North Macedonia has a trend to reverse. It’s a trend for not getting to the final. In fact, since Karolina took them there in 2007 they’ve only appeared on the Saturday night twice since, thanks to Kaliopi and Tamara Todevska. I have to be frank and say I don’t think this is going to make it the third.
It costs a lot of money to take part in Eurovision, money that smaller nations don’t always have. Given this it’s entirely understandable a county might decide to put the lion’s share of their budget into the Contest itself and scrimp on the domestic programming. Such cost savings saw North Macedonia take a rather radical route: a national final without any of the competing songs. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think this may be a first. Voting was conducted entirely online ahead of the show based on basic performance videos.
Andrea’s got yet another downbeat, introspective entry. This time it’s a relationship on the rocks, but one she believes can be fixed with the right kind of conversation. She’s right: communication is key in any difficult connection, and I like her taking things on and not letting it fester.
We did get a live performance, in the Romanian final, where Andrea’s performance was quite static and dark. Obviously, we can’t judge her Eurovision potential on this kind of appearance alone. You also don’t need an enormous budget to stand out. Vasil’s light reflecting vest was one of the truly wow moments of 2021, simple, but so effective. There’s not an obvious moment in this for that kind of staging, and I fear Andreas’s going to be chasing her tail, stuck in the circular rut of the song’s title.
My marks: 3 points