Elena Risteska

Elena Risteska is a pop singer and songwriter from Skopje, born on 27 April 1986. Her music mixes pop with R&B and hip hop, and since the early 2000s she has been one of the best-known Macedonian voices, the singer who took "Ninanajna" to the Eurovision Song Contest.

As a child she danced with the folk ensemble KUD "Kočo Racin", sang in her school choir and made her first television appearance in 1996 on the Mak-Karaoke Show, singing "Flamingo". She came to wider attention as one of the winners of the talent show Play - Search for a Star. Her debut single "Ona drugoto", written by Darko Dimitrov and Aleksandar Princ, became a hit in Macedonia, and her first studio album, Den i nok, followed in 2003. In 2004 she sang at the Golden Stag festival in Brașov, Romania, and in 2005 she performed "Ni na nebo, ni na zemja" at Sunčane Skale in Herceg Novi.

On 4 March 2006 she won the Macedonian national selection with "Ninanajna", with music by Darko Dimitrov and lyrics by Rade Vrčakovski. In Athens she qualified from the semi-final and finished 12th in the final with 56 points, the country's best Eurovision result until Tamara Todevska placed 7th in 2019. The same year she released her second album, 192, and the Golden Ladybug awards named her Discovery of the Year and Female Singer of the Year.

The album Milioner followed in 2008, with an English version of its title song, "Million Dollar Player", and on 19 December 2008 she gave her first solo concert at the Metropolis Arena in Skopje. Her singles of those years include "Dosta", "Usni kako temno mastilo" and "Sakam po dobro da te pamtam", and in 2011 she recorded "Najdobro do sega" with Lambe Alabakovski. She writes for others too: the lyrics of "Belo e se", Alabakovski's song at Skopje Fest 2007, and songs for 4Play and Aleksandra Pileva. At the Serbian Radio Festival in December 2007 she shared second place with Karolina Gočeva and won the award for best interpretation, and in 2010 the Balkan Music Awards gave her Best Song in the Balkans from Macedonia.

In 2014 she took part in the second season of the Serbian show Tvoje lice zvuči poznato, won the fifth week as Jennifer Lopez and finished runner-up in the final as Beyoncé, whom she names as one of her main influences alongside Christina Aguilera. Her album Bez šminka brought songs such as "Doživotno" and "Na ista adresa", and later singles include "Kako da se raduvam", "Tekila i lemon", "Superstar" and "Me boli za se" (2024). In 2017 she sang on "Još me plašiš" with Hari Mata Hari, and on MRT's New Year's Eve show of 2022 she performed "Doživotno" with Karolina Gočeva.