1. Background

2. Before Eurovision
     Internal selection  

3. At Eurovision
    Semi-final  Voting  Points awarded to Macedonia  Points awarded by Macedonia  Split voting results 

4. References

The Republic of Macedonia^[1] participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 with the song "Lost and Found" written by Bojan Trajkovski and Darko Dimitrov. The song will be performed by Eye Cue, who was internally selected by the Macedonian broadcaster Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) to represent the nation at the 2018 contest in Lisbon, Portugal.

Background

Prior to the 2018 contest, Macedonia had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest seventeen times since its first entry in {{Escyr|1998}}.^[2] The nation's best result in the contest to this point was twelfth, which it achieved in 2006 with the song "Ninanajna" performed by Elena Risteska. Following the introduction of semi-finals for the {{Escyr|2004|2004 contest}}, Macedonia had featured in only five finals. In 2017, Jana Burčeska failed to bring the country to the final with her song "Dance Alone", that marked the nation's fifth failure in a row.

Before Eurovision

Internal selection

On 26 January 2018, Macedonian Radio Television (MRT) launched a call to submissions to find their entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018.^[3] Out of the 382 submitted entries, a special jury selected Eye Cue and their song "Lost and Found" to represent Macedonia in Lisbon. Eye Cue was revealed as Macedonia's representatives on 13 February 2018^[4]. The song and its music video was revealed on 11 March 2018.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 29 January 2018, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in. Macedonia was placed into the first semi-final, to be held on 8 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the second half of the show.^[5]

Once all the competing songs for the 2018 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Macedonia was set to perform in position 11, following the entry from Bulgaria and preceding the entry from Croatia.^[6]

Semi-final

Macedonia performed eleventh in the first semi-final, opening the second half of the show. The followed Bulgaria and preceded Croatia. At the end of the night, Macedonia was not one of the ten countries announced as qualifying for the grand final, their sixth non-qualification since 2013.

Voting

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

Points awarded to Macedonia

Points awarded by Macedonia

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Macedonian jury:

• Miodrag Vrčakovski – Chairperson – songwriter, radio journalist
• Ile Spasev – music teacher, composer, music producer
• Ana Pandevska – composer
• Kristijan Gabroski – composer, music producer
• Stefanija Leškova Zelenovska – musicologyst, music journalist

References

• Stefan Jenkins
• Stefan Jentsch
• Stefan Jezierski
• Stefan Johannesson
• Stefan Johansen
• Stefan Johansson (disambiguation)
• Stefan Johnson
• Stefan Joho
• Stefan Jonsson
• Stefan Joos
• Stefan Jovetic
• Stefan Jovic
• Stefan Jović
• Stefan Jozef
• Stefan Jędrychowski
• Stefan Kalin
• Stefan Kapičić
• Stefan Kardos
• Stefan Karlsson
• Stefan Karlsson (disambiguation)
• Stefan Karlsson (footballer)
• Stefan Karlsson (Professor)
• Stefan Karlsson (professor)
• Stefan Kehrer
• Stefan Kiesbye