SkopjeFest
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Skopje Fest (or Festival na zabavni melodii Skopje) is one of the main musical events in Macedonia.
SkopjeFest began in 1968 in the Universal Hall in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, 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, when MRTV made new criteriums for the national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest, the festival was canceled.
[edit] History
A selection of winners and participants in SkopjeFest:
- It is still unknown who won the very first editions of SkopjeFest.
- 1993 Maja Odzaklievska won with "Ne me dopiraj".
- 1994 Karolina Goceva debuted with "Koj da ti kaze" and became regular participant of Skopjefest.
- 1995 Lidija Kovovska 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 sakas".
- 1997 Lidija Kocovska was a participant with her family, 1 st prize from the professional july. 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. Since then the festival was organised as a national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. However, Macedonia didn't survive the pre-qualifications that year. SkopjeFest 1997 was on again. The grand prize was given to Pece Ognenov with the song "Manastirski son".
- 1998 Vlado Jnevski won.
- 1999 Saso Gigov Gish won.
- 2000 XXL won with "100% te ljubam".
- 2001 Andrijana Janevska won.
- 2002 Karolina Goceva won with "Od nas zavisi".
- ?
- 2007 Karolina Goceva won with "Mojot svet" (en. "My world")
[edit] See also
| National selection events for the Eurovision Song Contest |
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