Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

Eurovision Song Contest 2018
Country	Macedonia
National selection
Selection process	Internal Selection
Selection date(s)	Artist: 13 February 2018; Song: 11 March 2018
Selected entrant	Eye Cue
Selected song	"Lost and Found"
Selected songwriter(s)	Bojan Trajkovski; Darko Dimitrov;
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Failed to qualify (18th, 24 points)
Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest

The Republic of Macedonia (officially under the provisional appellation "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", abbreviated "FYR Macedonia") participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Lost and Found" written by Bojan Trajkovski and Darko Dimitrov. The song was performed by Eye Cue, who were internally selected by the Macedonian broadcaster Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) to represent the nation at the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal.

Background

Prior to the 2018 contest, Macedonia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest seventeen times since its first entry in 1998.[1] The nation's best result in the contest to this point was twelfth, which it achieved in 2006 with the song "Ninanajna" performed by Elena Risteska. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the 2004, Macedonia had featured in only five finals. In 2017, Jana Burčeska failed to bring the country to the final with her song "Dance Alone", that marked the nation's fifth failure in a row.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

A song submission period was opened for interested composers to submit their songs between 26 January 2018 and 8 February 2018.[2] MRT received 382 submissions at the closing of the deadline. On 13 February 2018, MRT announced that a special jury had internally selected Eye Cue to represent Macedonia in Lisbon with the song "Lost and Found", which was written and composed by Bojan Trajkovski and Darko Dimitrov.[3] The jury consisted of Meri Popova (Macedonian Head of Delegation for the Eurovision Song Contest), Karolina Petkovska (editor of the Entertaining Programming at MRT 1), Aleksandra Jovanovska (MRT 1 editor and music show host), Avni Qahili (editor of the Cultural Art Programming at MRT 2), Branka Kostic Markovic (music journalist and critic), Andrijana Jovanovska (Reporter MK music reporter), Marko Mark (Channel 77 music journalist and television host of Telma) and Antonio Dimitrievski (True MK editor and music producer of Macedonian Radio Festival). On 11 March 2018, "Lost and Found" was presented to the public during the MRT evening news broadcast Dnevnik 2.[4]

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 29 January 2018, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Macedonia was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 8 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[5]

Once all the competing songs for the 2018 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Macedonia was set to perform in position 11, following the entry from Bulgaria and preceding the entry from Croatia.[6]

Semi-final

Macedonia performed eleventh in the first semi-final, opening the second half of the show. The followed Bulgaria and preceded Croatia. At the end of the night, Macedonia was not one of the ten countries announced as qualifying for the grand final, their sixth non-qualification since 2013. It was later revealed that Macedonia placed eighteenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 24 points: 6 points from the televoting and 18 points from the juries.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry 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 was permitted to 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 as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

Points awarded to Macedonia

Points awarded to Macedonia (Semi-final 1)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points

5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Bulgaria				Croatia
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
		Albania		Azerbaijan
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
		Greece		Israel

Points awarded by Macedonia

Semi-final 1
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Albania	Bulgaria
10 points	Croatia	Albania
8 points	Bulgaria	Czech Republic
7 points	Cyprus	Azerbaijan
6 points	Czech Republic	Croatia
5 points	Azerbaijan	Israel
4 points	Greece	Estonia
3 points	Israel	Cyprus
2 points	Finland	Iceland
1 point	Switzerland	Ireland

Final
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Albania	Estonia
10 points	Serbia	Cyprus
8 points	Cyprus	Serbia
7 points	Bulgaria	Sweden
6 points	Italy	Albania
5 points	Czech Republic	Finland
4 points	Ukraine	Czech Republic
3 points	Israel	Germany
2 points	Slovenia	Slovenia
1 point	Moldova	Israel

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Macedonian jury: [7]

Miodrag Vrčakovski – Chairperson – songwriter, radio journalist
Ile Spasev – music teacher, composer, music producer
Ana Pandevska – composer
Kristijan Gabroski – composer, music producer
Stefanija Leškova Zelenovska – musicologyst, music journalist

Split voting results from Macedonia (Semi-final 1)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	I. Spasev	A. Pandevska	M. Vrčakovski	K. Gabroski	S. L. Zelenovska	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Azerbaijan	5	1	11	5	4	4	7	6	5
02	Iceland	9	6	10	9	8	9	2	17
03	Albania	2	4	7	1	1	2	10	1	12
04	Belgium	13	16	14	15	16	17		15
05	Czech Republic	4	2	1	2	7	3	8	5	6
06	Lithuania	16	13	18	11	14	16		16
07	Israel	8	8	2	6	3	6	5	8	3
08	Belarus	17	18	17	10	11	13		14
09	Estonia	6	9	5	7	6	7	4	12
10	Bulgaria	1	3	3	3	2	1	12	3	8
11	Macedonia
12	Croatia	3	5	6	4	5	5	6	2	10
13	Austria	14	17	15	16	17	18		11
14	Greece	15	12	8	18	18	11		7	4
15	Finland	11	15	12	14	13	12		9	2
16	Armenia	12	11	16	17	15	15		18
17	Switzerland	18	14	13	13	12	14		10	1
18	Ireland	10	10	9	12	9	10	1	13
19	Cyprus	7	7	4	8	10	8	3	4	7

Split voting results from Macedonia (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
Draw	Country	I. Spasev	A. Pandevska	M. Vrčakovski	K. Gabroski	S. L. Zelenovska	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Ukraine	13	20	13	18	22	24		7	4
02	Spain	15	24	16	17	23	25		19
03	Slovenia	14	3	8	7	19	9	2	9	2
04	Lithuania	24	7	26	21	13	22		25
05	Austria	16	16	17	9	5	17		14
06	Estonia	5	1	6	6	6	1	12	17
07	Norway	18	19	7	5	17	15		13
08	Portugal	26	23	20	20	21	26		26
09	United Kingdom	25	14	18	19	1	13		22
10	Serbia	1	4	12	13	10	3	8	2	10
11	Germany	8	10	19	2	14	8	3	11
12	Albania	6	6	10	3	12	5	6	1	12
13	France	19	9	11	26	16	21		16
14	Czech Republic	20	11	1	14	7	7	4	6	5
15	Denmark	22	18	23	15	11	23		12
16	Australia	3	22	15	10	20	14		15
17	Finland	21	5	9	16	2	6	5	20
18	Bulgaria	17	8	5	25	15	16		4	7
19	Moldova	23	26	3	4	26	11		10	1
20	Sweden	2	15	14	11	3	4	7	18
21	Hungary	11	21	21	8	25	20		23
22	Israel	7	12	2	24	24	10	1	8	3
23	Netherlands	10	13	24	12	8	18		24
24	Ireland	9	25	25	23	9	19		21
25	Cyprus	4	2	4	22	4	2	10	3	8
26	Italy	12	17	22	1	18	12		5	6

References

"F.Y.R. Macedonia". EBU. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
Dave Jordan (26 January 2018). "Macedonian TV looks to the world for 2018 Eurovision entry". EBU. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
Dave Jordan (13 February 2018). "It's Eye Cue for F.Y.R. Macedonia in 2018!". EBU. Retrieved 19 March 2018.
"Eurovision 2018 - Eye Cue (Macedonia)". ESCKAZ. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
Jordan, Paul (29 January 2018). "Which countries will perform in which Semi-Final at Eurovision 2018?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
"Running order for Eurovision 2018 Semi-Finals revealed". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 3 April 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.
Groot, Evert (30 April 2018). "Exclusive: They are the expert jurors for Eurovision 2018". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2018.

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[1] "F.Y.R. Macedonia". EBU. Retrieved 19 March 2018.

[2] Dave Jordan (26 January 2018). "Macedonian TV looks to the world for 2018 Eurovision entry". EBU. Retrieved 19 March 2018.

[3] Dave Jordan (13 February 2018). "It's Eye Cue for F.Y.R. Macedonia in 2018!". EBU. Retrieved 19 March 2018.

[4] "Eurovision 2018 - Eye Cue (Macedonia)". ESCKAZ. Retrieved 22 January 2021.

[5] Jordan, Paul (29 January 2018). "Which countries will perform in which Semi-Final at Eurovision 2018?". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 29 January 2018.

[Draw-6] "Running order for Eurovision 2018 Semi-Finals revealed". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. 3 April 2018. Retrieved 3 April 2018.

[7] Groot, Evert (30 April 2018). "Exclusive: They are the expert jurors for Eurovision 2018". eurovision.tv. European Broadcasting Union. Retrieved 30 April 2018.