Macedonia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Make My Day", written by Dragan Vučić and Branka Kostić, and performed by Martin Vučić. The Macedonian participating broadcaster, Macedonian Radio Television (MRT), organised the national final in order to select its entry for the contest. Five artists were presented to the public in November 2004 and an eight-member jury panel and a public televote selected two artists to qualify to the compete in the competition on 19 February 2005, where "" performed by Martin Vučić was selected following two rounds of voting from a twelve-member jury panel, an audience vote and a public televote. The song was later translated from Macedonian to English for Eurovision and was titled "Make My Day".

Macedonia competed in the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 19 May 2005. Performing during the show in position 17, "Make My Day" was announced among the top 10 entries of the semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 21 May. It was later revealed that Macedonia placed ninth out of the 25 participating countries in the semi-final with 97 points. In the final, Macedonia performed in position 15 and placed seventeenth out of the 24 participating countries, scoring 52 points.

Background

Prior to the 2005 contest, Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Macedonia four times since its first entry in . Its best result in the contest to this point was fourteenth, achieved with the song "Life" performed by Toše Proeski.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, MRT organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster had previously selected its entry for the contest through both national finals and internal selections. MRT confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2005 contest on 22 October 2004. Since 1996, the broadcaster selected its entries using a national final, a procedure that continued for its 2005 entry.

Before Eurovision

2005 was the national final organised by MRT to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. The competition took place on 19 February 2005 at the Universal Hall in Skopje, hosted by Karolina Petkovska and Aneta Andonova and was broadcast on MTV 1, MTV Sat and online via the broadcaster's official Eurovision Song Contest website eurosong.com.mk.

Competing entries A committee consisting of sixteen members each nominated eight artists, and the six most nominated acts were presented to the public on 7 November 2004 via special broadcasts on MTV 1 and MTV Sat. On 9 November 2004, MRT announced that Kaliopi had withdrawn from the selection. The top two artists, Aleksandra Pileva and Martin Vučić, qualified to compete in the national final by a 50/50 combination of public televoting held between 7 and 14 November 2004 and an eight-member jury panel, and were announced on 14 November during the MTV 1 programme Ne zaspivaj sega. The jury panel consisted of Vesna Ginovska-Ilkova (opera singer), Živojin Glišić (professor at the Faculty of Music), Vesna Petrushevska-Trenkoski (actress), Biljana Beličanec-Aleksić (actress), Joško Boškovski (MR), Zoran Mirčevski (MR), Jane Teoharevski (MTV), and an aggregate 20-member press vote as the eighth member. Pileva and Vučić then each selected four candidate songs for the national final: three from over 100 songs that MRT received through an open submission and from directly invited composers, and one provided by the artists themselves. + Artists selection – 7–14 November 2004 ArtistTelevote Total PlaceVotesRank 1 Martin Vučić1,0891 87 1 2 Tamara Todevska744 35 5 3 Tijana Dapčević545 37 4 4 Superhiks1093 44 3 5 Aleksandra Pileva3052 53 2 + Competing entries Artist Song Songwriter(s)Selection Aleksandra Pileva "Baknješ za kraj" Aleksandar Ristovski-PrincOpen submission "Izvini" Vesna Malinova "Ne" Kaliopi Gril"Sonce i mesečina" Darko Dimitrov, Vlado JanevskiProvided by the artist Martin Vučić "Dali vredi?" Goran Alacki, Maja PavlovskaOpen submission "Kolku bolka ostana" Grigor Koprov, Ognen Nedelkovski"Ljubovna parada" Marko Markoski, Rade Vrčakovski"Ti si son" Dragan Vučić, Ognen NedelkovskiProvided by the artist

Final The final took place on 19 February 2005 where the winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, a combination of public televoting (1/3), votes from the audience in the venue (1/3) and a twelve-member jury panel (1/3) selected one song per artist to advance to the second round. In the second round, the public, audience and jury vote selected "" performed by Martin Vučić as the winner. The jury panel consisted of Metodi Čepreganov (doctor), Avni Qahili (MTV 2), Diki Tavitjan (musician), Valentina Todoroska (Utrinski vesnik), Joško Boškovski (Radio Macedonia), Vlatko Plevneš (musician), Tanja Grkovska (MTV), Robert Sazdov (producer), Cvetanka Laskova (singer), Katerina Kocevska (actress), Beni Šakiri (musician) and Nikola Firiev (MTV). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the competition featured guest performances by Biba Dodeva, Andrijana Janevska, Iskra Trpeva, Tamara Todevska and Martina Siljanovska (who represented ). + First Round – 19 February 2005 Artist SongJuryAudienceTelevote Total Place Votes Points 1 Aleksandra Pileva "Ne"40484,32948 136 3 2 Martin Vučić "Dali vredi?"15367320 51 7 3 Aleksandra Pileva "Baknješ za kraj"22128080 34 8 4 Martin Vučić "Kolku bolka ostana"3102,12436 67 4 5 Aleksandra Pileva "Izvini"162488212 52 6 6 Martin Vučić "Ljubovna parada"3001,44024 54 5 7 Aleksandra Pileva "Sonce i mesečina"487235,37596 216 2 8 Martin Vučić "Ti si son"869614,55672 254 1 + Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total 1 "Ne"2644436 641 40 2 "Dali vredi?" 1 3 311 41 115 3 "Baknješ za kraj" 3 2 3 6 2 2422 4 "Kolku bolka ostana" 4 4 2 2433 33331 5 "Izvini" 22 3 2 1616 6 "Ljubovna parada"31116 6 11 26230 7 "Sonce i mesečina"688 6 4 2 4 6 4 48 8 "Ti si son"8 688888888886 + Second Round – 19 February 2005 Artist Song Jury Audience Televote Total Place Votes Points Votes Points 1 Aleksandra Pileva "Sonce i mesečina" 2 494 0 50,159 12 14 2 2 Martin Vučić "Ti si son" 10 570 14 8,790 0 24 1 + Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total 1 "Sonce i mesečina" XX 2 2 "Ti si son"X XXXXXXXXX10

Controversy The Macedonian national final sparked controversy due to the large discrepancy between the jury and public vote; Aleksandra Pileva won the televote in both rounds but lost out to Martin Vučić despite receiving six times more votes than him in the second round. In addition, some of the audience members later admitted that they have been given free tickets to attend the show in order to vote for Vučić. Martin Vučić and his father Dragan Vučić (also the co-composer of "") were physically and verbally assaulted outside the venue by the supporters of Pileva, while Macedonian Prime Minister Vlado Bučkovski who also attended the show expressed concern over the way the points were awarded.

Macedonian Eurovision Head of Delegation Ivan Mircevski later stated that he was at fault for determining the voting system and that he personally apologised to both artists for the scandal. MRT released a statement on 25 February affirming Martin Vučić as the winner after no irregularities with the voting were found.

At Eurovision According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country, the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom), and the ten highest placed finishers in the are required to qualify from the semi-final on 19 May 2005 in order to compete for the final on 21 May 2005; the top ten countries from the semi-final progress to the final. On 22 March 2005, a special allocation draw was held which determined the running order for the semi-final and Macedonia was set to perform in position 17, following the entry from and before the entry from . Martin Vučić performed the English version of "" at the contest, titled "Make My Day". At the end of the semi-final, Macedonia was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Macedonia placed third in the semi-final, receiving a total of 185 points. The draw for the running order for the final was done by the presenters during the announcement of the ten qualifying countries during the semi-final and Macedonia was drawn to perform in position 15, following the entry from and before the entry from . Macedonia placed seventeenth in the final, scoring 52 points.

The semi-final and final were broadcast in Macedonia on MTV 1 and MTV Sat with commentary by Ivan Mirčevski. MRT appointed Karolina Gočeva (who represented ) as its spokesperson to announce the Macedonian votes during the final.

Voting Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Macedonia and awarded by Macedonia in the semi-final and grand final of the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to in the semi-final and to in the final of the contest.

Points awarded to Macedonia

+ Points awarded to Macedonia (Semi-final) Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

+ Points awarded to Macedonia (Final) Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Points awarded by Macedonia

+ Points awarded by Macedonia (Semi-final) Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

+ Points awarded by Macedonia (Final) Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Notes

References