If Karolina Goceva had her way, she would be singing FYR Macedonia's Eurovision Song Contest entry in a mixture of English and Macedonian this May, as her predecessor Elena Risteska did in Athens last year. However, national broadcaster MKTV have overruled her wish, and Mojot svet will be presented in Helsinki solely in the Macedonian language.

Karolina's wishes were not ignored, and officials experimented with different versions of the song before settling on the purely Macedonian version. Tanja Gogoska, head of the Macedonian delegation, said "We acknowledge Karolina, but MKTV will not change their decision to have the song sung in Macedonian. Along with that, a version of the song that contained the mix of languages was created and heard before the decision was made."

Still flying high
Meanwhile, Karolina continues to find solid support at Eurovision polls across the Internet, most recently coming top of the list at the site All Kinds of Everything. FYR Macedoniahas managed to pass through every one of the semifinals since they were introduced in 2004, and if the polls are anything to go by, 2007 will be no different. At any rate, Karolina looks set to redeem her Eurovision reputation after a disappointing showing at the 2002 contest.

Meanwhile on MKTV, fellow Balkan representatives Aleka Gotar for Slovenia and Stephen Faddy for Montenegro are busy promoting their respective entries; the two Marijas will follow suit for Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina on April 15th.

Bilingualism at Eurovision
Mixed language versions of Eurovision entries are not unusual, as FYR Macedonia was represented in both English and Macedonian in Athens. Other countries to have presented their songs in both languages at the Eurovision Song Contest include Portugal (2003) and Cyprus (2000), the latter choosing the unusual option of singing in Italian and Greek at the first contest of the new millennium.