The Republic of North Macedonia (officially under the provisional appellation "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", abbreviated "FYR Macedonia") participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden. The Macedonian entry was selected through an internal selection, organised by the Macedonian broadcaster MRT. Esma and Lozano represented North Macedonia with the song "Pred da se razdeni", which failed to qualify from the second semi-final of the competition, placing 16th and scoring 28 points.
On 29 December 2012, MRT announced that they had internally selected Esma Redžepova and Vlatko Lozanoski to represent North Macedonia in Malmö.[1][2] Both had previously attempted to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest on several occasions by competing in several Macedonian national final selections over the years: Redžepova competed in 2006 with the song "Ljubov e..." in a duet with Adrijan Gaxha and placed second, while Lozanoski competed in 2009 with the song "Blisku do mene", and in 2010 with the song "Letam kon tebe" which both placed fourth.
On 19 February 2013, it was announced that Redžepova and Lozanoski would perform the song "Imperija", written by Simeon Atanasov and Borče Nečovski, at the Eurovision Song Contest 2013.[3] "Imperija" was presented to the public in a special show hosted by Dimitar Atanasovski, which took place on 27 February 2013 at the MRT Studios in Skopje and was broadcast on MRT 1 and MRT Sat.[4] In addition to presenting Redžepova and Lozanoski's 2013 Eurovision entry, the show featured performances of songs from their respective repertoires as well as a guest performance by 2012 Macedonian Eurovision representativeKaliopi performing her contest entry "Crno i belo".
Song change[]
On 8 March 2013, several Macedonian media outlets reported that "Imperija" would be withdrawn and replaced with a new song due to dissatisfaction with the song and complaints from the Macedonian public.[5][6] The new song "Pred da se razdeni", written by Darko Dimitrov, Lazar Cvetkovski, Simeon Atanasov and Magdalena Cvetkoska, was presented to the public on 27 February 2013 during the MRT evening news broadcast.[7][8]
At Eurovision[]
Esma and Lozano at the second semi-final dress rehearsal in Malmö.
North Macedonia was allocated to compete in the second semi-final on 16 May for a place in the final on 18 May.[9] In the second semifinal, the producers of the show decided that North Macedonia would perform 3rd, following San Marino and preceding Azerbaijan.[10] On stage, Esma and Lozano were joined by two backing vocalists: Nina Janeva and Eleonora Mustafovska.[11] The Macedonian delegation contemplated several changes to their entry in Malmö, which included adding English language lyrics and changing the song title to "If I Could Change the World".[12] Ultimately, the delegation decided to perform the entry in its original languages under the Macedonian language title of the song.[13] North Macedonia failed to qualify from the second semi-final of the competition, placing 16th and scoring 28 points.[14][15]
Voting[]
Points awarded to North Macedonia[]
Points awarded to North Macedonia (Semi-final 2)[16]
Macedonia
Albania
Switzerland
San Marino
