Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004

Macedonia (officially under the provisional appellation "former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia", abbreviated "FYR Macedonia") participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 with the song "Life" written by Jovan Jovanov and Ilija Nikolovski. The song was performed by Toše Proeski, who was internally selected by the Macedonian broadcaster Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) to compete for Macedonia at the 2004 contest in Istanbul, Turkey. MRT returned to the Eurovision Song Contest after a one-year absence following their relegation from 2003 as one of the bottom five countries in the 2002 contest. Toše Proeski's appointment as the Macedonian representative was announced on 7 June 2003, while MRT organised Skopje Fest 2004 in order to select his song. Eight songs competed in the competition on 14 February 2004 where "Angel si ti" was selected following the combination of votes from an eleven-member jury panel, Proeski himself and a public televote. The song was later translated from Macedonian to English for the Eurovision Song Contest and was titled "Life".

Eurovision Song Contest 2004
Country Macedonia
National selection
Selection processArtist: Internal selection
Song: Skopje Fest 2004
Selection date(s)Artist: 7 July 2003
Song: 14 February 2004
Selected entrantToše Proeski
Selected song"Life"
Selected songwriter(s)
Finals performance
Semi-final resultQualified (10th, 71 points)
Final result14th, 47 points
Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2002 • 2004 • 2005►

Macedonia competed in the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 12 May 2004. Performing during the show in position 15, "Life" was announced among the top 10 entries of the semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 15 May. It was later revealed that Macedonia placed tenth out of the 22 participating countries in the semi-final with 71 points. In the final, Macedonia performed in position 15 and placed fourteenth out of the 24 participating countries, scoring 47 points.

Background
Main article: Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest

Prior to the 2004 contest, Macedonia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest three times since its first entry in 1998.[1] The nation's best result in the contest to this point was fifteenth, which it achieved in 2000 with the song "100% te ljubam" performed by XXL. The Macedonian national broadcaster, Macedonian Radio Television (MRT), broadcasts the event within Macedonia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Macedonia had previously selected all of their entries for the Eurovision Song Contest by using the national final Skopje Fest. MRT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest on 7 July 2003.[2] For 2004, the broadcaster opted to internally select the Macedonian artist with the song selected through Skopje Fest.[3]

Before Eurovision

Artist selection
Toše Proeski was internally selected to represent Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2004

On 7 July 2003, MRT announced during a press conference at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Skopje that they had internally selected Toše Proeski to represent Macedonia in Istanbul.[2][4] Proeski previously attempted to represent Macedonia at the Eurovision Song Contest by competing in the country's national final selections on several occasions: in 1998 with the song "Ostani do kraj" which he performed with the group Megatim Plus and placed eighth, and in 2000 with the song "Solzi pravat zlaten prsten" which placed third. It was also announced that the Skopje Fest 2004 song contest would be organised to select the song Toše Proeski would perform.[3]

Skopje Fest 2004

A submission period was opened for interested composers to submit their songs until 15 October 2003.[5] MRT received 60 submissions at the closing of the deadline and eight songs were selected by Toše Proeski and his manager Liliana Petrović together with a ten-member committee consisting of Mihail Rendžov (poet), Jana Andreevska (composer), Radica Mitić (MR 2), Svetlana Marković (sound designer), Ivan Mirčevski (MTV), Arben Shaqiri (singer), Danail Darkovski (composer and instrumentalist), John Ilija Apelgren (singer), Ariton Krliu (MR 2) and Ilija Pejovski (composer and conductor).[6] The eight competing songs were announced on 9 January 2004 and later appeared on Proeski's forthcoming album Den za nas.[7] English versions of the eight songs were also recorded along with six of the songs in Serbian which appeared on the Serbian version of the album Dan za nas.[8][9]

Song Songwriter(s)
Macedonian title English title
"Angel si ti" (Ангел си ти) "Life Is..." Jovan Jovanov
"Daleku od mene" (Далеку од мене) "I Love You and I Hate You" Zorica Katrandžiska, Vesna Malinova
"Egzotičen son" (Егзотичен сон) "Exotic Dream" Aleksandar Čekredži, Maja Pavlovska
"Go lažam sekoj nov refren" (Го лажам секој нов рефрен) "Each New Refrain I Prevaricate" Ljupčo Mirkovski, Ognen Nedelkovski
"Hej sinooka, hej bosonoga" (Хеј синоока, хеј босонога) "Blue-eyed, Barefooted" Mirjana Danilovska, Kire Kostov
"Ljubena" (Љубена) "Cherished" Simon Trpčeski, Jovan Trpčevski
"Parče od Evropa" (Парче од Европа) "Shred of Europe" Goran Alački, Maja Pavlovska
"Zošto otide" (Зошто отиде) "Why Did You Leave" Blažo Temelkov

Final

Skopje Fest 2004 took place on 14 January 2004 at the Universal Hall in Skopje, hosted by Karolina Petkovska and Aneta Andonova and was broadcast on MTV 1 and MTV Sat.[10][11] All eight competing songs were performed by Toše Proeski and "Angel si ti" was selected as the winning song by a combination of public televoting (1/3), votes from Proeski himself (1/3) and an eleven-member jury panel (1/3).[12] The jury panel consisted of Srgjan Kerim (Media Print Makedonija), Esma Redžepova (singer-songwriter), Aleksandar Džambazov (composer), Bubo Karov (K-15), Ariton Krliu (MR 2), Dario (singer), Iskra Trpeva (singer), Aleksandar Masevski (composer and producer), Oliver Belopeta (artistic director), Sašo Čolakovski (journalist) and Ivan Mirčevski (MTV).[13] The English versions of the eight songs were also presented to the public through 40-second samples after each song was performed.[14] In addition to the performances of the competing songs, the competition featured a guest performance by Synthesis.[13]

Final – 14 February 2004
Draw Song Jury Toše
Proeski		 Televote Total Place
Votes Points
1 "Daleku od mene" 51 66 6,234 66 182 2
2 "Egzotičen son" 16 0 704 0 16 8
3 "Ljubena" 16 22 796 0 38 7
4 "Zošto otide" 17 0 1,453 22 39 6
5 "Angel si ti" 80 88 8,487 88 256 1
6 "Hej sinooka, hej bosonoga" 20 44 948 11 75 4
7 "Parče od Evropa" 15 11 1,640 33 59 5
8 "Go lažam sekoj nov refren" 49 33 2,862 44 126 3
Detailed Jury Votes
Draw Song S. Kerim E. Redžepova A. Džambazov B. Karov A. Krliu Dario I. Trpeva A. Masevski O. Belopeta S. Čolakovski I. Mirčevski Total
1 "Daleku od mene"4118686614651
2 "Egzotičen son"16223216
3 "Ljubena"1243111316
4 "Zošto otide"122334217
5 "Angel si ti"8884848888880
6 "Hej sinooka, hej bosonoka"24223123120
7 "Parče od Evropa"36615
8 "Go lažam sekoj nov refren"6336434466449

At Eurovision
Toše Proeski during a rehearsal before the semi-final

It was announced that the competition's format would be expanded to include a semi-final in 2004. According to the 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 2003 contest are required to qualify from the semi-final on 12 May 2004 in order to compete for the final on 15 May 2004; the top ten countries from the semi-final progress to the final. On 23 March 2004, a special allocation draw was held which determined the running order for the semi-final and Macedonia was set to perform in position 15, following the entry from Cyprus and before the entry from Slovenia.[15] Toše Proeski performed the English version of "Angel si ti" at the contest, titled "Life" (formerly "Life Is...").[16] Among the backing performers that joined Proeski on stage for the Macedonian performance was Tamara Todevska who would go on to represent Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 and 2019.[17]

At the end of the semi-final, Macedonia was announced as having finished in the top 10 and consequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Macedonia placed tenth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 71 points.[18] 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 Russia and before the entry from Greece. Macedonia placed fourteenth in the final, scoring 47 points.[19]

The semi-final and final were broadcast in Macedonia on MTV 1 and MTV Sat with commentary by Milanka Rašić.[20] The Macedonian spokesperson, who announced the Macedonian votes during the final, was Karolina Petkovska.

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 Albania in the semi-final and the final of the contest.

Points awarded to Macedonia

Points awarded by Macedonia

References
  1. "F.Y.R. Macedonia Country Profile". EBU. Retrieved 11 August 2014.
  2. "Тоше ќе не претставува на Евросонгот во Турција!". tose.forumotion.com (in Macedonian). Retrieved 2023-01-11.
  3. "Тоше на Евросонг 2004 – се бараат песните?!". mmm.com.mk (in Macedonian). 2003-08-24. Archived from the original on 2003-08-24. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
  4. Bakker, Sietse (2003-07-09). "UPDATE: Tose Proeski for FYR Macedonia to Turkey!". Esctoday. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
  5. "Композитори го бојкотираат Тоше за Евровизија?". tose.forumotion.com (in Macedonian). Retrieved 2023-01-11.
  6. "Pesni". eurosong.com.mk (in Macedonian). Archived from the original on 2004-06-07. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
  7. van Gorp, Edwin (2004-01-09). "FYROM: Eight songs for Tose Proeski". Esctoday. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
  8. "Songs". eurosong.com.mk. Archived from the original on 2004-06-06. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
  9. Phillips, Roel (2004-07-02). "Tose Proeski releases Dan za nas". Esctoday. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
  10. Bakker, Sietse (2004-02-14). "FYROM, Lithuania and Malta select tonight". Esctoday. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  11. "Macedonian Selection 2004". Eurovisionworld. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
  12. Bakker, Sietse (2004-02-15). "Eurovision 2023 FYR Macedonia: Tose Proeski will sing Angel si ti - ESCToday.com". Eurovision News, Polls and Information by ESCToday. Retrieved 2023-01-10.
  13. "Ангел си ти адут за Македонија". tose.forumotion.com. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
  14. "Anđeoski glas koji se i dalje čuje". eurosong.hr (in Croatian). 2017-10-16. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
  15. Bakker, Sietse (23 March 2004). "Eurovision 2004: this is the running order!". Esctoday. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
  16. "Croatia: Ivan Mikulić in English". Esctoday. 2004-04-13. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
  17. "North Macedonia". Six on Stage. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
  18. "Semi-Final of Istanbul 2004". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  19. "Grand Final of Istanbul 2004". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 18 April 2021.
  20. "Official Macedonian Eurosong Contest Website". eurosong.com.mk. 2004-06-26. Archived from the original on 2004-06-26. Retrieved 2023-01-11.
  21. "Results of the Semi-Final of Istanbul 2004". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 19 April 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  22. "Results of the Grand Final of Istanbul 2004". European Broadcasting Union. Archived from the original on 19 April 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
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