Karolina Goceva

Karolina Gočeva, often credited as Karolina Gocheva (Macedonian Cyrillic: Каролина Гочева, [karɔˈlina ˈɡɔtʃɛva] (help·info)) (born April 28, 1980, in Bitola, SFR Yugoslavia) is a Macedonian singer. She represented Macedonia in the 2002 and 2007 Eurovision Song Contests, ranking 19th and 14th, respectively. She became the first female Macedonian singer to represent Macedonia twice at Eurovision.
Biography

Early beginnings

Karolina Gočeva got her first break at the age of 10 when she performed at the children's festival "Si-Do" in Bitola and the annual festival "Makfest 91" in Štip with the song "Mamo, pušti me" ("Mum, let me go"). Her career was just starting, so she used the national festivals to promote her voice and talent. She became a regular participant in SkopjeFest, debuting in 1994 with a performance of the song "Koj da ti kaže" ("Who to tell you"). In the following years she participated successfully, especially at SkopjeFest where the Macedonian Eurovision song is chosen. In 1996, Gočeva participated with "Ma, ajde kaži mi" ("Come on, tell me") and reached 9th place. In 1998, she participated with "Ukradeni noќi" ("Stolen nights") and was more successful, reaching 4th place with 10,454 televotes.

Avalon Productions - 2002

In 2000, she joined the record label Avalon Productions, on which her debut album "Jas imam pesna" (I've got a song) was released. Gočeva released several singles off her first album, including "Sakaj me" ("Love me"), "Bez ogled na se"("No matter what") and "Nemir" ("Restless"), the latter of which she sang in a duet with Toše Proeski. With her first album released, she took part in the Macedonian Eurovision song selection. Gočeva nearly won, but missed out coming in 2nd place with the song "Za nas" ("For us") from Darko Dimitrov, which managed to receive 916 points. After promotion through concerts and festivals, she released her second album "Zošto sonot ima kraj" (Why the dream has an end) in 2002. She gained more popularity in the former Yugoslavia, by performing at the Sunčane Skale festival with the song "Kazi mi" ("Tell me"). She released "Ti mozes" ("You could") and "Ke bide se vo red" ("Everything will be okay") as singles in Macedonia. On her album, she included three English versions of her songs titled "I'm looking for Jamaica", "You could", and "Tell me".

Karolina in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002
Main article: Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2002

At the Eurovision Song Contest 2002

Year of 2002 became even more successful for Gočeva because she was crowned the winner of "SkopjeFest 2002 with "Od Nas Zavisi" (English: It Depends On Us), which allowed her to represent Macedonia in front of a European audience. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2002, she ended up in 19th place. Her performance was praised by journalists and photographers due to her beauty citation needed. She was also nominated for Miss Eurovision 2002

2003-2006

On March 2003 she released her third album "Znaeš kolku vredam" (You know what I'm worth). She released music videos for her songs "Hipokrit" ("Hypocrite"), "Ljubov pod oblacite" ("Love under the clouds"), and "Srescemo se opet" ("We will meet again"). After 2003, her career expanded to include Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Slovenia, where her CDs are now also released. She went into the studios and recorded all of her songs from her third album in the Serbian language so she could appeal to a wider market in those areas. Her first Serbian language album was titled "Kad zvezde nam se sklope...kao nekada" (When the stars align...like once before).

In 2005, Gočeva participated once again at Herceg Novi in the Sunčane Skale festival. Her song "Ruza Ruzica" ("Red Rose") became an instant hit placing her 4th in the festival. She also released her new song "Se lazam sebe" ("I'm lying to myself"), written by Kaliopi. At the end of 2005, she released the album "Vo zaborav" (In Oblivion).

Karolina in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007
Main article: Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007

Gočeva representing Macedonia in Helsinki, 2007

Karolina Gočeva participated in, and won, the Skopje Fest competition with the song "Mojot svet", a song written by Grigor Koprov and composed by Ognen Nedelkovski. The competition took place on February 24, 2007 at the Universal Hall in Skopje. Gočeva obtained a total of 144 points with a maximum of twelve points from every voting district, procuring her a landslide victory. She became the first artist to represent her country twice at the Eurovision Song Contest. She competed in the semi-final in Helsinki, Finland on 10 May 2007, performing at number 18. She qualified for the final and performed in the 6th slot on May 12, 2007, where she placed 14th in a field of 24 contestants with a score of 73 points.

2007 - present

On 15 December 2007, she participated on Radijski Festival with the song Kad te nema, and finished on 2nd place. She won the award for the best composition. In June 2008 Gočeva released her fifth album, named "Makedonsko Devojče”. This CD is made in cooperation with the composer Zlatko Origanski and it is totally different album. All songs are under the influence of the local traditional music and the first single “Ptico malecka” became a huge hit in Macedonia. “Makedonsko devojce” is the best selling album in Macedonia for 2008. In December 2008 the album was released in Serbia and other ex-Yugoslav countries by City Records.