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.
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 Five" (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.[7]
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.
Macedonia
Albania
Azerbaijan
Bulgaria
Greece
Croatia
Israel
Iceland
Belgium
Czech Republic
Lithuania
Belarus
Estonia
Austria
Finland
Armenia
Switzerland
Ireland
Cyprus
Ukraine
Spain
Slovenia
Norway
Portugal
United Kingdom
Serbia
Germany
France
Denmark
Australia
Moldova
Sweden
Hungary
Netherlands
Italy