Tijana has her Eurovision sights set high for North Macedonia with "To The Sky". Will they fail to launch?
Country: North Macedonia
Song Title: "To The Sky"
Artist: Tijana
Semi-Final: Second, Position 11
Last year's entry: "Pred Da Se Razdeni" - Esma & Lozano (DNQ - 16th Place, SF2)
North Macedonia's had a rough time in the recent history of the Eurovision Song Contest. Only one of their last five entries has made it to the grand final, and looking over the list of entries, I find I can't really remember any of their entries off the top of my head except for last year's((which was half of a good song. More Lozano, less Esma!)). It seemed like they got off to the right start in this year's selection process by internally selecting Tijana (a singer who's well known in the Slavic region of Europe) to be their representative, even if, as Mike mentioned, her initial styling felt less "pop star" and more "secretary who thinks she's super alternative at karaoke night". This is the closest Macedonia's ever come to a pop track in the competition - did they do any tweaking before the semi-final? Let's check in:
http://youtu.be/eU7Edft3eRY
This promo video left me with more questions than answers. Is there a clothing shortage in Macedonia? Why is Tijana in that bathtub? Are those guys supposed to be astronauts going "To The Sky"? Aside from this, the song seems unchanged - it's still very pop, but there are enough touches (mostly in the English lyrics) that identify this as a Eurovision track. What's really going to ultimately sell this song is the live performance - Tijana needs to kick things up a notch from the premiere of the song to show that she's not just at karaoke night and can perform with the rest of the competition.
What seems like it might sink this song((which admittedly is one of my favorites in the second semi-final)) is North Macedonia's voting history. Most of the nations most likely to give Macedonia lots of points - Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Albania, Bulgaria, and Slovenia - are either taking the year off or in the other semi-final and unable to vote in semi 2. Only Slovenia is also in the second semi-final, and their votes alone may not be enough to get Tijana to the grand final.
Tijana has her sights set high with "To The Sky", but a lack of voting support in the second semi-final may cause failure to launch.