Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998

Eurovision Song Contest 1998
Participating broadcaster	Macedonian Radio Television (MRT)
Country	Macedonia
National selection
Selection process	Skopje Fest 1998
Selection date(s)	7 March 1998
Selected artist(s)	Vlado Janevski
Selected song	"Ne zori, zoro"
Selected songwriter(s)	Grigor Koprov Vlado Janevski
Finals performance
Final result	19th, 16 points
Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄1996 • 1998 • 2000►

Macedonia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 with the song "Ne zori, zoro" (Не зори, зоро), composed by Grigor Koprov, with lyrics by Vlado Janevski, and performed by Vlado Janevski. The Macedonian participating broadcaster, Macedonian Radio Television (MRT), selected its entry through Skopje Fest 1998. This was the first-ever entry from independent Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest, and the first-ever entry performed in Macedonian in the contest, after MRT was unable to debut in the 1996 contest by failing to pass the qualifying round.

Before Eurovision

Skopje Fest 1998

Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) held the national final on 7 March 1998 at the Universal Hall in Skopje accompanied by the big orchestra of MKRTV. Milanka Rašik and Aleksandar Delovski hosted the event, and the winner was selected by televoting for the first time.^[1]

Final – 7 March 1998

Draw	Artist	Song	Songwriter(s)	Televote	Place
1	Tanja Carovska	"Preku moreto" (Преку морето)	Tanja Carovska	1,339	12
2	Kaliopi	"Ne zaboravaj" (Не заборавај)	Kaliopi, Romeo Grill	3,834	9
3	Monika Sokolovska	"Son" (Сон)	Petar Georgiev-Kalica	862	15
4	Toše Proeski and Megatim Plus	"Ostani do kraj" (Остани до крај)	Kristijan Gabrovski, Hari Kotlarovski	4,210	8
5	Tanja, Lidija and Zorica Pančić	"Daj mi pričina da se razbudam" (Дај ми причина да се разбудам)	Zorica Pančić, Igor Cvetkovski	2,459	11
6	Sašo Gigov-Giš	"Samovilska svadba" (Самовилска свадба)	Jordan Danailovski, Grigor Koprov	34,774	2
7	Iskra Trpeva and Granit	"Ne baraj me" (Не барај ме)	Ljubomir Brangolica	681	20
8	Risto Samardžiev	"Ne veruvam" (Не верувам)	Risto Samardžiev	8,866	5
9	Dule and Koki	"Daj mi šansa" (Дај ми шанса)	Miodrag Vrčakovski, Grigor Koprov	23,615	3
10	Biljana Dodeva	"Koj si ti" (Кој си ти)	Liljana Vasileva, Biljana Dodeva	828	16
11	Pece Ognenov and Andrijana Janevska	"Te sakam beskrajno" (Те сакам бескрајно)	Adrijana Janevska	1,100	13
12	Duo Maratov	"Bez tebe" (Без тебе)	Blagoj Morotow	764	17
13	Intervali	"Ljubovta nema granici" (Љубовта нема граници)	Boris Gavrilovski	694	19
14	Maja Grozdanovska and Bumerang	"Kameleon" (Камелеон)	Metodi Ivanov	3,319	10
15	Marjan Nečak	"Andrea" (Андреа)	Marjan Nečak	725	18
16	Suzana Spasovska	"Opomena" (Опомена)	Boško Smakoski, Vančo Dimitrov	5,441	6
17	Maja Vukičević	"Broj do deset" (Број до десет)	Aleksandar Mitevski, Stefče Črčev	908	14
18	Vlado Janevski	"Ne zori, zoro" (Не зори, зоро)	Vlado Janevski, Grigor Koprov	38,642	1
19	Karolina Gočeva	"Ukradeni nokji" (Украдени ноќи)	Miodrag Vrčakovski, Kire Kostov	10,454	4
20	Mičo Atanasiu	"Pari pari" (Пари пари)	Vladimir Petrovski, Mičo Atanasiu	4,453	7

At Eurovision

Heading into the final of the contest, BBC reported that bookmakers ranked the entry joint 25th (last) out of the 25 entries.^[2] Vlado Janevski performed last in the running order on the night of the contest, following Turkey. "Ne zori, zoro" scored 16 points, finishing in 19th place out of 25 countries.^[3]

Macedonia gave the decisive points of the night: it was the last country to vote, and at that point, it was anyone's guess as to who was going to prevail, with Israel and Malta locked in battle and the United Kingdom just a few points behind. When Macedonia finally came to award the points, Israel was the first of the three contenders to be mentioned, receiving eight points. That was enough to knock the UK out of contention for victory, but left plenty of room for Israel to be overtaken by their principal rival, Malta. Next, the ten points went to the UK, nudging them into what looked like being an extremely fleeting spell in second place, since most of the audience assumed the twelve points were destined for Malta. Instead, there were gasps as Macedonia sent the final points of the evening to fellow Balkan nation Croatia, handing Israel the final victory.

Due to low placement Macedonia was relegated from the 1999 contest, but it would eventually return in 2000.

Voting

Points awarded to Macedonia[4] Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points  Croatia 5 points 4 points  Slovenia 3 points  Romania  Slovakia 2 points 1 point

Points awarded by Macedonia[4] Score Country 12 points  Croatia 10 points  United Kingdom 8 points  Israel 7 points  Ireland 6 points  Belgium 5 points  Turkey 4 points  Portugal 3 points  Netherlands 2 points  France 1 point  Finland

References

1. "https://www.webcitation.org/5ko4dXugZ?url=http://www.geocities.com/national_finals_90s_00s/FYROM1998.html
2. "The bookies' favourites". BBC News. 8 May 1998. Archived from the original on 1 November 2002. Retrieved 21 March 2021.
3. "Final of Birmingham 1998". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
4. "Results of the Final of Birmingham 1998". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 13 April 2021. Retrieved 13 April 2021.