Skopje Fest

Skopje Fest ( _mk. Скопје Фест) or Festival na zabavni melodii Skopje (Фестивал на забавни мелодии Скопје) is one of the main musical events in the Republic of Macedonia.

SkopjeFest began in 1968 in the Universal Hall in Skopje, and continued until 1980. After Macedonia gained its independence peacefully from Yugoslavia in 1991, SkopjeFest was revived, and has since taken over from Makfest as Macedonia's premier music festival.

It has also been used as the Macedonian national selections for the Eurovision Song Contest, in the appropriate years. The show involves some of Macedonia's finest performers, singing original tracks submitted to MRT (Makedonska Radio Televizija). The first Macedonian representative in Eurovision, was Macedonian singer Vlado Janevski who won SkopjeFest 1998 with the song "Ne Zori Zoro", for the Eurovision Song Contest 1998. This was Macedonia's first participation in the Eurovision Song Contest. Ever since, SkopjeFest has been shadowed by many controversial debates regarding the strategies behind the song selections and the lack of transparence concerning the winner. Such allegations are not new to this contest, however they intensified as the Eurovision participation became a factor. After the decision to make SkopjeFest the National Pre-Selection round for Macedonia's representative to Eurovision, the traditional point award ceremony was eliminated and replaced by the announcement of only the Top 3 places. Neither the points of the jury nor the televoting results are made public.

Up until 2002, SkopjeFest used to be the biggest musical activity in the country, however it faced financial problems. In 2003, the festival wasn't held in order to save money for the next year when Macedonia was going to particate in the Eurovision Song Contest. In the meantime, MRT made new criteria for the national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, the festival returned in 2004 only to celebrate the 60th aniversary of MRT. After that, financial problems increased and it wasn't organised until 2008, again as a ESC national final.

History

A selection of winners and participants in SkopjeFest:

*It is still unknown who won the very first editions of SkopjeFest.
*1971 Slave Dimitrov moral winer (II place) with the song "Čija si".
*1972 Zdravko Colic won with the song "Moj Bol".
*1993 Maja Odžaklievska won with "Ne me dopiraj".
*1994 Karolina Gočeva debuted with "Koj da ti kaže" and became regular participant of Skopjefest.
*1995 Lidija Kočovska won and received three prizes 1 st from the public, one prize for best interpretation and a Grandprix. Karolina Goceva was awarded for best interpretation for the song "Me sakaš".Verica Pandilovska also made her Skopjoefest debut in this year.
*1996 SkopjeFest and therefore three Grandprix was given to Kaliopi for the song "Samo ti". Maja Odzaklievska won the televote while Kaliopi the jury and the audience. Tijana Todevska was third with the song "Ti prostuvam". Since then the festival was organised as a national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 1996. However, Macedonia didn't survive the pre-qualifications that year.
*1997 Lidija Kocovska was a participant with her family, 1st prize from the professional jury. SkopjeFest 1997 was on again. The grand prize was given to Pece Ognenov with the song "Manastirski son". Winner of Skopje 1997, however FYR Macedonia were relegated after not qualifying with their first song the previous year and would therefore have to wait another year before making the final.
*1998 Vlado Janevski won with the song Ne zori zoro. Sašo Gigov - Giš was the runner up with the song "Samovilska svadba". Dule & Koki group were third with the song "Daj mi šansa", and 4th was Karolina Gočeva with the song "Ukradeni nokji" (Stolen nights).
*1999 Sašo Gigov - Giš won with the song "Sejachot".Tose Proeski won the public audience award for the song "Tvoite baknezi na moite beli kosuli" The Female trio P.S also performed this year.Jasmina Mukaetova at the Skopje '99 Festival, was awarded as a best newcomer.
*2000 XXL won with "100% te ljubam". XXL were the favourites of the "expert" jury and the audience. Karolina Gočeva came 2nd with the song "Za nas" and Toše Proeski won the televote (with about 38000 votes) and XXL were 2nd (with about 30000 votes).
*2001 Andrijana Janevska with the song "Nostalgija".
*2002 Karolina Gočeva won with "Od nas zavisi". Andrijana Janevska was the runner up with the French lyrics song "O šeri, mon šeri" (O cherie mon cherie), Risto Samardžiev was third with "Nema veke pesni tazni".
*2004 The festival was held without prize winners, just to celebrate the 60th aniversary of MRT.
*2008 Tamara Todevska feat. Vrčak and Adrian won with "Vo imeto na ljubovta" (en. "In the name of love").

Non-Skopjefest national selections

*2004 Toše Proeski won with "Life". He was the only participant, because MKRTV choose him by using an internal selection. Toše Proeski sang all the songs and the winner was chosen by televoting (1/3), an "expert" jury (1/3) and Toše himself (1/3) - "Angel si ti" in English "Life" was the favourite with all three. "Daleku od mene" was the 2nd best placed song.
*2005 Martin Vučić won with "Make My Day". The two singers were chosen in two stages - in the first stage, 128 performers were presented to Macedonian Television who selected 6, one of whom (Kaliopi) refused to participate. The 5 performers were then presented on November 7th with the two finalists being selected by televoting (50%) and an "expert" jury (50%) - the results were announced on November 14th.

MKRTV choose 6 singers to compete in the National Final Skopjefest. Then they reduced for 2 singers. The top 5 singers that were nominated were:

*Martin Vučić 87 1st
*Tamara Todevska 35 5th
*Tijana Dapčević 37 4th
*Superhiks 44 3rd
*Aleksandra Pileva 53 2nd

The top 2 however were Martin Vučić and Aleksandra Pileva. In the first round the best song of each singer was chosen before the winner was chosen in the second round. Aleksandra won the televote in both rounds, while Martin won the "expert" jury & audience votes.

*2006 Elena Risteska won with "Ninanajna", Adrijan Gadža & Esma Redžepova were the runner ups, and Lambe Alabakoski was third.
*2007 Karolina Gočeva won with "Mojot svet" (en. "My World"), Tamara Todevska was 2nd and Lambe Alabakoski was once again third.

ee also

*Republic of Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest

References