North Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2021

Prior to the 2021 contest, North Macedonia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest nineteen times since its first entry in 1998 as F.Y.R. Macedonia.[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 2019, Tamara Todevska managed to qualify for the final with her song "Proud", that marked the nation's first appearance in the final since 2012, also achieving the first ever top 10 result.

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. For the 2021 contest, the semi-final allocation draw held for 2020 which was held on 28 January 2020, will be used for 2021 contest. North Macedonia was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 18 May 2021, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[4]