The Republic of Macedonia was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 by Martin Vucic with the song "Make My Day". The song is written by Branka Kostić and composed by Dragan Vučić. Martin was born on 7 August 1982 in Skopje. He became a drummer and composer for the group Arija and went on to enter the Music Academy as an extremely popular percussionist. Martin is currently a senior at the Music Academy in Skopje. He enjoys success in Macedonia and in the Balkan region with participations and festivals such as OhridFest, Budva, and Beovizija.
Before Eurovision
Nacionalen Evrosong 2005
Nacionalen Evrosong 2005 was be the national final format developed by MKRTV in order to select Macedonia's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. The competition consisted of two stages: the first to select two artists and the second to select the best combination among the two artists performing four songs each.
Performers selection
128 artists were presented to MKRTV, from which 6 were selected for the next stage. However, Kaliopi, one of the originally selected artists, refused to participate. The five artists were then presented on 7 November 2004 where two finalists were chosen through a 50/50 combination of public televoting and the votes of an eight-member jury consisting of seven individual members and an eighth aggregate twenty-member press vote. The results were announced on 14 November 2004.
Song Selection
The final took place on 19 February 2005 at the Universal Hall in Skopje, where Aleksandra Pileva and Martin Vučić, the two finalists, performed four songs each: three selected from a submission period opened by MKRTV and one of Pileva and Vučić's own choosing. The winner was determined over two rounds of voting. In the first round, one song per artist advanced to the second round based on the votes of an expert jury, votes cast by the audience in the Universal Hall and public televoting. In the second round, the winner was selected by the public, audience and jury vote. Aleksandra Pileva was the winner of the televote in both rounds, receiving six times more votes that Martin Vučić in the second round. However, Martin Vučić and the song "Ti si son" was selected as the winner after winning both the jury and audience vote.
Preparation
For Eurovision, "Ti si son" was translated from Macedonian to English, titled "Make My Day".
At Eurovision
Because Macedonia placed 14th at the 2004 contest,Martin was forced to compete in the Eurovision semi-final, held two days before the final he performed 17th, following Finland and preceding the Andorra,his song came 9th in the semi-final, with 97 points, and progressed to the final. In the final he performed 15th, following Sweden and preceding the Ukraine came 17th with 52 points. As Macedonia failed to reach the top 11 in the final, the country was forced to compete in the semi-final of the 2006 contest. The spokesperson who revealed Macedonia's votes for other countries was 2002 and 2007 Contest entrant Karolina Gočeva.
