FYROM 1998

May 9th, 1998, will bring the first appearance at a final of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). The country calls itself Republic of Macedonia, which is the cause of dispute with the neighbouring Greek province of Macedonia. Politics has no place here, but doubtless will cause headaches in Birmingham.

April 9th: There are now lyrics, biographies, and revised details of the performed songs and voting in the National final listed below.

Report on the final from Chris Zavos:

FYROM has decided upon its entry on Saturday 7 March. The show was held in one of Skopje's biggest theatres and was transmitted live by MTB-1. There was a big orchestra that accompanied all 20 entries and the audience in the theatre was very warm. They all seemed very happy for their first entry in the Eurovision Song Contest.

After the presentation of the songs was completed the public could vote with tele-voting system for 10 minutes. One could see how the voting was progressing through the computers of the telecommunications organisation. There were made 147,968 (!) calls totally.

The performer that will have the responsibility to represent the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to this year's Eurovision Song Contest is Vlado Janevski (seen above right) with the song "Ne zori Zoro"(Somebody stop the dawn). The song received 38,642 calls; the second song received 34,774 calls, third 23,615, so it was a clear win.

Thanks, Chris.
There has been some confusion over Vlado Janevski's biography - he should not to be confused with the Vlado in the 1984 Eurovision Song Contest. I have just received this additional information from MKRTV:

Biography and lyrics to the song from Stalin Lozanovski at Macedonian Radio and Television (MKRTV)

Vlado Janevski (Author of lyrics)

Vlado Janevski is the most popular pop artist in Macedonia in the 90s. He has released two top-selling albums, has been voted the pop-singer of '94. '95, '96 and his songs have been topping the charts in the past several years. He is regarded as the best lyricist and a very popular composer in the country. He has won every pop-music festival in Macedonia and has represented his country on festivals all over Europe, such as: Pamuk-kale Festival (Turkey), Caren Festival (Ireland), MIDEM (France), Slavyanski Bazaar (Russia) etc.
He is fluent in English, German, French, Italian and Russian language.
He usually composes his own songs and writes the lyrics, except for a few hit-songs, written by Mr. Grigor Koprov, such as this year's song "Somebody stop the dawn", representing Macedonia at the Eurosong Festival in Birmingham.
Vlado Janevski is now living in Moscow, Russia, and recording an album for the Russian market.

The lyrics to "Somebody stop the dawn" (Author: Vlado Janevski)

Thanks very much again to Stalin Lozanovski at Macedonian Radio and Television (MKRTV).

Before the contest, Stalin Lozanovski of Macedonian Radio and Television kindly provided the following information and list of songs. Song titles here are given in English, and now in the 'Latinised version' of the original Macodonian titles (thanks again to Stalin), but Macedonian is always written in the Cyrillic script, which cannot be easily reproduced on the Internet.

Over to Stalin:
We would like to inform you that the Macedonian Radio and Television is to select its Eurovision Song '98 representative on Saturday March 7th 1998, by means of a public festival. The festival will take place in Skopje "Universal Hall" (1500 seats) at 8:30 p.m. local time.
The selection of the entries was made by means of an anonymous public announcement. A special jury had selected the following 20 entries, which are to be publicly performed on the evening of March 7th
(Revised list in performance order from Stefan Markoski):

	Title (orig.)	Title (eng.)	Music	Lyrics	Arrangers	Performer(s)
1.	"Preku moreto"	"Over the Sea"	Tanja Carovska	Tanja Carovska	Ljupcho Kostantinov	Tanja Carovska
2.	"Ne zaboravaj"	"Don't forget"	Kaliopi & Romeo Gril	Kaliopi Grill	Romeo Gril	Kaliopi Gril
3.	"Son"	"Dream"	Petar Georgiev-Kalica	Petar Georgiev-Kalica	Ljupcho Mirkovski	Monika Sokolovska
4.	"Ostani do kraj"	"Stay till the end"	Hari Kotlarovski	Kristijan Gabrovski	Zivoin Glishic	Todor Proevski & "Mega Tim Plus"
5.	"Daj mi prichina da se razbudam"	"Give me a reason to wake up"	Igor Cvetkovski	Zorica Panchic	Zivoin Glishic	Tanja, Lidija & Zorica
6.	"Samovilska svadba"	"Fairy's wedding"	Grigor Koprov	Jordan Danailovski	Slobodan Markovic	Sasho Gigiv-Gish
7.	"Ne baraj me"	"Don't look for me"	Ljubomir Brangolica	Ljubomir Brangolica	Ljubomir Brangolica	Iskra Trpeva & Granit Taki
8.	"Ne veruvam"	"I don't believe it"	Risto Samardziev	Risto Samardziev	Damir Imeri	Risto Samardziev
9.	"Daj mi shansa"	"Give me a chance"	Grigor Koprov	Miodrag Vrchakovski	Slobodan Markovic	Dule & Koki
10.	"Koj si ti"	"Who are you"	Biljana Dodeva	Liljana Vasileva	Bedrija Sinanovski	Biljana Dodeva
11.	"Te sakam beskrajno"	"I love you endlessly"	Andrijana Janevska	Andrijana Janevska	Ilija Pejovski	Andrijana Janevska & Pece Ognenovski
12.	"Bez tebe"	"Without you"	Blagoj Morotov	Blagoj Morotov	Zivoin Glishic	Duo Morotov
13.	"Ljubovta nema granici"	"Love has no borders"	Boris Gavrilovski	Boris Gavrilovski	Ljupcho Mirkovski	"Intervali"
14.	"Kameleon"	"Chameleon"	Metodi Ivanov	Metodi Ivanov	Gorgi Dimitrovski	Maja Grozdanovska & "Bumerang"
15.	"Andrea"	"Andrea"	Marjan Nechak	Marjan Nechak	Miodrag Nechak	Marjan Nechak
16.	"Opomena"	"Warning"	Vancho Dimitrov	Boshko Smakoski	Zivoin Glishic	Suzana Spasovska
17.	"Broj do deset"	"Count to ten"	Stefche Chrchev	Aleksandar Mitevski	Rade Radivojevic	Maja Vukichevic
18.	"Ne zori zori"	"Somebody stop the dawn"	Grigor Koprov	Vlado Janevski	Valentino Skenderovski	Vlado Janevski
19.	"Ukradeni noki"	"Stolen nights"	Kire Kostov	Miodrag Vrchakovski	Kire Kostov	Karolina Gocheva
20.	"Pari, pari"	"Money, money"	Micho Atanasiu	Vladimir Petrovski	Gorgi Dimitrovski	Micho Atanasiu

However, 1998 is not the first year FYROM wanted to take part. In 1996 Kaliopi Grill was selected in a song festival to represent FYROM in the 1996 contest in Oslo with the song "Samo ti"(Only you).

That year was the only year a preselection jury in each country has been used to reduce the number of songs to 25, and "Samo ti" didn't make it to Oslo, along with Germany's "Planet of blue". It was Germany's disappointment at this act which led to the current system of elimination. You can read about the preselection, and a juror's report, on my web site's 1996 page.

Despite the 1996 setback, Kaliopi Grill was amongst 20 hopeful entrants in the 1998 FYR Macedonia national final.

Thanks very much to Stalin Lozanovski

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