North Macedonia’s hopes for participating in the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest in Basel seem to have been dashed with the release of MRT’s new budget.
Dashed hopes for Eurovision 2025
Financial constraints on North Macedonia’s public service broadcaster MRT have seen the Balkan nation miss out on the two most recent editions of the contest. Hopes for their return were raised last month when a section of the proposed budget for the broadcaster featured funding for Eurovision. This speculation was furthered with future participation in the contest being raised as something that North Macedonia “should” be doing by MRT’s leaders during a meeting last month.
🇲🇰 Macedonian broadcaster MRT has confirmed the proposed financial plan with no change to the Eurovision budget and with no paragraph mentioning #Eurovision participation.
— ESC Discord (@ESCdiscord) November 1, 2024
Therefore, it is unlikely that North Macedonia will participate in 2025.
More: https://t.co/ugSMvXMXNR https://t.co/nTP16QlWBm
Barriers to participation were present however, with the finding earmarked equating to 32,500€; far below what would be required for participation. These barriers appear to have continued with the new budget being released with no changes to the amount earmarked for Eurovision; likely meaning that the already confirmed broadcasting of the contest will be all MRT does this year. If the country does not participate in Basel next year, this will mark the largest period of time without a Macedonian entrant in the contest since prior to the country’s independence.
North Macedonia’s Eurovision Journey
The ex-Yugoslav nation made its formal debut in the Contest in 1998 with Vlado Janevski’s “Ne zori, zoro”. Performing last, North Macedonia finished 19th out of 25.
Following Kaliopi’s participation in 2012 with “Crno i Belo”, North Macedonia began a 6-year non-qualification streak. Tamara Todevska’s participation in 2019 broke the streak with her song, “Proud” – which finished in 7th place, winning the jury vote.
In 2022, Andrea represented North Macedonia, singing her song “Circles”. Andrea performed in the second semi-final, finishing in 11th place out of 16. In total, Andrea received 76 points.
Would you like to see North Macedonia return to Eurovision? As always, please let us know what you think by getting involved in the comments below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Threads, tumblr, and Bluesky for more information about Eurovision 2025!
News Source: MRT
Photo Credit: Andres Putting / EBU
Giwrgos Oiko