North Macedonia’s broadcaster MRT has released a document detailing their projects for the year 2024. Included in the document is a statement confirming participation in Eurovision 2024 in Sweden.
North Macedonia will be returning to Eurovision, according to the plans of the North Macedonia broadcaster MRT. They have released a document entitled ‘On The Work of JRP Macedonian Radio Television For 2024‘ that details their program for the following year.
Included in this document are six mentions of Eurovision and/or Junior Eurovision, with the most prominent mention being the following sentence – translated from Macedonian:
The program of the Macedonian Radio Television in 2024 will be also marked by the participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024 where Macedonian musical values will be presented through the participating song at this festival.
MRT
Mentioning a North Macedonian participating song and the musical values of the country would seem to confirm the broadcasters intention to take part in next year’s show as a full participant. They withdrew last year, citing financial difficulties. However they still broadcasted all of 2023’s shows and indicated that the withdrawal was not intended to be a long absence.
The document also mentions an financial allocation of 1,500,000 Macedonian denar (approximately 25,000 euros) for the participation at Eurovision and Junior Eurovision.
This evidence clearly shows North Macedonia’s intention to participate, though this does pend the announcement of the official list of 2024 participants, to be released by the EBU likely sometime in October.
North Macedonia’s history at Eurovision
Before declaring independence, North Macedonia competed as part of Yugoslavia and within the Yuglosav pre-selection for Eurovision. Although many North Macedonian songwriters composed entries for Yugoslav representatives from other states, North Macedonia never represented Yugoslavia on the Eurovision stage with a competing vocalist.
After gaining independence in 1991, North Macedonia tried to enter the 1996 edition with Kaliopi and er entry, ‘Samo ti‘. However it failed to advance through the pre-qualifying round. The first official representative for the Balkan nation came later in 1998, with Vlado Janevski and ‘Ne zori, zoro‘. In Birmingham he placed 19th with 16 points.
Over the years North Macedonia has had a mixed Eurovision journey, with 9 finalists from 21 participations and only one top 10 placing. Their best result came in 2019 with the returning, Tamara Todevska and her emotional ballad, ‘Proud‘. During the Tel Aviv contest, she finished 7th with 305 points.
The most recent North Macedonian participation was in 2022. In that year, the nation chose Andrea and ‘Circles’ through Za Evrosong 2022. During the Turin contest she tested the limits of qualification and just missed out on the Grand Final, placing 11th with 76 points in Semi-FInal 2.
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Hello. I would like to point out that whilst officially the country is called \”North Macedonia\”, the adjective stays Macedonian, as in Macedonian Radio Television, Macedonian language, Macedonian songwritters, Macedonian participation. I kindly ask of you to be careful regarding the matter in future articles. Thank you.