North Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019

Eurovision Song Contest 2019
Country	North Macedonia
National selection
Selection process	Internal selection
Selection date(s)	Artist: 25 January 2019 Song: 8 March 2019
Selected artist(s)	Tamara Todevska
Selected song	"Proud"
Selected songwriter(s)	Darko Dimitrov Robert Bilbilov Lazar Cvetkoski Kosta Petrov Sanja Popovska
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (2nd, 239 Points)
Final result	7th, 305 points
North Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2018 • 2019 • 2021►

North Macedonia participated in the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest in Tel Aviv, Israel with the song “Proud”, composed by Darko Dimitrov, Robert Bilbilov, Lazar Cvetkoski, and written by Kosta Petrov and Sanja Popovska. The song was performed by Tamara Todevska. The song qualified from the semifinal, gained 305 points and placed 7th in the final, winning the jury vote. This was North Macedonia's first top ten placement and also the highest placement ever for North Macedonia in the history of the contest.

Background

Main article: North Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2019 contest, North Macedonia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest eighteen times since its first entry in 1998 as F.Y.R. Macedonia. 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 2018, Eye Cue failed to bring the country to the final with their song "Lost and Found", that marked the nation's sixth failure in a row.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On 25 January 2019, MRT announced that Tamara Todevska would represent North Macedonia in the 2019 contest. She previously represented North Macedonia in 2008 along with Vrčak and Adrian with the song Let Me Love You where they failed to qualify for the final.

Song release

North Macedonia's entry, "Proud", was initially planned for release on March 4, but it was delayed to March 8th to coincide with International Women's Day. The song was released on the official Eurovision Song Contest YouTube channel. "Proud" is an acoustic, piano and string-driven ballad, with the topic of empowerment, especially about women empowerment and Tamara's two children, Hana and Daren.

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 28 January 2019, 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. North Macedonia was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.

Once all the competing songs for the 2019 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. North Macedonia was set to perform in position 17, following the entry from Netherlands and preceding the entry from Azerbaijan.

Stage direction and visual design

Todevska wearing the green dress on the 'dress rehearsal' of the second semi-final.

The stage direction was conceived by Mari Forsman Ryberger and Tine Matulessy. The concept was simple and minimalistic, with Todevska singing alone with a microphone stand on the stage. The dress worn by Todevska was created by Aleksandar Noshpal, who is also credited for making the dress for Karolina in 2002 and the suit for Toše Proeski in 2004. It is a full-length, false strapless, emerald green dress, made with a metallic shimmer material, with black tulle covering the upper top part of Todevska's body. The dress was also featured as a visual enhancer, mirroring the structure of the backside on the screens.

The performance starts with Todevska subtly lighted, as the dress' reflections starts to show. As the light hits Todevska's face, she started to choreograph hand gestures, which indicates confidence and power. When the first chorus hits, purple start to come out from the bottom spotlights. In the bridge, the stage darkens again, with images of women and girls being shown on monochrome in the back screens. Second verse was highlighted with purple rays coming out from the gaps of the screens. In the second chorus, rays of white lighting flourished on the stage, with the progression of giving an uplifting atmosphere towards the ending. In the second semi-final, the lighting bloom was enhanced with subtle blue lighting from the screen gaps, but it was omitted in the grand final. The ending note was executed with Todevska shone under a wide spotlight, with the picture of her holding her daughter, Hana, shown on the screen.

Semi-final

North Macedonia performed seventeenth in the second semi-final, following the entry from Netherlands and preceding the entry from Azerbaijan. At the end of the show, North Macedonia was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that North Macedonia placed second in the semi-final, receiving a total of 239 points: 84 points from the televoting and 155 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 will be released shortly after the grand final.

Points awarded to North Macedonia

Points awarded to North Macedonia (Semi-final 2)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Croatia		Albania	Azerbaijan Switzerland	Armenia Germany Malta Netherlands Russia Sweden
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Austria	Romania		Lithuania	Denmark Italy Norway
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Albania Croatia Germany United Kingdom	Azerbaijan Denmark Moldova Romania Russia	Armenia Austria Switzerland	Italy Norway	Ireland
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Latvia	Netherlands		Lithuania Malta

Points awarded to North Macedonia (final)
Televote
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Serbia Slovenia			Croatia	Albania Montenegro
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Malta		Azerbaijan	Georgia Sweden Switzerland	Netherlands
Jury
12 points	10 points	8 points	7 points	6 points
Albania Austria Moldova Serbia Switzerland United Kingdom	Armenia Belarus Croatia Denmark Hungary Italy Norway	Azerbaijan Iceland Latvia Poland	Australia Czech Republic Finland France Germany Montenegro Romania
5 points	4 points	3 points	2 points	1 point
Ireland Portugal	Russia	Malta Netherlands	Slovenia	Greece San Marino

Points awarded by North Macedonia

Semi-final 2
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Albania	Albania
10 points	Croatia	Russia
8 points	Netherlands	Azerbaijan
7 points	Russia	Malta
6 points	Armenia	Netherlands
5 points	Azerbaijan	Switzerland
4 points	Malta	Sweden
3 points	Norway	Latvia
2 points	Switzerland	Armenia
1 point	Sweden	Romania

Final
Score	Televote	Jury
12 points	Albania	Italy
10 points	Serbia	Australia
8 points	San Marino	Albania
7 points	Netherlands	Netherlands
6 points	Malta	Russia
5 points	Norway	Malta
4 points	Switzerland	Azerbaijan
3 points	Italy	Switzerland
2 points	Slovenia	Iceland
1 point	Azerbaijan	Cyprus

Split voting results

The following five members comprised North Macedonia's jury:

• Suzana Stefanovska – Chairperson – music editor, host
• Fjola Ismaili – cellist, singer
• Robert Vukelić – singer
• Hristina Mickovska – radio DJ
• Risto Apostolov

Split voting results from North Macedonia (Semi-final 2)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		S. Stefanovska	F. Ismaili	R. Vukelić	H. Mickovska	R. Apostolov	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Armenia	11	10	9	8	14	9	2	5	6
02	Ireland	10	12	17	14	9	13		14
03	Moldova	12	16	11	13	15	16		15
04	Switzerland	7	5	5	6	11	6	5	9	2
05	Latvia	17	9	13	9	6	8	3	16
06	Romania	13	17	7	10	10	10	1	13
07	Denmark	14	8	16	15	17	15		11
08	Sweden	5	6	8	7	7	7	4	10	1
09	Austria	15	15	14	17	12	17		17
10	Croatia	9	11	10	12	13	11		2	10
11	Malta	6	4	2	4	2	4	7	7	4
12	Lithuania	16	13	12	11	8	12		12
13	Russia	2	2	1	5	3	2	10	4	7
14	Albania	3	1	3	2	1	1	12	1	12
15	Norway	8	14	15	16	16	14		8	3
16	Netherlands	1	7	6	3	5	5	6	3	8
17	North Macedonia
18	Azerbaijan	4	3	4	1	4	3	8	6	5

Split voting results from North Macedonia (final)
Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		S. Stefanovska	F. Ismaili	R. Vukelić	H. Mickovska	R. Apostolov	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Malta	6	6	5	5	5	6	5	5	6
02	Albania	5	1	6	3	4	3	8	1	12
03	Czech Republic	14	11	9	19	10	13		18
04	Germany	17	18	16	24	11	18		22
05	Russia	3	4	3	7	6	5	6	11
06	Denmark	18	15	22	22	17	23		16
07	San Marino	22	19	21	25	22	25		3	8
08	North Macedonia
09	Sweden	11	9	14	13	12	12		14
10	Slovenia	24	17	17	14	18	22		9	2
11	Cyprus	15	10	7	11	19	10	1	17
12	Netherlands	1	8	2	4	8	4	7	4	7
13	Greece	10	16	10	10	14	11		20
14	Israel	12	20	15	23	21	20		24
15	Norway	9	14	23	18	16	15		6	5
16	United Kingdom	16	13	18	21	24	21		25
17	Iceland	25	25	25	16	1	9	2	15
18	Estonia	19	12	13	17	13	16		19
19	Belarus	20	21	8	20	23	17		21
20	Azerbaijan	7	5	12	8	7	7	4	10	1
21	France	21	24	24	9	25	19		23
22	Italy	2	2	1	1	3	1	12	8	3
23	Serbia	13	22	20	12	9	14		2	10
24	Switzerland	8	7	11	6	15	8	3	7	4
25	Australia	4	3	4	2	2	2	10	13
26	Spain	23	23	19	15	20	24		12