Gunesh recently successfully participated in the 2017 Makfest competition in FYR Macedonia and she won the Grand Prix for Best Vocal Performance. Her song was Neba (Sky).
Gunesh has participated six times in the Belarussian Eurovision national selections and she took the second place at the 2013 Türkvizyon Şarkı Yarışması contest.
Surely it is a matter of time before we see Gunesh taking part at the Eurovision Song Contest.
Elena Petreska has released her brand new single entitled Nešto (Something). The song’s music and production is by Ylva and Linda Persson, Niklas Bergqvist and Simon Johansson with lyrics by Elena Risteska (who represented FYR Macedonia at the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest). Guitars are by Patric Skog.
Nešto featured in the recent 2017 Makfest in FYR Macedonia. Elena Petreska participated in the Macedonian Eurovision national selections in 2000 and 2007.
Sonja Bishop is currently taking part in the 2017 Makfest festival in FYR Macedonia, where she is representing Finland. The song she is performing is entitled The Land Of My Song. The track has just been officially released on most digital outlets such as iTunes, Spotify, etc.
The Land Of My Song is composed by Staffan Stavert and Lars Johansson and is published via Sweden Songs.
Sonja has participated in the Finland Eurovision national selection on a couple of occasions – 2004 Should I Run, Should I Hide and in 2011 This Is My Life. She has also taken part in the Latvian Eurovision selection with Amber and the song Later in 2006.
Sonja has had big success in Latvia where she was nominated in 2007 for Best Pop Album.
The 2017 Makfest competition will take place over 5th, 6th and 7th October in Štip in FYR Macedonia. Besides some top local acts there will be international stars with some amazing music also with some Eurovision connections.
Let us look at some of the acts taking part –
Macedonian singer Elena Petreska will sing Nešto written by Swedish sisters Ylva and Linda Persson (who have submitted several national final songs for Eurovision and Junior Eurovision) and lyrics are by the 2006 FYR Macedonia Eurovision singer, Elena Risteska. Elena Petreska took part twice in the Macedonian national selections in 2000 with Svetlina and in 2007 with Peam.
Elvira Michieva will represent Azerbaijan. She is currently based in Germany. Elvira took part in the 2010 Azeri Eurovision selection with the song Up, Up composed by Isa Melikov.
Tahmina Niyazova will represent Tajikistan with the song Ti moy svet (You are my light). It is composed by Rolan Seiitbekov (DJ Rolan), who is a top dj and producer from Kyrgyzstan.
Gunesh Abasova will represent Belarus with her song Neba. She has taken part several times in the Belarussian Eurovision national selections.
Vlatko Ilievski will also take part. He represented FYR Macedonia at the 2011 Eurovision Song Contest with Rusinka. The composer of that song, Grigor Koprov, also has a composition in the Makfest and top songwriter and producer, Darko Dimitrov, has composed for the competition. Amongst his Eurovision successes is the 2006 FYR Macedonia entry Ninanajna.
From Finland participating is Sonja Bishop (she has taken part in both Finnish and Latvian Eurovision selections) and from Sweden there is Emanuel Bagge (from Sweden’s Got Talent). Sweden Songs are behind these two talented acts.
Stay tuned to ESC Covers for more information about Makfest.
You can see examples of songs by Elena Petreska, Elvira Michieva, Tahmina Niyazova and Gunesh Abasova below. You can also see the 2011 Eurovision song by Vlatko Ilievski.