North Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
North Macedonia, previously presented in the contest as the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 19 times since its official debut in 1998. The country had attempted to participate in 1996, but failed to qualify from the audio-only qualifying round. The current Head of Delegation is Meri Popova.
Prior to 2019, North Macedonia's best result was a 12th-place finish with Elena Risteska in. Having qualified from the semi-final round only once in ten of the previous eleven contests, North Macedonia achieved its best result to date in, when Tamara Todevska qualified and finished in seventh place in the final after winning the jury vote.
History
Prior declaring independence in 1991, as a constituent country of SFR Yugoslavia, the Socialist Republic of Macedonia participated in the Yugoslav pre-selection called among the other Yugoslav federal units. Also, Macedonian composers wrote songs for candidates from other parts of Yugoslavia. However, the Macedonian entries never managed to win, and the SR Macedonia was the only federal state never to send a Yugoslav entry to the Eurovision Song Contest. An exception occurred when Maja Odžaklievska won the Yugoslav competition in 1979, but she did not perform in the Eurovision Song Contest 1979 due to the Yugoslavian decision not to participate that year.As the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the country submitted its first entry, "Samo ti" sung by Kaliopi, for the 1996 edition. However, the country failed to qualify through the non-broadcast pre-selection round. Its efforts to enter the contest were again hindered in 1997, when another new system was introduced where countries with the lowest average scores over the previous four years were excluded from participating. The country made its debut in 1998, with Vlado Janevski's "Ne zori, zoro".
The country's best result before 2019 was in 2006, when Elena Risteska sang "Ninanajna" in Athens, Greece and came 12th. It is the only country to have qualified from every semi-final from 2004 to 2007. Despite never finishing in the top 10, their record of qualifying for every final was only broken in 2008, when the jury vote used in the semi-final chose Sweden as a finalist, despite Tamara, Vrčak and Adrian having come 10th in the televote. Since then, only in 2012 did they make the final.
Macedonian Radio Television, which broadcasts the event, has used the Skopje Fest festival to select the national entry since the country's debut, although it made several changes in the national final format, so the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2012 national finals were organised outside the Skopje Festival.
For 2019, the country competed for the first time under its new name, North Macedonia. MRT selected Tamara Todevska as their act of choice, performing the song "Proud". The song managed to qualify through the second semifinal, and reached seventh place in the final, winning the international jury vote. This is the first top ten placement for the country, and also broke the record as the highest place ever for North Macedonia in the history of the contest.
Contestants
| 2 | Second place |
| X | Entry selected but did not compete |
Awards
Barbara Dex Award
| Year | Performer | Host city | |
| Martin Vučić |  Kiev | ||
| Eye Cue |  Lisbon |
Related involvement
Commentators and spokespersons
| Year | Commentator | Spokesperson | |
| John Ilija Apelgren | rowspan="6" | ||
| Antonio Dimitrievski and Ivan Mircevski | - | ||
| Milanka Rašik | - | ||
| Vlado Janevski | - | ||
| Vlado Janevski | - | ||
| Dragan B. Kostik | - | ||
| Milanka Rašik | Evgenija Teodosievska | ||
| Ivan Mircevski | |||
| Milanka Rašik | Sandra Todorovska | ||
| Milanka Rašik | |||
| Milanka Rašik | Biljana Debarlieva | ||
| Milanka Rašik | |||
| Ivan Mircevski | Karolina Petkovska | ||
| Ivan Mircevski | Karolina Gočeva | ||
| Karolina Petkovska | Martin Vučić | ||
| Milanka Rašik | Elena Risteska | ||
| Milanka Rašik | Ognen Janeski | ||
| Karolina Petkovska | Frosina Josifovska | ||
| Karolina Petkovska | Milica Roštikjl | ||
| Eli Tanaskovska | Kristina Talevska | ||
| Karolina Petkovska | Kristina Talevska | ||
| Karolina Petkovska | Dimitar Atanasovski | ||
| Karolina Petkovska | Marko Mark | ||
| Karolina Petkovska | Marko Mark | ||
| Karolina Petkovska | Dijana Gogova | ||
| Karolina Petkovska | Ilija Grujoski | ||
| Karolina Petkovska | Jana Burčeska | ||
| Toni Cifrovski | Nikola Trajkovski |
- From until, North Macedonia competed as part of.
Photogallery