Maja Odžaklievska

Maja Odžaklievska is a Macedonian pop singer, born on 21 April 1954 in Skopje, whose career has spanned the whole of former Yugoslavia. She started singing at fifteen, when she auditioned at Radio Skopje, and in 1970 she moved to Belgrade, where she lived and worked for many years, singing in Serbian as well as Macedonian. She also sings jazz and pop rock.

In Belgrade she won Radoslav Grajić's radio show Maksimetar, which brought her a small part in Jean-Louis Barrault's play Rabelais. Her festival career began early: "Samo ljubi" took third prize from the jury at Omladina in Subotica in 1972, and in 1974 she won the Skopje festival with "V oblak sonce". In 1978 she was named best debutant at the Split festival, and in 1979 "Daljine" won the interpretation award at Beogradsko proleće.

The early eighties were her Eurovision years. In the Yugoslav selection she was second in 1982 with "Julija", third in 1983 with "Lidu-lidu-du" and second again in 1984 with "Niki". At Opatija she sang, among others, "Samo sekjavanja" in 1984 and "Srebrne ulice" in 1985. Her first album, Biće sve u redu, came out on PGP RTB in 1982.

The nineties brought a run of wins: "Sve ti opraštam" at Beogradski šlager 1994, "Ne me dopiraj" at the Skopje festival the same year, "Više nisi moj" at Beogradsko proleće and "Budi dobar kao što sam ja" at MESAM in 1995, "Rastanak" at MESAM 1996 and "Mnogu solzi" at Eurofest in Skopje in 1997. Her second album, Bele njive, followed on PGP RTS in 1995. Over the years she worked with songwriters such as Kire Kostov, Grigor Koprov and Marina Tucaković.

She kept returning to the stage: in 2006 she entered the Macedonian Eurovision selection with "Koj pat da izberam", in 2013 she sang "Anđeo s neba" at Beosong, the Serbian selection, and in 2020 she sang "Peščani sat" with Srđan Marjanović at Ohrid Fest. In the Serbian dub of Disney's Moana (2016) she voiced the grandmother, Tala.

Her best-known songs include "Budi dobar kao što sam ja", "Daljine", "Sve ti opraštam" and "Srećo reci", and in Macedonia also "Šila" and "Mnogu solzi". In 2026, at the evening marking 65 years of Beogradsko proleće, Maja Odžaklievska sang "Daljine" and received the festival's lifetime achievement award.