Following last week’s EBU’s statement regarding FYR Macedonia’s Eurovision participation and sanction, we bring you an updated statement from the EBU regarding this issue.
There has been much talk in the Eurovision grapevine about FYR Macedonia’s participation at the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest, with lots of rumours and rejoinders doing the rounds.
The story so far
Local media in FYR Macedonia reported that the EBU had implemented sanctions on the national broadcaster of FYR Macedonia MRT due its debts. Hereafter ESCToday contacted the EBU and MRT in order to shed more light on the matter and clarify the situation.
The EBU sent ESCToday a statement last week where it stated that the Macedonian national broadcaster was currently ineligible to participate at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest as it was under sanction due to its non payment of debt.
Hereafter the Macedonian media reported that there was an alleged private meeting between MRT and the EBU in order to resolve this issue and that sanctions had been lifted. There has been no official confirmation regarding this meeting or the removal of sanctions neither by the EBU or the Macedonian broadcaster.
Updated statement from the EBU
ESCToday decided to investigate further and asked the EBU to clarify the situation. The EBU gave ESCToday the following statement:
Mr. Jon Ola Sand (EBU Executive Supervisor ESC) says:
Of course we hope that a resolution can be found so that MRT can be involved in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest, and we are working with both MRT and RTP on this. Should we find a solution, the EBU will issue an announcement in due course.
MRT has remained tight lipped and has not made any official comment regarding the sanctions or its Eurovision participation. The Macedonian broadcaster applied to participate at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest but did not confirm it officially
Yesterday, RTP and the EBU published the list of the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest participants and FYR Macedonia was not included in the list.
A glimmer of hope
After the EBU’s updated statement, we believe that the EBU will do its level best in order to find a solution to resolve this situation. All is not lost as there still seems to be a glimmer hope of for FYR Macedonia to partake in the competition next year.
We hope MRT and FYR Macedonia resolve this issue and participate in the forthcoming Eurovision Song Contest.
FYR Macedonia in Eurovision
FYR Macedonia debuted at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1998 and is yet to win the competition. The country attempted to enter the competition in 1996 with Kaliopi but didn’t qualify from the pre-audio selection round.
The Balkan nation has never made it to the Top 10 of the scoreboard. Elena Risteka retains FYR Macedonia’s best result, namely at 12th placing which she achieved at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest in Athens.
In 2017, FYR Macedonia went internal in order to select its Eurovision act and entry for Kyiv and selected Jana Burčeska to defend the country in the contest with her dance beat Dance alone. Despite an extraordinary performance. she failed to qualify to the Grand Final in Ukraine.
The 2018 Eurovision Song Contest is scheduled to be held on 8, 10 and 12 in Lisbon, Portugal.
