North Macedonia are one of the 17 competing entries at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2024 in Madrid, Spain this coming Saturday. Their artist Ana and Aleksej will perform “Marathon” in slot number 7 during the show.
Copenhagen 2003
F.Y.R. Macedonia, as they were known at the time, first participated in the original edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 held in Copenhagen. Back then, interested nations had to enter a draw to access the first contest due to demand outweighing capacity.
Marija and Viktorija were the first selected artists for the country singing “Ti ne me poznavaš“. For the first time in their history they finished the contest in 12th, an odd tradition which would be repeated several times over.
Lillehammer 2004
F.Y.R. Macedonia continued in the contest for 2004 where they sent Martina Siljanovska. “Zabava” was her entry and she managed to better the first attempt by finishing in 7th place in Lillehammer.
During the voting sequence, only Greece and Belarus did not award Martina any points.
Hasselt 2005
F.Y.R Macedonia were back for a third time with another entry entirely in the Macedonian language. For the first time, they decided to send a male artist to the contest.
At the contest held in Belgium, they performed in the middle in slot number 8 and coincidentally was where Denis Dimoski finished, as his entry “Rodendeski baknež” finished in 8th place, even collecting 10 points from both Serbia and Montenegro and Russia.
Bucharest 2006
Though several original countries had dithering interest at this stage, F.Y.R. Macedonia continued for a fourth participation.
Zana Aliu was selected to represent F.Y.R. Macedonia in a national selection where she originally sent two songs. Sadly at the contest, this year is noted as the first time F.Y.R. Macedonia finished in last place, collecting only a 12 point headstart and 2 further points from Romania.
Rotterdam 2007
Similarly to their debut entry, F.Y.R. Macedonia once more tried a duet at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2007.
This proved to start a better era in the contest for the country as Rosica Kulakova and Dimitar Stojmenovski reached 5th place overall with their song “Ding Ding Dong”. On the night they also received their first ever sets of 12 points, from Bulgaria and Serbia.
Limassol 2008
Dečja pesna Eurovizije was the selection process used to choose F.Y.R. Macedonia’s entry in 2008. A 50/50 combination of jury and public votes selected Bobi Andonov to represent the country with “Prati Mi SMS” from 12 finalists in the selection.
Although in Limassol no country awarded F.Y.R. Macedonia the maximum of 12 points, they were still able to match their best result of 5th place which they held the previous year.
Kyiv 2009
Following two top 5 finishes, F.Y.R. Macedonia persevered once more with a selection process in 2009. The selection was won by Sara Markoska who had previously attempted to represent the country in 2007.
Sara couldn’t quite match the success of the previous two years and her song “Za Ljubovta” finished in 12th place, a position they also hit on their debut in 2003.
Minsk 2010
An eighth consecutive appearance from F.Y.R. Macedonia came in 2010 when a selection show Dečja pesna Eurovizije determined Anja Veterova to be worthy of going to Minsk with the entry “Eooo, Eooo”.
Their Balkan neighbours Serbia awarded them 12 points at the contest in the Belarussian capital. However for a third time they finished in 12th place overall.
Yerevan 2011
September 2011 in Skopje saw another five young artists attempt to represent F.Y.R. Macedonia in Yerevan. In the end, Dorijan Dlaka won the right with “Žimi ovoj frak”.
For the third year in a row, F.Y.R. Macedonia finished the contest in 12th place.
Kyiv 2013
Despite their close neighbours Albania joining the contest for the first time in 2012, F.Y.R. Macedonia decided to pull out due to lack of budget. This left Belgium, Belarus and the Netherlands as the only three countries left to perform in every contest.
They did however return after just one year’s leave and changed to an internal selection. Barbara Popović was chosen by broadcaster MRT with the entry “Ohrid i muzika”. Incredibly they continued their streak of finishing in 12th place for a fourth attempt. This was sadly last place this year as only 12 countries went to Ukraine for the contest.
Sofia 2015
After another poor showing, F.Y.R. Macedonia once again took another year’s hiatus before returning in 2015 when the contest went to Bulgaria for the first time.
MRT remained with an internal selection for the contest and for a third time in their history they selected a duo. Ivana Petkovska and Magdalena Aleksovska took the stage with their entry “Pletenka”.
Sadly for a second attempt in a row, F.Y.R. Macedonia finished last.
Valletta 2016
Determined to reverse their fortunes of their previous two attempts, F.Y.R. Macedonia remained in the contest. This was their 12th appearance and for the very first time an internal selection resulted in an entry that wasn’t fully in Macedonian but instead also included English language.
Martija Stanojković performed for the country in Valletta with the entry “Love Will Lead Our Way”. They successfully avoided the bottom of the board and continued a trend by placing in 12th for a sixth time.
Tbilisi 2017
F.Y.R. Macedonia had a third consecutive attempt at the contest in 2017 when it was Georgia’s turn to host. MRT continued with an internal selection which was again in the Macedonian language mixed with English.
Mina Blažev was the unlucky thirteenth artist for the country with the song “Dancing Through Life”. Bizarrely for a second time in their history F.Y.R. Macedonia began a streak of coming in 12th place at the contest.
Minsk 2018
Marija Spasovska was the artist representing F.Y.R. Macedonia in 2018. Her song “Doma” was internally chosen by MRT.
Kazakhstan and Serbia awarded the entry 12 points in Minsk, which returned to being a fully Macedonian language entry. For the third year in a row they finished in 12th place.
Gliwice 2019
2019 saw a change for the country. After being renamed in the adult contest six months earlier, from this contest they were now titled North Macedonia.
Having just achieved their best ever result at the adult contest this year, North Macedonia were determined to replicate this in the Junior contest. Once again they opted for an internal selection resulting in Mila Moskov being the fourth consecutive female artist for the country with the entry “Fire”.
For the first time in over a decade, North Macedonia successfully cracked the top 10 when Mila finished in 6th place, the best result for the country since they last hit 5th place in 2008.
Warsaw 2020
Despite a resurgence for North Macedonia, unfortunately momentum was cut short as the country decided alongside several other countries to withdraw from Junior Eurovision in 2020 due to the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and how this would effect the show.
Paris 2021
After their break, North Macedonia made a return for Paris 2021. MRT once more opted to select their entry internally and this time opted to send a mixed group.
“Green Forces” was the selected entry performed by Dajte Muzika. Following the success of Mila, North Macedonia again managed to secure a top 10 finish, this time in 9th place, even securing 12 points from the Albanian jury.
Yerevan 2022
MRT hosted an audition round for representing the country in 2022 in their studios in Skopje. A committee originally selected artists Lara Trpčeska and Irina Dazidovska for Yerevan. Later on, they announced that Jovan Jakimovski were added to the act and they would perform the entry “Životot e pred mene” as Lara feat. Jovan & Irina.
This was the second time in a row that a group was representing North Macedonia and the success of previous years was slightly weakened this time as they finished in 14th place of the 16 competitors.
Nice 2023
North Macedonia returned last year once more for their 18th attendance in Nice, France. Once more an audition round was held at MRT Studios in Skopje before Tamara Grujeska was selected with the song “Kaži mi, kaži mi koj”
True to form, at the contest for the ninth time North Macedonia had finished in 12th place. This marks half the of their appearances now ending on this result.
Junior Eurovision 2024
The 2024 edition of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest will take place in Madrid, following Spain’s second-place finish at the 2023 contest. The final will take place at the Caja Mágica on November 16, bringing the contest back to a Saturday for the first time since 2015. The winner, France, declined the hosting responsibility after hosting the 2023 edition in Nice.
The seventeen countries and the singers and songs representing them are:
Italy: Simone Grande – “Pigiama Party”- Estonia: Annabelle – “Tänavad”
- Albania: Nikol Çabeli – “Vallëzoj”
- Armenia: Leo – “Cosmic Friend”
- Cyprus: Maria Pissarides – “Crystal Waters”
- France: Titouan – “Comme ci, comme ça”
- North Macedonia: Ana and Aleksej – “Marathon”
- Poland: Dominik Arim – “All Together”
- Georgia: Andria Putkaradze – “To My Mom”
- Spain: Chloe DelaRosa – “Como la Lola”
- Germany: Bjarne – “Save the Best For Us”
- Netherlands: Stay Tuned – “Music”
- San Marino: Idols SM – “Come noi”
- Ukraine: Artem Kotenko – “Hear Me Now”
- Portugal: Victoria Nicole – “Esperança”
- Ireland – Enya Cox Dempsey – “Le chéile”
- Malta: Ramires Sciberras – “Stilla ċkejkna”
Italy: Simone Grande – “Pigiama Party”
Estonia: Annabelle – “Tänavad”
Albania: Nikol Çabeli – “Vallëzoj”
Armenia: Leo – “Cosmic Friend”
Cyprus: Maria Pissarides – “Crystal Waters”
France: Titouan – “Comme ci, comme ça”
North Macedonia: Ana and Aleksej – “Marathon”
Poland: Dominik Arim – “All Together”
Georgia: Andria Putkaradze – “To My Mom”
Spain: Chloe DelaRosa – “Como la Lola”
Germany: Bjarne – “Save the Best For Us”
Netherlands: Stay Tuned – “Music”
San Marino: Idols SM – “Come noi”
Ukraine: Artem Kotenko – “Hear Me Now”
Portugal: Victoria Nicole – “Esperança”
Ireland – Enya Cox Dempsey – “Le chéile”
Malta: Ramires Sciberras – “Stilla ċkejkna”Image Source: MRT / Sacho Dokovski
