FYR Macedonia:
Tamara Todevska – Brod što tone
After a few years of selecting big stars internally (Kaliopi, Esma & Lozano and finally Tijana) resulting in two non-qualifications and a good result for Kaliopi, the Macedonians decided to go back to their good old Skopje Fest to select their entry. And they had quite the line-up: Former Eurovision stars Vlatko Ilievski and Tamara Todevska, X-Factor winner Daniel Kajmakoski and some other well known names entered the selection. The race seemed to end as soon as Daniel entered: His popularity and fame were bigger than the borders of Macedonia. All he needed was a decent song. Whoops.
That’s where it went wrong, Daniel won the show, but was it the best song…? I’d argue that it wasn’t. The juries agreed with me: Daniel came in a rather distant second place there, but all in all, that was still 10 jury points for him. His landslide in the televote however made sure he won the show. He collapsed vocally in Vienna with a performance that was, erm, remarkable. So, not surprisingly, I decided to pick the woman who’s been to Eurovision twice, failed to qualify twice and had the juries on her side in Skopje Fest 2014: Tamara Todevska.
After failing in 2008 and as a backing for her sister in 2014, Tamara entered Skopje Fest with a song that blew me away. I know, I like ballads and I like big ballads and this song just fits the bill perfectly. It’s Tamara’s best song she’s done for a Eurovision attempt and she puts her heart and soul into these three minutes.
