North Macedonia’s national broadcaster is considering withdrawing their Eurovision entrant because she threw a small flag she was carrying during the press photo shoot at the Opening Ceremony yesterday.
You can see that moment at 56:30.
The official statement of MRT about the incident:
Macedonian Radio Television strongly condemns the move of our representative at Eurovision Song Contest 2022, Andrea Koevska, who threw the state flag on the ground during the photoshoot in Turin.
The public service is in no way behind this scandalous behaviour of our Eurovision representative, who with that gesture showed disrespect for the national symbol, which is punishable by law. MRT expects Andrea to apologize to the citizens for such behaviour. The public service is considering the possibility of her withdrawal from Eurovision, although care will be taken not to cause more damage to MRT. All legal possibilities for the strictest sanctioning for this scandal will be taken against those responsible in the Macedonian delegation.
MRT later posted a video of Andrea explaining what happened and (possibly) apologizing for the flag throwing.
About Andrea
Andrea Koevska (in Cyrillic Андреа Коеевска), known in the artistic world simply as Andrea, was born on 14 February 2000 in Skopje (North Macedonia). As a singer, her repertoire is dominated by pop, electronic and dance music.
Her earliest memories of music were the gospel, soul, jazz, jazz and R&B sounds of the Harlem neighbou\rhood where they lived for a year, which inspired her early on and transformed her into a lifelong music lover.
As a teenager, having lost her guide, mentor and friend, as she considered her grandfather, and dealing with identity issues and depression, Andrea was lost and struggled to find her place in life by posting short videos on Instagram singing adaptations and translated versions of famous pop and rock songs.
Acclaimed music producer and composer Aleksandar Masevski noticed her and offered to collaborate with her, which was responsible for Andrea’s enrollment at the Faculty of Musical Arts in Skopje. There, the artist deepened her skills on guitar and piano, where she also learnt to develop her natural vocal ability, finding her voice as a composer. During the last two and a half years, Andrea went deep into the studio working on the lyrics and songs of her heart. Both the artist and her musical mentor Masevski decided to compose only in English in order to have a better chance to be known internationally.
In 2022 she won Za Evrosong, the new national final of North Macedonia for Eurovision, with the song Circles. There she received the third best televote rating and the highest score from an international jury. Circles was composed by Aleksandar Masevski, who also arranged, produced and, together with the artist, wrote the lyrics.