Macedonia debuted in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2003 with Marija and Viktorija representing the country with the song “Ti ne me poznavaš”. The entry was selected through a national final organised by Macedonian Radio Television (MRT).
National final
The submission window for songs was open from 1 February until 31 March 2003. From the singers submission window, 113 applications were received and from the song submission window, 32 songs were received. The jury of selecting the singers and songs consisted of Aleksandar Trposki, Iva Blaževska, Ivana Talevska, Kire Kostov[mk], Kiril Josifov, Ljupčo Mirkovski[mk], Tatjana Gogovska[mk] and Vančo Dimitrov.
The first round of auditions were held in the M2 studio of MRT on 19 April 2003. From the 113 singers, 50 singers were selected to the second round of auditions held on 10 May 2003. From the second round of auditions, the 25 potential performers were chosen with the 10 songs.
The final was held at 28 June 2003 at Studio C of MRT and was broadcast on MTV 2 and MKTV Sat.[1][2] The results of the national selection were decided by 50% jury and 50% televoting.[3]
Marija Hadžistojanova, Orhideja Dukova and Simona Popovska
“Do site deca” (“До сите деца”)
Katerina Piševa
Robert Mitrov
9
Bisera and Bojana Iliovski
“Ne sozdade ti” (“Не создаде ти”)
Martina Janevska
Nevenka Veljanovska
10
Elisaveta Koševac, Maja Mihajlovska and Renata Kralevska
“Sakam da sum” (“Сакам да сум”)
Elisaveta Koševac
Preparations
Before the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, it was decided that Irena Galabovska would be a backing singer instead of being one of the main singers. A music video was also filmed for the song.[4]
At Junior Eurovision
At the running order draw, Macedonia were drawn to perform sixth on 15 November 2003, following Latvia and preceding Poland.[5][6]