| North Macedonia | |
| Contest: | ESC |
| Broadcaster: | Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) |
| Apps: | 21 (9 finals) |
| Highest: | 7th: |
| Related: | Macedonian: [[Skopje Fest]] |
| Current: | 2022 |
North Macedonia has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 21 times since its official debut in . The country had attempted to participate in 1996, but failed to qualify from the audio-only qualifying round. The Macedonian participant broadcaster in the contest is the Macedonian Radio Television (MRT).
Prior to 2019, North Macedonia's best result was a twelfth place finish with "Ninanajna" performed by Elena Risteska in . Having qualified from the semi-final round only once in ten of the previous eleven contests (2008–18), North Macedonia achieved its best result to date in, when "Proud" by Tamara Todevska qualified and finished in seventh place in the final after winning the jury vote. Following a further two non-qualifications, MRT withdrew from the contest in Liverpool and North Macedonia is yet to return.
The Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) is a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) since 1 January 1993, thus eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest since then. It has participated in the contest representing North Macedonia since its in 1998.
Before the country's independence in 1991 from SFR Yugoslavia, RTV Skopje –Yugoslav Radio Television's (JRT) affiliate in SR Macedonia, and MRT's predecessor– participated in the Yugoslav pre-selection called among the JRT affiliates from the other Yugoslav federal units.[1] Also, Macedonian composers wrote songs for candidates from other parts of Yugoslavia.[2] However, the only Macedonian win in the Yugoslav competition, "Vraćam se" by Maja Odžaklievska in 1980,[1] did not compete in the Eurovision Song Contest 1980 due to JRT's decision not to participate that year. SR Macedonia was the only Yugoslav federal state that never sent a to the Eurovision Song Contest.
MRT submitted its first entry, "Samo ti" (Само ти) sung by Kaliopi, for the . However, the country failed to qualify through the non-broadcast pre-selection round. Its efforts to enter the contest were again hindered in, when another new system was introduced where countries with the lowest average scores over the previous four years were excluded from participating. The country made its debut in 1998, with "Ne zori, zoro" by Vlado Janevski.
The country's best result before 2019 (and the best result with its old name) was in, with "Ninanajna" (Нинанајна) by Elena Risteska in Athens, who came 12th. It is the only country to have qualified from every semi-final from 2004 to 2007 (other countries have qualified for every final but due to them finishing in the top 10 the previous year, they did not have to compete in the semi-final). Despite never finishing in the top 10, their record of qualifying for every final was broken in, when the jury vote used in the semi-final chose Sweden as a finalist, despite Tamara, Vrčak and Adrian having come 10th in the televote.
MRT has intermittently used the Skopje Fest to select the national entry since the country's debut, although it made several changes in the national final format, so the 2004, 2005, and 2006 national finals were organised outside the Skopje Fest.
For, the country competed for the first time under the name North Macedonia.[3] MRT selected "Proud" by Tamara Todevska as their act of choice. The song managed to qualify through the second semi-final, and reached seventh place in the final, winning the jury vote. This is the first top ten placing as well as the highest placing ever for North Macedonia in the history of the contest.
Following two non-qualifications in and, MRT confirmed its absence in the contest, citing financial constraints.[4] However, MRT still broadcast the 2023 contest with a view to return in .[5] The broadcaster's intention to return was stated in a budget plan published in September 2023.[6] [7] However, in late October 2023, the programme planning chair of MRT, Smilka Janeska Sarkanjac, clarified that a decision was yet to be made and the plan was still awaiting the approval of the government.[8] North Macedonia ultimately did not appear on the final list of participants.[9]
| + Table key | ||
| 1 | First place--> | |
| 2 | Second place | |
| 3 | Third place | |
| ◁ | Last place--> | |
| X | Entry selected but did not compete |
| Year | Artist | Song | Language | Final | Points | Semi | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaliopi | "Macedonian: [[Samo ti]]|i=unset" | Macedonian | 26 | 14 | |||
| Vlado Janevski | "Macedonian: [[Ne zori, zoro]]|i=unset" | Macedonian | 19 | 16 | rowspan="3" colspan="2" | ||
| XXL | "Macedonian: [[100% te ljubam]]|i=unset" | Macedonian, English | 15 | 29 | |||
| Karolina | "Macedonian: [[Od nas zavisi]]|i=unset" | Macedonian | 19 | 25 | |||
| Toše Proeski | "Life" | English | 14 | 47 | 10 | 71 | |
| Martin Vučić | "Make My Day" | English | 17 | 52 | 9 | 97 | |
| Elena Risteska | "Ninanajna" | English, Macedonian | 12 | 56 | 10 | 76 | |
| Karolina | "Macedonian: [[Mojot svet]]|i=unset" | Macedonian, English | 14 | 73 | 9 | 97 | |
| Tamara, Vrčak and Adrijan | "Let Me Love You" | English | 10 | 64 | |||
| Next Time | "Macedonian: [[Nešto što kje ostane]]|i=unset" | Macedonian | 10 | 45 | |||
| Gjoko Taneski | "Macedonian: [[Jas ja imam silata]]|i=unset" | Macedonian | 15 | 37 | |||
| Vlatko Ilievski | "Macedonian: [[Rusinka]]|i=unset" | Macedonian, English | 16 | 36 | |||
| Kaliopi | "Macedonian: [[Crno i belo]]|i=unset" | Macedonian | 13 | 71 | 9 | 53 | |
| Esma and Lozano | "Macedonian: [[Pred da se razdeni]]|i=unset" | Macedonian, Romani | 16 | 28 | |||
| Tijana | "To the Sky" | English | 13 | 33 | |||
| Daniel Kajmakoski | "Autumn Leaves" | English | 15 | 28 | |||
| Kaliopi | "Dona" | Macedonian | 11 | 88 | |||
| Jana Burčeska | "Dance Alone" | English | 15 | 69 | |||
| Eye Cue | "Lost and Found" | English | 18 | 24 | |||
| Tamara Todevska | "Proud" | English | 7 | 305 | 2 | 239 | |
| Vasil | "You" | English | Contest cancelled X | ||||
| Vasil | "Here I Stand" | English | 15 | 23 | |||
| Andrea | "Circles" | English | 11 | 76 | |||
| Year | Performer | Host city | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Vučić |  Kyiv | |||
| Eye Cue |  Lisbon |
Each participating broadcaster in the Eurovision Song Contest assigns a head of delegation as the EBU's contact person and the leader of their delegation at the event. The delegation, whose size can greatly vary, includes a head of press, the performers, songwriters, composers, and backing vocalists, among others.[10]
| Year | Head of delegation | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ivan Mircevski | |||
| – | Meri Popova |
For the show's broadcast on MRT, various commentators have provided commentary on the contest in the Macedonian language. At the Eurovision Song Contest after all points are calculated, the presenters of the show call upon each voting country to invite each respective spokesperson to announce the results of their vote on-screen.[11]
From until, SR Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia and JRT's affiliate RTV Skopje broadcast the contest there with Macedonian commentary.
| Year | Channel | Commentator(s) | Spokesperson | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MTV | Evgenija Teodosievska | |||
| Sandra Todorovska | ||||
| Biljana Debarlieva | ||||
| Karolina Petkovska | ||||
| Karolina Gočeva | ||||
| Karolina Petkovska | Martin Vučić | |||
| MTV 1 (all shows) | Elena Risteska | |||
| MRT (all shows) | Ognen Janeski | |||
| Karolina Petkovska and Aleksandra Jovanovska | Frosina Josifovska | |||
| Karolina Petkovska | Milica Roštikjl | |||
| MTV 1 (all shows) | Eli Tanaskovska | Kristina Talevska | ||
| MRT 1 (all shows) | Karolina Petkovska | |||
| Dimitar Atanasovski | ||||
| MRT 1, MRT SAT, Radio Skopje (all shows) | Marko Mark | |||
| MRT 1, MRT SAT, Radio Skopje, MRT 2, MRT 2 SAT (all shows) | ||||
| MRT 1 (all shows) | Dijana Gogova | |||
| Ilija Grujoski | ||||
| MRT 1, MRT 2, Radio Skopje (all shows) | Jana Burčeska | |||
| MRT 1 (all shows) | Toni Cifrovski | Nikola Trajkovski | ||
| MRT 1, MRT 2 (all shows) | Eli Tanaskovska | Vane Markoski | ||
| Jana Burčeska | ||||
| MRT 1, MRT 2, Radio Skopje (all shows) | Aleksandra Jovanovska and Eli Tanaskovska | |||
| MRT 1, Radio Skopje (all shows) | Aleksandra Jovanovska | |||