Macedonia’s record in the Eurovision Song Contest can be broadly divided in three: the “hopeless case” early phase, the “permanent qualifier” middle phase, and the “they really don’t want us in the final any more, do they?” recent phase. OK, that’s a simplification, but you could forgive the Macedonians for feeling as if some of the rule changes implemented in the semi-finals – not least the “jury pick” for the tenth and last qualifier in 2008/2009 – were designed specifically in response to their habit of sneaking through to the Saturday night on the back of predominantly neighbourly voting. Whatever the truth, since the juries returned to ESC Macedonia have only reached the grand final once, with Kaliopi’s screamtastic Crno i belo in 2012.

Looking to repeat that feat this year is Tijana. The sister of one of the aforementioned near-misses (indeed, Tamara from 2008 will be joining the Macedonian delegation in Copenhagen as a backing singer), Tijana is unquestionably one of the bigger stars to emerge from the country’s music scene, and indeed nowadays she is based in Belgrade and frequently records and performs in Serbian. One of her best-known songs (and videos), Sve je isto, samo njega nema, is an oblique tribute to former Yugoslav president Tito – but at ESC 2014 she will present a more straightforward entry in the English language.

To The Sky is the song selected by the Macedonian broadcaster to defend the country’s sunshine flag in Copenhagen. An internal choice, just like Tijana herself, the entry certainly has a pedigree – its writers include Darko Dimitrov and Elena Risteska, responsible (as composer and performer respectively) for Macedonia’s best finish at ESC to date, a 12th place in the 2006 contest in Athens with Ninanajna.

So can Macedonia repeat this success or even break into the top ten for the first time? My verdict is that they will do well to even reach the final, to be honest. Much as I like To The Sky, it’s a very straightforward disco stomper based on an extremely conventional template – and for all Tijana is a highly experienced performer who surely won’t be found wanting in the vocal department, her performances of the song to date have all seemed quite awkward and empty. That said, she only has to beat five other entries to make it through to Saturday night, and the instrumental sections of the song do have a certain stadium-filling “hands in the air” potential if captured well on camera. And hey – Sofi Marinova nearly made it in 2012 despite a similarly isolated and, well, frankly weird performance!

In any case, I would certainly wish Macedonia a berth in the Saturday night line-up this year, if only to reward them for sending one of the country’s biggest singers. Time will tell if Tijana goes To The Sky at Eurovision, or simply to the clouds on a Friday morning flight home…

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