing artists were former Macedonian contest entrants Tamara Todevska who represented Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 and Vlatko Ilievski who represented Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. Viktorija Loba represented Macedonia at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003 as part of the duo Marija & Viktorija. Among the competing composers were Vladimir Dojčinovski who co-composed the Macedonian entry in 2011, Grigor Koprov who composed the Macedonian entries in 1998 and 2007 as well as the Montenegrin entry in 2008, Vlado Janevski who represented Macedonia in 1998 and also co-wrote the 2000 Macedonian entry, Jovan Jovanov who composed the 2004 Macedonian entry and co-composed the 2009 and 2011 Macedonian entries, Lazar Cvetkoski who co-composed the 2013 and 2014 Macedonian entries and Magdalena Cvetkoska who wrote the lyrics for the 2013 Macedonian entry.

The final took place on 12 November 2014.[10] All twenty competing entries were accompanied by the MRT orchestra, conducted by Ljupčo Mirkovski.[11] A 50/50 combination of public televoting and seven international jury groups selected "Lisja esenski" performed by Daniel Kajmakoski as the winner.[12][13][14] Monetary prizes were also awarded to the top three songs: the winner received €20,000, the second place received €10,000 and the third place received €5,000.[15] In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the competition featured guest performances by 2002 and 2007 Macedonian Eurovision representative Karolina Gočeva and 2012 Macedonian Eurovision representative Kaliopi.[16]

Detailed International Jury Votes
Draw	Song								Total
1	"Alo"			10			4		14
2	"Ako mi se vratiš"	2	6	4	6	2	6	1	27
3	"Lisja esenski"	6		7	7	12	10	12	54
4	"Se plašam"					1		3	4
5	"Sever-Jug"		1						1
6	"Da ne te sakam"	8	12	2	4	10	8	4	48
7	"Srce čuva spomeni"	3		3					6
8	"Sonce niz oblaci"								0
9	"Ni Lj od ljubovta"		10					2	12
10	"Mig bez tebe"				1				1
11	"Marija"	10		6			1	7	24
12	"Vo tvojot svet"	1	8		3	7	2		21
13	"Zaljuben"	5	5		5				15
14	"Brod što tone"	12	7	8	12	8	12	10	69
15	"Sakam da letam"	4	4	5	8	4	7		32
16	"Znam"			12	10	3	5	8	38
17	"Edna edinstvena"		3				3		6
18	"Samo za tebe"								0
19	"Bluz za..."		2	1	2	6		5	16
20	"Se što ti vetiv"	7				5		6	18

Members of the Jury[15]
Austria – ORF	Nadine Beiler – singer, represented Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 Alexander Kahr – composer, composed the 2002 and 2013 Austrian entries Ralf Strobl – Eurovision expert, music consultant Thomas Rabitsch – keyboardist and record producer Dorothee Badent – producer, produced Austria's winning Eurovision 2014 song "Rise Like a Phoenix"
Azerbaijan – İctimai	Aziz Aliyev Yalchin Verdiyev Sabuhi Mammadov Azad Ibrahimov Fuad Musazade – head of press for the Azeri delegation to the Eurovision Song Contest
Bulgaria – BNT	Angel Zaberski – composer Joanna Dragneva – singer, represented Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 as part of Deep Zone Project Krasimir Kurtev – musician Milka Miteva – director of the Bulgarian music school "Lubomir Pipkov" Roberta Ganova – singer
Romania – TVR	Alex Revenco – journalist for Jurnalul Național Nicoleta Alexandru – singer, represented Romania in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 Andrei Tudor – composer, music professor Mihai "Bobby" Stoica – music producer, composer Alexandra Cepraga – musicologist, sound engineer
Turkey – TRT	Tuğberk Evren – music director at TRT Elif Gökalp – director of the musical sector of Radio Ankara Erhan Konuk – producer Bahar Dingil – director of productions and transmissions at TRT Kenan Özdemir – musician and member of the choir for Radio Ankara
Netherlands – TROS	Cornald Maas – Eurovision expert and commentator Daniël Dekker – director of the national radio for AVROTROS Emilie Sickinghe – head of the delegation for the Netherlands at the Eurovision Song Contest Joost Strootman – producer at the national radio for AVROTROS Rebecca van 't Velt – head of press for the Dutch delegation to the Eurovision Song Contest
Croatia – HRT	Aleksandar Kostadinov – head of the delegation for Croatia at the Eurovision Song Contest Ivan Horvat – member of OGAE Croatia Tihomir Preradović – composer and producer Željen Klašterka – manager of the music production for HTV, producer and composer Željko Mesar – head of the music programming sector for HTV

On 16 March 2015, the official Eurovision version of the Macedonian entry was premiered by the Macedonian broadcaster with the release of the official music video.[17] At the Skopje Festival 2014, Kajmakovski performed the song in the Macedonian language, however, it was announced that at Eurovision he would perform "Lisja esenski" in English as "Autumn Leaves". The track was originally written in English by Swedish songwriter Joacim Persson. Kajmakovski worked with Macedonian producer Robert Bilbilov to create the final English version of the song.[18]

Daniel Kajmakoski at a dress rehearsal for the first semi-final

Kajmakoski took part in technical rehearsals on 11 and 15 May,[18][25] followed by dress rehearsals on 18 and 19 May. This included the jury final where professional juries of each country, responsible for 50 percent of each country's vote, watched and voted on the competing entries.[26]

The stage show featured Kajmakoski dressed in a trench coat and performing choreographed movements with his backing vocalists. The stage lighting transitioned between dark blue and warm colours such as gold and red. The background LED screens displayed medieval ruins, flowing autumn leaves and a sky that transitions from grey to yellow as the song progresses.[18][25] On stage, Kajmakoski was joined by three ex-Blackstreet members: Mark Middleton, Eric Williams and Jeremy Hanna (who had previously been former members of the American R&B group Blackstreet (MERJ)) .[27]

At the end of the show, Macedonia failed to qualify to the final and was not announced among the top ten nations.[28] It was later revealed that Macedonia had placed fifteenth, receiving a total of 28 points.[29]

Voting during the three shows consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury could be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member were released shortly after the grand final.[30]

Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Macedonia had placed sixteenth (last) with the public televote and fifteenth with the jury vote in the first semi-final. In the public vote, Macedonia scored 22 points, while with the jury vote, Macedonia scored 42 points.[31] In addition, the EBU announced that it had disqualified the Macedonian jury results in the final due to irregularities. The exclusion of the votes was decided upon in consultation with the contest's independent voting observer, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and based upon the decision of the Executive Supervisor and the Chairman of the Reference Group. Macedonia's votes in the final were produced solely by the public televote.[32]

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Macedonia and awarded by Macedonia in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:[29][33][34][35]