Next Time to represent FYR Macedonia!

22 February 2009 at 01:00 CET

After two semi-finals, on Thursday and Friday, it was time for the final of the Skopje Festival 2009 tonight. The show, broadcast live from the Univerzalna Sala in Skopje, started with a minute's silence in memory of Ivana Mitrovska, a 24-year-old girl who had, in a tragic incident, died inside the venue during the first semi-final on Thursday. Then, the 16 songs that had qualified for the final were presented.

In the interval act, the representatives of Bosnia-Herzegovina in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, the band Regina, performed together with Elena Risteska, who had already participated in the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest for FYR Macedonia, reaching the 12th place in the Final with the song Ninanajna. Furthermore, the 2009 representatives of Belarus (Petr Elfimov with Eyes That Never Lie) and Montenegro (Andrea Demirović with Just Get Out Of My Life) performed their entries, too. In the end, the voting results were announced. The winner was decided by a 50/50 combination of the vote of an expert jury and televoting. This is the final ranking:

  1. Next Time - Nešto Što Ke Ostane - 19 points

  2. Naum Petreski & Kaliopi - Rum Dum Dum - 18 points
  3. Risto Samardžiev & Zoran Džorlev - 103 Beli Lebedi - 17 points
  4. Vlatko Lozanoski - Blizku Do Mene - 16 points
  5. Sleng - Gengsta Oro - 13 points
  6. Vlatko Ilievski - Najbogat Vo Svet - 8 points
  7. Andrijana Janevska - Drvo Bez Koren - 6 points
  8. Aleksandar Belov - Sastani, Solzi Izbriši - 6 points
  9. Daniel - Sila Na Ljubovta - 5 points
  10. Bravo Band - Devojko - 3 points
  11. Kristijan - Nema Da Zboram - 2 points
  12. Rok Agresori - Ding Dong - 2 points
  13. Proekt Makedonija - Pomalku Naivno - 1 point
  14. Dejan Trifunovski - Ljubovta Doaga - 0 points

  15. Verče Pandilovska - Severno Od Mene, Južno Od Tebe - 0 points
  16. Kostadin Papa - Za Nea Postojam - 0 points

The jury gave full marks to Naum Petreski & Kaliopi and their song Rum Dum Dum, while the public preferred the band Next Time, who won just one point ahead of Naum Petreski & Kaliopi in the end. Thus, they will represent their home country with the song Nešto Što Ke Ostane. FYR Macedonia will take part in the First Semi-Final of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, to be held on May 12th in Moscow.