Macedonia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "Autumn Leaves" written by Joacim Persson and Robert Bilbilov. The song was performed by Daniel Kajmakoski. The Macedonian broadcaster Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) organised Skopje Fest 2014 in order to select the Macedonian entry for the 2015 contest in Vienna, Austria. Twenty entries competed in the competition on 12 November 2014 where "Lisja esenski" performed by Daniel Kajmakoski was selected following the combination of votes from seven international jury groups and a public televote. The song was later translated from Macedonian to English for the Eurovision Song Contest and was titled "Autumn Leaves".
Macedonia was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 19 May 2015. Performing during the show in position 8, "Autumn Leaves" was not announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore did not qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Macedonia placed fifteenth out of the 16 participating countries in the semi-final with 28 points.
Background
Prior to the 2015 contest, Macedonia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fourteen times since its first entry in . The nation's best result in the contest to this point was twelfth, which it achieved in 2006 with the song "Ninanajna" performed by Elena Risteska. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the , Macedonia had featured in only five finals.
The Macedonian national broadcaster, Macedonian Radio Television (MRT), broadcasts the event within Macedonia and organises the selection process for the nation's entry. Macedonia had previously selected their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest through both national finals and internal selections. In June 2014, MRT held a survey on their website asking for advice regarding Macedonia's future participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. The three votable options provided were: continuing with internal selections used since 2012 that resulted in a single qualification to the final during this period in , re-introduce the national final Skopje Fest used between 2008 and 2011 that failed to bring the nation to the final on every occasion, or withdrawing from the contest. Despite the option for withdrawal attracting the majority of the vote, MRT confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest on 15 July 2014 and announced that Skopje Fest would return to select the Macedonian entry.
Before Eurovision Skopje Fest 2014 Skopje Fest 2014 was a song contest organised by MRT that served as Macedonia's national final to select their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. Twenty entries participated in the competition which took place on 12 November 2014 at the Metropolis Arena in Skopje, hosted by Vasil Zafircev and was broadcast on MRT 1, MRT Sat and online via the broadcaster's official website mrt.com.mk.
Competing entries A submission period was opened for interested artists and composers to submit their songs between 26 May 2014 and 31 July 2014. MRT received over 180 submissions at the closing of the deadline. Thirteen entries were selected from the open submissions, while an additional seven entries were submitted by well-known composers directly invited by MRT for the competition. The twenty competing artists and songs were announced on 26 September 2014 during the MRT 1 programme Stisni Plej.
Among the competing artists were former Macedonian Eurovision Song Contest entrants: Tamara Todevska who represented Macedonia in 2008 and Vlatko Ilievski who represented Macedonia in 2011. Viktorija Loba represented Macedonia at the Junior Eurovision Song Contest 2003. Among the competing composers were Grigor Koprov, Jovan Jovanov, Lazar Cvetkoski, Magdalena Cvetkoska, Vlado Janevski and Vladimir Dojčinovski who co-wrote several Eurovision entries. Vlado Janevski also represented Macedonia at the Eurovision Song Contest 1998. On 28 October 2014, MRT announced that Nina Janeva would replace Sašo Gigov-Giš as the performer of the song "Bluz za...". Artist Song Songwriter(s) Aleksandar Tarabunov and Toni Mihajlovski "Marija" Robert Bilbilov, Toni Mihajlovski Aleksandra Janeva "Vo tvojot svet" Vančo Dimitrov, Ana Pandevska Aleksandra Mihova "Srce čuva spomeni" Andrijana Janevska, Veronika Stojanovska Daniel Kajmakoski "Lisja esenski" Joacim Persson, Aleksandar Mitevski, Daniel Kajmakoski Dimitar Andonovski "Se što ti vetiv" Lazar Cvetkoski, Magdalena Cvetkoska Evgenija Čančalova "Da ne te sakam" Grigor Koprov, Jelena Bulinac Goran Naumovski and Sanja Kerkez "Mig bez tebe" Andrijana Janevska Joce Panov "Ni Lj od ljubovta" Saša Dragić, Vlado Janevski Lena Zatkoska "Alo" Risto Samardžiev Lidija Kočovska and Marijan Stojanovski "Sonce niz oblaci" Trajče Stavreski, Maja Pavlovska Miyatta "Zaljuben" Tanja Carovska Nade Talevska "Znam" Aleksandar Masevski, Biljana Pašarikovska Nina Janeva "Bluz za..." Davor Jordanovski, Toni Mihajlovski Risto Samardžiev and Vlatko Ilievski "Sever-Jug" Vladimir Dojčinovski, Risto Samardžiev Sanja Gjoševska "Sakam da letam" Duke Bojadžiev Tamara Todevska "Brod što tone" Robert Bilbilov Tanja Carovska "Ako mi se vratiš" Tanja Carovska Vera Janković "Se plašam" Darko Tasev, Vesna Malinova Verica Pandilovska "Samo za tebe" Salvatore Monetti, Jasmina Kantardžieva Viktorija Loba "Edna edinstvena" Jovan Jovanov, Elvir Mekić
Final The final took place on 12 November 2014. The running order was announced on 31 October 2014. All twenty competing entries were accompanied by the MRT orchestra, conducted by Ljupčo Mirkovski, and a 50/50 combination of public televoting and seven international jury groups selected "Lisja esenski" performed by Daniel Kajmakoski as the winner. Monetary prizes were also awarded to the top three songs: the winner received €20,000, the second place received €10,000 and the third place received €5,000. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, the competition featured guest performances by 2002 and 2007 Macedonian Eurovision representative Karolina Gočeva and 2012 Macedonian Eurovision representative Kaliopi.
+ Final – 12 November 2014 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points Votes Points 1 Lena Zatkoska "Alo" 14 0 52 0 0 14 2 Tanja Carovska "Ako mi se vratiš" 27 5 241 0 5 10 3 Daniel Kajmakoski "Lisja esenski" 54 10 3,597 12 22 1 4 Vera Janković "Se plašam" 4 0 70 0 0 14 5 Risto Samardžiev and Vlatko Ilievski "Sever-Jug" 1 0 254 0 0 14 6 Evgenija Čančalova "Da ne te sakam" 48 8 2,688 10 18 3 7 Aleksandra Mihova "Srce čuva spomeni" 6 0 93 0 0 14 8 Lidija Kočovska and Marijan Stojanovski "Sonce niz oblaci" 0 0 205 0 0 14 9 Joce Panov "Ni Lj od ljubovta" 12 0 492 5 5 11 10 Goran Naumovski and Sanja Kerkez "Mig bez tebe" 1 0 158 0 0 14 11 Aleksandar Tarabunov and Toni Mihajlovski "Marija" 24 4 303 4 8 5 12 Aleksandra Janeva "Vo tvojot svet" 21 3 295 3 6 9 13 Miyatta "Zaljuben" 15 0 279 2 2 12 14 Tamara Todevska "Brod što tone" 69 12 781 8 20 2 15 Sanja Gjoševska "Sakam da letam" 32 6 228 0 6 8 16 Nade Talevska "Znam" 38 7 226 0 7 6 17 Viktorija Loba "Edna edinstvena" 6 0 735 7 7 7 18 Verica Pandilovska "Samo za tebe" 0 0 50 0 0 14 19 Nina Janeva "Bluz za..." 16 1 265 1 2 13 20 Dimitar Andonovski "Se što ti vetiv" 18 2 674 6 8 4 + Song Total 1 "Alo" 10 4 14 2 "Ako mi se vratiš" 2 6 4 6 2 6 1 27 3 "Lisja esenski" 6 7 7 12 10 12 54 4 "Se plašam" 1 3 4 5 "Sever-Jug" 1 1 6 "Da ne te sakam" 8 12 2 4 10 8 4 48 7 "Srce čuva spomeni" 3 3 6 8 "Sonce niz oblaci" 0 9 "Ni Lj od ljubovta" 10 2 12 10 "Mig bez tebe" 1 1 11 "Marija" 10 6 1 7 24 12 "Vo tvojot svet" 1 8 3 7 2 21 13 "Zaljuben" 5 5 5 15 14 "Brod što tone" 12 7 8 12 8 12 10 69 15 "Sakam da letam" 4 4 5 8 4 7 32 16 "Znam" 12 10 3 5 8 38 17 "Edna edinstvena" 3 3 6 18 "Samo za tebe" 0 19 "Bluz za..." 2 1 2 6 5 16 20 "Se što ti vetiv" 7 5 6 18 + Country Jury members Nadine Beiler – singer, represented Austria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2011 – composer, composed the 2002 and 2013 Austrian entries Ralf Strobl – Eurovision expert, music consultant Thomas Rabitsch – keyboardist and record producer Dorothee Badent – producer, produced Austria's winning Eurovision 2014 song "Rise Like a Phoenix" Aziz Aliyev – İTV editor Yalchin Verdiyev – movie director Sabuhi Mammadov – sound director Azad Ibrahimov – director of the department of international relations at İTV Fuad Musazade – acting Head of the Azerbaijani delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest – composer – singer, lead singer of Deep Zone Project which represented Bulgaria in Eurovision 2008 Krasimir Kurtev – musician Milka Miteva – director of the music school "Lubomir Pipkov" Roberta Ganova – singer Aleksandar Kostadinov – Head of the Croatian delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest Ivan Horvat – member of OGAE Croatia Tihomir Preradović – composer and producer Željen Klašterka – manager of the music production for HTV, producer and composer Željko Mesar – Head of the music programming sector for HTV Cornald Maas – Eurovision expert and commentator Daniël Dekker – director of the national radio for AVROTROS Emilie Sickinghe – Head of the Dutch delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest Joost Strootman – producer at the national radio for AVROTROS Rebecca van 't Velt – Head of Press for the Dutch delegation at the Eurovision Song Contest Alex Revenco – journalist for Jurnalul Național Nicoleta Alexandru – singer, represented Romania in Eurovision 2003 Andrei Tudor – composer, music professor Mihai "Bobby" Stoica – music producer, composer – musicologist, sound engineer Tuğberk Evren – music director at TRT Elif Gökalp – director of the musical sector of Radio Ankara – producer Bahar Dingil – director of productions and transmissions at TRT Kenan Özdemir – musician and member of the choir for Radio Ankara
Controversy It was revealed a day after Skopje Fest 2014 that over 2,500 phone cards were seized by the Macedonian police which were investigating a possible voting fraud where 14 people were identified to have been hired to use the previously distributed cards during the voting of the competition. It was later claimed that composer of Viktorija Loba's song, Jovan Jovanov, was part of the four-member group responsible for the case.
Preparation Following Skopje Fest 2014, Daniel Kajmakoski stated in an interview with ESCplus that he was highly considering to perform "Lisja esenski" in English at the Eurovision Song Contest. It was later confirmed that the song would be performed in English as "Autumn Leaves" and that a new three-minute version was recorded in early 2015. Kajmakovski worked with Macedonian producer Robert Bilbilov to create the final English version of the song, which was presented to the public through the release of the official music video via the official Eurovision Song Contest's YouTube channel.
Promotion Daniel Kajmakoski made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Autumn Leaves" as the Macedonian Eurovision entry. On 1 February, Kajmakoski performed the Macedonian and Serbian versions of "Autumn Leaves" during the RTS1 programme Nedeljno popodne in Serbia. On 13 April, Kajmakoski took part in promotional activities in Tirana, Albania where he gave interviews for media outlets and appeared during talk show programmes to discuss his Eurovision participation. On 15 April, Kajmakoski performed during a preview event which was organised by OGAE Serbia and held at the UŠĆE Shopping Centre in Belgrade, Serbia. On 18 April, Kajmakoski performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Edsilia Rombley. On 24 April, Kajmakoski performed during the Eurovision Pre-Party, which was held at the Place de Paris Korston Concert Hall in Moscow, Russia. A farewell event was held in Skopje on 9 May before Daniel Kajmakoski departed to Vienna for the contest.