| Elena Risteska Елена Ристеска |
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|---|---|
 Risteska in October, 2009
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Elena Risteska |
| Also known as | Elena |
| Born | April 27, 1986 Skopje, SR Macedonia, SFR Yugoslavia |
| Origin | Skopje, Macedonia |
| Genres | Pop, Hip Hop, R&B, Rap |
| Occupations | Singer (Soprano), Songwriting |
| Years active | 2002 – present |
| Labels | M2 Productions |
| Website | Official Website |
Elena Risteska (Macedonian: Елена Ристеска, 
[ˈɛːlɛna ˈristeska] (help·info)) (born April 27, 1986
in Skopje, SR Macedonia, SFR
Yugoslavia) is a Macedonian singer and song-writer. She represented Macedonia in
the Eurovision Song Contest
2006, held in Athens with
the song "Ninanajna" and
finished on the 12th place. That is the best result made by
Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest
ever.
Contents |
Elena Risteska was born in Skopje on the 27th of April, SFR Yugoslavia (today Macedonia) and showed an interest in the arts at an early age. Her mother's name is Desa and her father's Acko. Elena inherited her musical interest from her mother but also pursued other hobbies and interests. In 1994, Elena joined the KUD "Kočo Racin", which was a club for folk dance and songs. Elena took part in school activities such as singing in the "Young Imitators" show and becoming a member of the drama club.
In 1996, Elena made her television debut during the Mak-Karaoke Show performing the song "Flamingo" on the commercial channel A1. The same year she started to take a course on the English and French languages. Elena started to sing in the school choir and went to Bulgaria for her first tour with the folk dance club. In 1998, Elena took part in many competitions and won many local, national, and international awards in drawing. In 2000, Elena went on tour in Turkey, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria with the folk dance club.
Elena rose to fame in Macedonia by competing and winning the music-based reality television show "Play - Search For A Star" in her home country. Her debut single, "Ona Drugoto" ("The Other Thing") became a hit in Macedonia, resulting in her successful debut album Den i Nok (Ден и Ноќ). The album included various songs which also became successful singles in Macedonia and other Balkan countries. Risteska is also an occasional songwriter, writing for artists such as 4Play, Lambe Alabakoski, Aleksandra Pileva, Maja Sazdanovska, Robert Bilbilov, Verica Pandilovska, Adnan, Emil and Anja Veterova.
Following the great success of her debut album, Elena began promoting herself outside of Macedonia. In 2004, she performed at the Golden Stag Festival in Braşov, Romania and in 2005 she performed "Ni na nebo, ni na zemja" ("Neither heaven nor earth") at the Sunčane Skale music festival in Herceg Novi, Montenegro. Elena’s music video was broadcast on MTV Adria and her popularity continued to grow.
On March 4, 2006, Elena Risteska won the Macedonia pre-selection contest for the Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Ninanajna". The song was composed and produced by Darko Dimitrov, with lyrics by Rade Vrčakovski. The song is an uptempo, pop song which includes elements of R&B, disco and dance music. She made a video shot for the song together with the Macedonian production "Tomato". In the video she was presented as shiny care girl that wants love. Risteska qualified for the final, and after spending most of the night on the edge of the top ten (which would guarantee automatic final qualification for Macedonia in 2007), she eventually finished 12th with 66 points, the best finish for any musician representing Macedonia in the Eurovision Song Contest.
In July, 2006, Elena performed "Ne Mogu" ("I Can’t" in Serbo-Croatian) at the Sunčane Skale festival where she placed 10th overall. Elena traveled to Yerevan, Armenia in September to perform as a guest in Armenia’s Eurovision 2006 representative Andre’s concert. She was well received by the audience, which was expected since her Eurovision song "Ninanajna" was a summer hit and a popular ringtone in Armenia. In October, Elena released a new single called "Esen Vo Mene" ("Autumn In Me"). The song was composed by Darko Dimitrov.
After her countless hits released in the past year, Elena's second album, 192, was released at the end of 2006. The album contains "Ninanajna", "Esen Vo Mene", a Macedonian version of "Ne Mogu" and new material. 192 is the three-digit telephone number for the police in Macedonia.
In 2007, Elena took part in Skopje Fest 2007, the national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. Although she was not a performer this time, she wrote the lyrics for the song "Belo e se" ("Everything is White"), which was performed by Lambe Alabakoski and came in third place with 101 points. At the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, she delivered the results of the national Macedonian televoting during the final night.
Elena participated in the Radijski Festival on December 15, 2007 performing the song "Kreveta dva". It is the Serbian version of her song Ima li kraj. Elena finished in second place together with Karolina Gočeva. Elena won two awards, one for best interpretation and the other from Radio OSM Pale. At the end of 2007 she realized her first Serbian language studio album called Milioner. It contained nearly the same songs from "192" just re-recorded in Serbian (with exceptions some stayed as they were, in Macedonian).
For Elena 2008 started professional. She released her first English single with a music video. It was for the song "Million Dollar Player" (the English version of the popular song "Milioner". The video is production of "Corrino Media Group" and the director of the video is Mike Static[1]. Beside Elena, Leroy Chambers takes part in the video as her "Millionaire". In fact he is the author of the lyrics too.
After that Elena returned to older projects. She shout a video for the song "Nekade Daleku[2]" from the album 192. Besides the Macedonian version, she shouted a video for the Serbian version of the same song called "Bye, Bye[3]" included in the album Milioner. Director of the video was Aleksandar Ristovski - Princ. In the middle time she made a new duet with "Parketi" called "Sakam Da Te Galam".
On the 19th of December, 2008 Elena made her first sufficient concert in Skopje. It was held in Metropolis Arena and featured many guests as: Lambe Alabakovski, Tuna, Parketi, Regina and etc.
In 2009 she released a video for her song "Usni Kako Temno Mastilo"[4]. The same as her previous videos director was again Aleksandar Ristovski - Princ. On November 3 2009 Elena released her single "Dosta" which is the first single from Elena's fourth studio album which will be released in 2010.
2006:
2004:
2006:
2007:
2006:
2006:
2007:
| Preceded by Martin Vučić with "Make My Day" |
Macedonia in the
Eurovision Song Contest 2006 |
Succeeded by Karolina Gočeva with "Mojot svet" |
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   | German Eurovision Song Contest site, presenting her Athens video - Das Erste: Eurovision Song Contest- Eurovision Song Contest 2009 |
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