Today it has been revealed by broadcaster MKRTV that they have internally selected Tamara Todevska to represent FYR Macedonia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Tamara Todevska has previous experience within the contest on several occasions. Previously she was a backing singer in 2004 for the late artist Tose Proeski. 10 years later she then served once more as a backing singer for her sister Tijana with her entry “To The Sky”.
Tamara was also the representative of her country in 2008 in Belgrade with “Let Me Love You” alongside Vrčak and Adrian Gaxha. The song failed to qualify for the final as they finished in 10th place in their semi final. Under the old voting system, only the top 9 in the televote were guaranteed a space in the final with a backup jury selecting the final country. In this instance they opted for Sweden to advance instead, under the current system FYR Macedonia would have qualified.
Tamara becomes the second artist of 2019 already to return after San Marino earlier this week announced that their 2016 artist Serhat would be singing for them again this year.
FYR Macedonia’s entry will be revealed at a later stage. It was revealed yesterday that changes will be made to MKRTV’s Eurovision team. FYR Macedonia are also currently undergoing a diplomatic process with Greece to change the country’s name to Republic of North Macedonia. It is not currently known whether this new name will be used for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019.
FYR Macedonia have not reached the grand final of the competition since 2012 having failed to qualify for the last 6 contests. Most recently they were represented by Eye Cue in 2018 with the song “Lost and Found”. Sadly the song only managed 18th place in the first semi final.
Source: Eurovision.tv
FYR Macedonia has had a string of poor results in recent years failing to reach the final every year since 2012. The country debuted in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998, however, two years earlier they attempted to participate but was knocked out in the pre-qualifying round. In 2016 they were represented by Kaliopi for a second time with the song “Dona”, she missed out on the final finishing in 11th in her semi-final. FYR Macedonia’s best result to date is a 12th place finish in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest represented by Elena Risteska and the song “Ninanajna”.