North Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Circles"
Selected songwriter(s)
  • Aleksandar Masevski
  • Andrea Koevska
Finals performance
Semi-final resultFailed to qualify (11th)
North Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2021 2022

North Macedonia participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy, with the song "Circles" performed by Andrea. North Macedonia's public broadcaster Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) organised the national final Za Evrosong 2022 in order to select the country's entry for the 2022 contest. Six entries competed in the national final and "Circles" performed by Andrea was announced as the winner on 4 February 2022 following the combination of votes from a five-member international jury panel and a public vote.

North Macedonia was drawn to compete in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2022. Performing during the show in position 11, "Circles" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that North Macedonia placed eleventh out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 76 points.

Background

Prior to the 2022 contest, North Macedonia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twenty times since its first entry in

introduction of semi-finals in 2004
, North Macedonia had featured in only six finals.

Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) broadcasts the event within North Macedonia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. MRT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2022 Eurovision Song Contest on 20 October 2021.[2] Between 2008 and 2011, North Macedonia selected their entries using the national final Skopje Fest. During this period, the nation failed to qualify to the final on every occasion. Between 2012 and 2014, the broadcaster internally selected North Macedonia's entry, resulting in a single qualification to the final during this period in 2012. After failing to qualify in 2015 where Skopje Fest was used as a national final, the broadcaster internally selected the nation's entry between 2016 and 2021, resulting in a single qualification to the final during this period in 2019. For 2022, the broadcaster returned to using a national final to select the country's entry.[3]

Before Eurovision

Za Evrosong 2022

Za Evrosong 2022 was a song contest organised by MRT that served as North Macedonia's national final to select their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. Six entries participated in the competition which consisted of two shows on 28 January 2022 and 4 February 2022. Both shows took place during the MRT 1 programme Stisni Plej, hosted by Aleksandra Jovanovska and 2017 Macedonian Eurovision representative Jana Burčeska.[4]

Competing entries

A submission period was opened for interested artists and composers to submit their songs between 10 December 2021 and 16 January 2022.[5] MRT received 47 submissions at the closing of the deadline and six entries were selected by a seven-member committee consisting of Meri Popova (MRT 1), Zoran Mirčevski (MR 2), Biljana Nikolovska (MR 1), Aleksandra Jovanovska (MR 2), Jana Burčeska (MRT 3), Maja Trpčanovska (MRT 1) and Ardita Imeri (MRT 2).[6] The six competing artists and songs were announced on 21 January 2022.[7][8]

Final

The six competing entries were presented to the public during the first show on 28 January 2022 and the public was able to vote online on the broadcaster's official Eurovision Song Contest website evrovizija.mrt.com.mk until 4 February 2022.

Dajte Muzika.[14][15]

Artist Song Songwriter(s) Jury Televote Total Place
Votes Points Votes Points
Andrea "Circles" Aleksandar Masevski, Andrea Koevska 10 12 4,300 8 20 1
Kaly "Love and Light" Davor Jordanovski, Vesna Malinova 22 6 7,539 10 16 3
Lara Ivanova "Flower of Sorrow" Robert Bilbilov, Robin Zimbakov 12 10 1,186 5 15 4
Ris Flower "Flying to Berlin" Boris Cvetanovski 24 5 1,367 6 11 6
Viktor Apostolovski "Superman" Vladimir Dojcinovski, Viktor Apostolovski 16 8 12,621 12 20 2
Yon Idy "Dreams" Jon Ajdini 21 7 3,743 7 14 5
Detailed international jury votes
Song
MLT

ISR

GEO

ISL

ARM
Total
"Circles" 1 5 1 2 1 10
"Love and Light" 4 3 6 4 5 22
"Flower of Sorrow" 2 2 5 1 2 12
"Flying to Berlin" 6 4 3 5 6 24
"Superman" 3 1 2 6 4 16
"Dreams” 5 6 4 3 3 21

Preparation

On 5 February, MRT announced that "Circles" would undergo a production revamp for the Eurovision Song Contest as a part of the €2,000 budget allocated by the broadcaster.[16] The official music video for the song was released on 10 March via the official Eurovision Song Contest's YouTube channel.[17]

Promotion

Andrea made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Circles" as North Macedonia's Eurovision entry. On 4 March, Andrea appeared during the presentation show of the 2022 Montenegrin Eurovision entry, Montenegro, dodici punti.[18] On 5 March, Andrea presented the revamped version of "Circles" for the first time during the final of the Romanian Eurovision national final.[19][20] On 3 April, Andrea performed during the London Eurovision Party, which was held at the Hard Rock Hotel in London, United Kingdom and hosted by Paddy O'Connell and SuRie.[21] On 7 April, Andrea performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Menora Mivtachim Arena in Tel Aviv, Israel.[22] On 16 April, Andrea performed during the PrePartyES 2022 event which was held at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain and hosted by Ruth Lorenzo.[23][24]

At Eurovision

Cala Luna [it] in the Province of Nuoro in Sardinia was the location of Andrea's postcard.
A video postcard introduced Andrea's performance in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2022. The postcard was filmed at the Cala Luna [it] in the Province of Nuoro in Sardinia and featured virtual projections of Andrea across the location.

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 25 January 2022, an 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 12 May 2022, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.[25]

Once all the competing songs for the 2022 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 11, following the entry from Ireland and before the entry from Estonia.[26]

The two semi-finals and final were broadcast in North Macedonia on MRT 1 and MRT 2 with commentary by Eli Tanaskovska.[27][28] North Macedonia's spokesperson, who announced the top 12-point score awarded by its jury during the final, was Jana Burčeska, who previously represented North Macedonia at the contest in 2017.[29]

Flag incident

During the "Turquoise Carpet" event which preceded the Opening Ceremony of the contest on 8 May 2022, Andrea was seen throwing the flag of North Macedonia onto the floor during a photoshoot with the press. MRT later published a statement condemning her action, describing it as "desecration of a national symbol, which is punishable by Macedonian law". The broadcaster also threatened to withdraw Andrea from the contest. Andrea immediately issued a statement on national television, apologising for her actions and stating that she simply meant to hand the flag to a member of the delegation, who was too far away.[30] MRT later stated on 11 May that they would take all disciplinary measures after the delegation returns from Turin, while also raising the possibility that they would not return for the 2023 contest due to the negative publicity caused by the incident.[31]

Semi-final

Andrea took part in technical rehearsals on 3 and 6 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 11 and 12 May. This included the jury show on 11 May where the professional juries of each country watched and voted on the competing entries.

The Macedonian performance featured Andrea performing alone on stage in a black silk-lined coat with a crop top and black leather boots. The stage colours were predominately gold with the background LED screens displaying sun patterns and the LED floor displaying a spiral effect involving pieces whirling around in a circle towards the climax of the performance. Panels towards the front of the stage were also used which displayed handprints.[32][33] Andrea was also joined by two off-stage backing vocalists: Renata Kralevska [mk] and Ana Petanovska.[34]

At the end of the show, North Macedonia was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that North Macedonia placed eleventh in the semi-final, receiving a total of 76 points: 20 points from the televoting and 56 points from the juries.

Voting

Below is a breakdown of points awarded to North Macedonia in the second semi-final. 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.[35] The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country's jury and televoting were released after the final; the individual results from each jury member were also released in an anonymised form.[36][37] The Macedonian jury consisted of Agni Avshar, Andrijana Jovanovska, Ivan Petrovski, Nikola Micevski and Yon Idy.[36][37] In the second semi-final, North Macedonia placed 11th with 76 points, just one spot from qualifying. North Macedonia also received twelve points in the jury vote from Germany. Over the course of the contest, North Macedonia awarded its 12 points to Serbia (in both the jury and televote) in the second semi-final, and to Spain (jury) and Serbia (televote) in the final.[38][39]

Points awarded to North Macedonia

Points awarded to North Macedonia (Semi-final 2)[38]
Score Televote Jury
12 points  Germany
10 points  Montenegro  Czech Republic
8 points  Serbia
7 points
6 points
5 points
4 points
3 points
2 points  Czech Republic  Finland
1 point

Points awarded by North Macedonia

Detailed voting results

The following members comprised the Macedonian jury:[37][36]

  • Agni Avshar – singer-songwriter
  • Andrijana Jovanovska – music producer, songwriter
  • Ivan Petrovski – singer-songwriter
  • Nikola Micevski – journalist, TV presenter
  • Yon Idy – singer-songwriter, participated in Macedonian selection for Eurovision 2022
Detailed voting results from North Macedonia (Semi-final 2)[38]
Draw Country Jury Televote
Juror 1 Juror 2 Juror 3 Juror 4 Juror 5 Rank Points Rank Points
01  Finland 16 16 3 3 6 7 4 3 8
02  Israel 14 7 6 7 16 11 13
03  Serbia 1 11 1 1 9 1 12 1 12
04  Azerbaijan 7 14 7 6 14 10 1 16
05  Georgia 10 13 16 12 11 15 17
06  Malta 2 3 12 11 4 5 6 8 3
07  San Marino 17 17 17 15 5 14 15
08  Australia 3 1 9 13 15 6 5 14
09  Cyprus 11 12 14 14 17 17 6 5
10  Ireland 15 8 15 16 12 16 11
11  North Macedonia
12  Estonia 12 9 11 5 7 9 2 10 1
13  Romania 13 10 10 17 10 13 12
14  Poland 4 2 4 8 3 3 8 9 2
15  Montenegro 6 5 5 10 13 8 3 2 10
16  Belgium 5 4 2 4 2 2 10 7 4
17  Sweden 9 6 8 2 1 4 7 4 7
18  Czech Republic 8 15 13 9 8 12 5 6
Detailed voting results from North Macedonia (Final)[39]
Draw Country Jury Televote
Juror 1 Juror 2 Juror 3 Juror 4 Juror 5 Rank Points Rank Points
01  Czech Republic 25 17 10 20 19 22 6 5
02  Romania 10 10 14 19 13 19 13
03  Portugal 23 18 17 5 14 15 17
04  Finland 24 25 6 12 17 18 15
05   Switzerland 14 6 18 10 5 10 1 18
06  France 15 16 23 17 22 24 19
07  Norway 12 22 15 24 16 23 9 2
08  Armenia 21 11 16 16 10 21 21
09  Italy 11 21 3 15 1 4 7 5 6
10  Spain 5 1 1 2 2 1 12 2 10
11  Netherlands 17 14 19 8 15 20 14
12  Ukraine 13 19 12 21 4 12 3 8
13  Germany 20 7 24 11 7 13 20
14  Lithuania 18 20 9 14 9 17 10 1
15  Azerbaijan 6 12 11 3 25 7 4 24
16  Belgium 16 13 5 9 6 8 3 16
17  Greece 8 15 4 13 23 11 22
18  Iceland 22 23 25 25 21 25 25
19  Moldova 9 24 20 7 18 16 4 7
20  Sweden 19 5 7 6 3 5 6 7 4
21  Australia 1 3 13 18 20 6 5 23
22  United Kingdom 3 4 21 4 8 3 8 12
23  Poland 4 9 8 22 11 9 2 11
24  Serbia 2 2 2 1 24 2 10 1 12
25  Estonia 7 8 22 23 12 14 8 3

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