Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005

Eurovision Song Contest 2005
Participating broadcaster	Macedonian Radio Television (MRT)
Country	Macedonia
National selection
Selection process	Makedonski Evrosong 2005
Selection date(s)	19 February 2005
Selected artist(s)	Martin Vučić
Selected song	"Make My Day"
Selected songwriter(s)	Dragan Vučić Branka Kostić
Finals performance
Semi-final result	Qualified (9th, 97 points)
Final result	17th, 52 points
Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
◄2004 • 2005 • 2006►

Macedonia^[a] was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 with the song "Make My Day", written by Dragan Vučić and Branka Kostić, and performed by Martin Vučić. The Macedonian participating broadcaster, Macedonian Radio Television (MRT), organised the national final Makedonski Evrosong 2005 in order to select its entry for the contest. Five artists were presented to the public in November 2004 and an eight-member jury panel and a public televote selected two artists to qualify to the compete in the competition on 19 February 2005, where "Ti si son" (Ти си сон) performed by Martin Vučić was selected following two rounds of voting from a twelve-member jury panel, an audience vote and a public televote. The song was later translated from Macedonian to English for Eurovision and was titled "Make My Day".

Macedonia competed in the semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 19 May 2005. Performing during the show in position 17, "Make My Day" was announced among the top 10 entries of the semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 21 May. It was later revealed that Macedonia placed ninth out of the 25 participating countries in the semi-final with 97 points. In the final, Macedonia performed in position 15 and placed seventeenth out of the 24 participating countries, scoring 52 points.

Prior to the 2005 contest, Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Macedonia four times since its first entry in 1998.^[1] Its best result in the contest to this point was fourteenth, achieved in 2004 with the song "Life" performed by Toše Proeski.

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, MRT organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster had previously selected its entry for the contest through both national finals and internal selections. MRT confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2005 contest on 22 October 2004.^[2] Since 1996, the broadcaster selected its entries using a national final, a procedure that continued for its 2005 entry.

Makedonski Evrosong 2005 was the national final organised by MRT to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. The competition took place on 19 February 2005 at the Universal Hall in Skopje, hosted by Karolina Petkovska and Aneta Andonova and was broadcast on MTV 1, MTV Sat and online via the broadcaster's official Eurovision Song Contest website eurosong.com.mk.^[3][4]

A sixteen-member committee each proposed eight artists for the competition and the six most nominated acts were presented to the public in a special show titled Eurosong Day in Macedonia, which took place on 7 November 2004 and was broadcast on MTV 1 and MTV Sat.^[5][6] On 9 November 2004, MRT announced that Kaliopi had withdrawn from the artist selection.^[7] Two artists qualified to the final by a 50/50 combination of public televoting which ran until 14 November 2004 and a jury panel consisting of seven individual members and an eighth aggregate 20-member press vote, which were announced on 14 November.^[8] Over 1,500 votes were registered by the televote.^[9]

The final took place on 19 February 2005 where the two selected artists, Aleksandra Pileva and Martin Vučić, each performed four candidate Eurovision songs: three selected from over 100 songs that MRT received through an open submission and one provided by the artists themselves for the competition.^[10] The winner was selected over two rounds of voting. In the first round, a combination of public televoting (1/3), votes from the audience in the venue (1/3) and a twelve-member jury panel (1/3) selected one song per artist to advance to the second round. In the second round, the public, audience and jury vote selected "Ti si son" performed by Martin Vučić as the winner.^[11] The jury panel consisted of Metodi Čepreganov (doctor), Avni Qahili (MTV 2), Diki Tavitjan (musician), Valentina Todoroska (Utrinski vesnik), Joško Boškovski (Radio Macedonia), Vlatko Plevneš (musician), Tanja Grkovska (MTV), Robert Sazdov (producer), Cvetanka Laskova (singer), Katerina Kocevska (actress), Beni Šakiri (musician) and Nikola Firiev (MTV). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the competition featured guest performances by Biba Dodeva, Andrijana Janevska, Iskra Trpeva, Tamara Todevska and Martina Siljanovska (who represented Macedonia in Junior 2004).^[12]

The Macedonian national final sparked controversy due to the large discrepancy between the jury and public vote; Aleksandra Pileva won the televote in both rounds but lost out to Martin Vučić despite receiving six times more votes than him in the second round.^[11] In addition, some of the audience members later admitted that they have been given free tickets to attend the show in order to vote for Vučić.^[13] Martin Vučić and his father Dragan Vučić (also the co-composer of "Ti si son") were physically and verbally assaulted outside the venue by the supporters of Pileva, while Macedonian Prime Minister Vlado Bučkovski who also attended the show expressed concern over the way the points were awarded.^[14][15]

Macedonian Eurovision Head of Delegation Ivan Mircevski later stated that he was at fault for determining the voting system and that he personally apologised to both artists for the scandal.^[16] MRT released a statement on 25 February affirming Martin Vučić as the winner after no irregularities with the voting were found.^[17]

According to Eurovision 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 2004 contest are required to qualify from the semi-final on 19 May 2005 in order to compete for the final on 21 May 2005; the top ten countries from the semi-final progress to the final. On 22 March 2005, a special allocation draw was held which determined the running order for the semi-final and Macedonia was set to perform in position 17, following the entry from Finland and before the entry from Andorra.^[18] Martin Vučić performed the English version of "Ti si son" at the contest, titled "Make My Day". At the end of the semi-final, Macedonia was announced as having finished in the top 10 and subsequently qualifying for the grand final. It was later revealed that Macedonia placed third in the semi-final, receiving a total of 185 points.^[19] 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 Sweden and before the entry from Ukraine. Macedonia placed seventeenth in the final, scoring 52 points.^[20]

The semi-final and final were broadcast in Macedonia on MTV 1 and MTV Sat with commentary by Milanka Rašić. MRT appointed Karolina Gočeva (who represented Macedonia in 2002) as its spokesperson to announce the Macedonian votes during the final.^[21]

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

Points awarded to Macedonia (Semi-final)[22] Score Country 12 points  Albania  Croatia 10 points  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Bulgaria  Serbia and Montenegro  Turkey 8 points  Slovenia   Switzerland 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points  Austria  Romania 3 points  Monaco  Netherlands 2 points  Germany 1 point  Sweden

Points awarded to Macedonia (Final)[23] Score Country 12 points 10 points  Albania 8 points  Croatia 7 points  Bosnia and Herzegovina  Bulgaria  Serbia and Montenegro 6 points 5 points  Slovenia  Turkey 4 points 3 points 2 points   Switzerland 1 point  Monaco

Points awarded by Macedonia (Semi-final)[22] Score Country 12 points  Croatia 10 points  Moldova 8 points  Bulgaria 7 points  Slovenia 6 points  Belarus 5 points  Romania 4 points  Hungary 3 points   Switzerland 2 points  Norway 1 point  Israel

Points awarded by Macedonia (Final)[23] Score Country 12 points  Albania 10 points  Serbia and Montenegro 8 points  Croatia 7 points  Greece 6 points  Sweden 5 points  Moldova 4 points  Turkey 3 points  Bosnia and Herzegovina 2 points  Romania 1 point  Hungary