Editorials & Opinion

Withdrawal skandal – Ten Eurovision gems that never happened

5. Esma & Lozano – Imperija


The selection
Back in 2013, FYR Macedonia shocked the world. Young pop icon Vlatko Lozanoski would team up with the Queen of Gypsies, Esma Redžepova to represent their country in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. The song would be chosen internally and presented at a later date. And that’s when they dropped the bomb: Imperija was released and shit hit the fan.
What was the skandal?
Oh God, what wasn’t? Just look at the video. The video upset, or well, pissed off, so many people that the Macedonian broadcaster decided that this was not the way to go at all. Reportedly, the song was pulled out because the Macedonian broadcaster and public were unhappy, but there were many, many, many others who were unhappy with the political load of this song. There is so much in this to piss people off, you can write a book on it. The song was withdrawn on 8th March and MKRT had to hurry, so Pred Da Se Razdeni was pulled out of the hat and a new entry was born.
How would this have done?
God knows and who cares. We know that Pred Da Se Razdeni didn’t work. Where Imperija combined the talents of both Esma and Lozano, Pred Da Se Razdeni separated them and put them worlds apart. Now, admittedly, we’ve never heard Imperija live, but it surely would have been quite the event to see this happen in Malmö.

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