Macedonia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2002 with the song "" , composed by Nikola Perevski, with lyrics by Vladimir Krstevski, and performed by Karolina. The Macedonian participating broadcaster, Macedonian Radio Television (MRT), organised the national final Skopje Fest 2002 to select its entry for the contest. Eighteen entries competed in the national final on 16 February 2002 and "" performed by Karolina was selected as the winner following the combination of votes from a nine-member jury panel, an audience vote and a public televote.

Macedonia competed in the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 25 May 2002. Performing during the show in position 9, Macedonia placed nineteenth out of the 24 participating countries, scoring 25 points.

Background

Prior to the 2002 contest, Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twice since its first entry in . Its best result in the contest to this point was fifteenth, achieved in with the song "100% te ljubam" performed by XXL.

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 both of its entries for the contest by using the national final Skopje Fest. For 2002, the broadcaster again opted to select its entry through Skopje Fest.

Before Eurovision Skopje Fest 2002 MRT used the 2002 edition of the Skopje Fest song contest to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2002. A submission period was opened for interested composers to submit their songs and MRT received 121 submissions at the closing of the deadline. Eighteen competing artists and songs were selected in late September 2001 by a nine-member committee consisting of Nikola Dimuševski, Aleksandar Džambazov, Ilija Pejovski, Živoin Glisić, Trajče Organdžiev, Bodan Arsovski, Biljana Nikolovska, Dragan Kostić and Zoran Mirčevski. Bilen Eminov, Maja Odžaklievska (in a duet with Andrijana Janevska) and Marijan Stojanovski were originally announced as performers of the songs, but were ultimately not included in the final list having been replaced by Aneta Eftimova and Marjan Nikolovski.

Skopje Fest 2002 took place on 16 February 2002 at the Macedonian National Theatre in Skopje, hosted by Igor Džambazov and broadcast on MTV 1 and MTV Sat. The eighteen entries competed and a combination of a nine-member jury panel (40%), public televoting (40%) and votes from the audience in the venue (20%) selected "Od nas zavisi" performed by Karolina Gočeva as the winner, followed by Andrijana Janevska who was the runner-up with "O šeri, mon šeri" and Risto Samardžiev who came third with "Nema veke pesni tazni". Karolina was the favourite with all three voting groups.

+ Final – 16 February 2002 Artist Song Songwriter(s) Points Place 1 Gjorgji Krstevski "Pesna za tebe" () Kaliopi Grill 159 5 2 Fani "Lejdi" () Grigor Koprov, Ognen Nedelkovski 24 14 3 Biba "Neobičen krug" () Biljana Dodeva, Ana Antovska 16 15 4 Žarmena "Somnež" () Dimče Kitrozoski 0 18 5 Vera Janković "Veti mi" () Ljupčo Mirkovski, Ognen Nedelkovski 34 13 6 Lidija Kočovska "Lice i opačina" () Zoran Ilievski 96 7 7 Karolina Gočeva "Od nas zavisi" () Nikola Perevski, Vladimir Krstevski 346 1 8 Marjan Nikolovski and Lozena "Kaži mi, kaži" () Zlatko Crvenkovski 57 11 9 Ana Simonovska "Kako mi e mene" () Ana Simonovska 15 16 10 Pece Ognenov "Sakam da sme zaedno" () Andrijana Janevska 13 17 11 Andrijana Janevska "O šeri, mon šeri" () Grigor Koprov 238 2 12 Desko and Suzana "Sekjavanje" () Stevče Črcev, Gjoko Georgiev 70 9 13 Risto Samardžiev "Nema vekje pesni tažni" () Vladimir Dojčinovski, Risto Samardžiev 224 3 14 Bagaž "Kje te najdam" () Bubo Karov 89 8 15 Aneta Eftimova "Za samo edna nokj" () Jovica Karallievski 58 10 16 Tijana "Izgrev" () Vladimir Dojčinovski, Vesna Malinova 177 4 17 Marija Georgieva and Gjoko Taneski "Koga molčat očite" () Angel Josifov, Ristenka Pecova 45 12 18 Ljubko Angelov "Totalen kolaps" () Trajče Organdžiev, Vančo Tarabunov 127 6

At Eurovision

The Eurovision Song Contest 2002 took place at Saku Suurhall in Tallinn, Estonia, on 25 May 2002. The participants list included the previous year's winning country, the "Big Four" countries (France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom), any eligible countries which did not compete in the 2001 contest, and countries which had obtained the highest average points total at the previous year's contest, up to 24 total participants. Macedonia did not compete in the 2001 contest and thus were permitted to participate. On 9 November 2001, an allocation draw was held which determined the running order and Macedonia was set to perform in position 9, following the entry from and before the entry from .

During the performance, Karolina appeared donning a dress and a golden corsette designed by Aleksandar Nošpal. Macedonia finished in nineteenth place with 25 points. In a later review of her performance, Katerina Stevovska of the Macedonian journal Sloboden Pečat opined that Karolina "perfectly" sang her song.

Voting Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Macedonia and awarded by Macedonia in the contest. The nation awarded its 12 points to in the contest.

MRT appointed Biljana Debarlieva as its spokesperson to announce the Macedonian jury votes during the show.

+ Points awarded to Macedonia Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

+ Points awarded by Macedonia Score Country 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Notes

References