Esma Redžepova and Vlatko Lozanoski Lozano, representatives of FYR Macedonia may not be singing Imperija at Eurovision Song Contest in Sweden after all according to local media.

On 28 February, the official video of the song Imperija was released but was almost instantly removed from social network sites. Although no official announcement has been made by MRT, the national broadcaster in the country, local media report that following many negative reactions in the country and  on social networks, MRT have decided to withdraw the original entry and replace it with another song.

According to the Дневник newspaper, famous Macedonian composers Darko Dimitrov and Lazar Cvetkovski will write the new song , in collaboration with Simeon Atanasov, who is going to be working on Esma’s parts in the song. The lyrics will be penned by Elena Risteska, who represented FYR Macedonia in Athens in 2006 with Ninanajna.

We would like to emphasise that there is no official statement from the FYR Macedonia delegation in regard to the song. The delegation previously confirmed that the video for Imperija would be redone and the song lyrics and arrangement would be changed.

According to the EBU rules, the final version of the songs and the preview videos must be submitted at the Heads of Delegation meeting on 18 March.