Next Macedonian artist who talks to us about his participation in Macedonian National Final 2015 “Skopje Fest” is Joce Panov, a popular singer who took part in many local and international festivals i.e. “Makfest”, “Suncane Skale” or “Slavic Bazar”. That will be his first ever participation in “Skopje Fest” and he will present song “Ni Lj od Ljubovta” with lyrics written by Vlado Janevski, the singer who represented Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 1998.

• Hello Joce! Congratulations for making it to the top 20 for Skopje Fest 2014! What made you decide to submit a song for the Festival?

I took part in many festivals all over the world, and happily I always managed to return with one of top three awards, but I’ve never participated in Skopje Festival because this competition disappeared for some time, but now it’s back in full lights and all played live. That’s one of the reasons for me to take part, and the other one is that I have an excellent song.

• Can you tell us a bit about your song?

This song means everything to me. It came to me all alone in the weirdest way, I didn’t look for it. The whole story behind this song and the fact that I was lucky enough to get it, provide me with the right to believe that this is something that happens once in a lifetime. But this story I will reveal after festival. I can only say that the song was created by the best team from this area. Music by Sasa Dragic (he composed lots of hits i.e. “Stepski vuk” for Tijana Dapcevic, then “9000 metara”, “Mislio sam ako odes” and “Sve je surovo” for Zeljko Samardzic, “Laku noc”,…), Macedonian lyrics were written by Vlado Janevski (the best lyricist in Macedonia, popular singer and first ever Macedonian entrant in Eurovision since this country became independent), and the arrangement and production by Niksa Bratos (the best producer in the Balkans and outside, he worked with Zdravko Colic, Dziboni, Toni Cetinski, Oliver Dragojevic, Tose Proeski…), and the Serbian lyrics (“Ni Lj od Ljubavi”) were written by Katarina Jovanic Kaca known by her songs as “Sunce ljubavi”, “Laku noc”, “I Dunav laze”, “Iznajmicu sobu s pogledom na te…”

• How are you preparing yourself for the Macedonian national selection for Eurovision?

That’s something new that this year that the winner of Skopje Festival will automatically become the Macedonian entrant in Vienna. Honestly, I didn’t know that when I submitted the song, I only found out about that later, so If everything will goes right, I would love to go to Eurovision.

• In your opinion, who is your biggest contender at Skopje Fest?

I don’t worry about that, to be honest, everyone can be a favourite on the paper, but it has to be shown on stage. I only know that I have an excellent song, and even though it wasn’t written especially for Eurovision, it has the Eurovision spirit. It’s something which was prooved in the past contests that this kind of song receives very high scores in Eurovision.

• What do you think in which language should Macedonian entrants sing at Eurovision?

I don’t “think” but I know that it has to be in Macedonian and nothing else. Eurovision is a place where different cultures and languages should be presented in songs.

• You are one of the most popular participant in “Skopje Fest 2014”. Do you think that will help you reach more votes from the audience or jury?

The fact I’m one of the more popular participants doesn’t give me the right to think it will help me to get public or jury votes. I hope the voting will be fair, and that the best song is going to be sent to the Eurovision Song Contest. For the whole of Europe it’s not important if it will be me who shall sing for Macedonia or someone else, no one know any of us there. For them it’s important that Macedonia manages to impress on stage with a good song, because it’s the song that goes to the competition, not the performer.

• Are you a Eurovision fan? What is your favourite Eurovision song?

I’m big fan of Eurovision ever since I was a child, and I have some songs that have left a mark on me: Toto Cutugno – “Insieme”, Sertab Erener – “Everyway That I Can”, ABBA – “Waterloo”, Johnny Logan with both “What’s another year” and “Hold me now”, Paul Harrington & Charlie McGettigan – “Rock ‘N’ Roll Kids”, Loreen – “Euphoria”, Zeljko Joksimovic – “Lane moje”, Marija Serifovic – “Molitva”…

• Thank you very much for your time to talk to us, and we wish you all the best in Skopje Fest!

Thank you!

Listen to one of Joce’s most popular songs – “Ona prva sto se pamti” (The First One That You Remember)