Nokaut

Nokaut is a Macedonian pop group from Skopje, formed in 1997. The name is the Macedonian spelling of the English word knockout. They were one of the most popular bands in the country in the late 1990s, and after a pause they came back in 2006 with a larger line-up.

The band was founded by singer Nikola Perevski - Pere and guitarist Vladimir Krstevski - Franc, with the support of producer Darko Dimitrov. Kiril Kolemiševski joined as second vocalist and Aco Bogdanovski on percussion. Their first hit, "Fatalna opsesija", was first performed at Makfest in 1997, and the self-titled debut album, produced by Dimitrov, also carried "Bi se vikal te sakam" and Macedonian versions of "ABC" by the Jackson 5 and of Earth, Wind & Fire's "September", sung as "Vremenska mašina".

Nokaut won the Tinejdžerska atrakcija award and were named band of the year in both 1998 and 1999. Their second album, Do posleden zdiv (2001), was produced by Ante Pecotić and Kristina Kovač and gave them "Mene mi pripagjaš", "Telefonskiot broj ne postoi" and "Iljada pričini za kraj"; in 2001 the band also won a Zlatna Bubamara award for an album. In 2002 they also took the composer and lyricist Grand Prix at Skopje Fest, the Eurovision selection, with "Od nas zavisi", sung by Karolina Gočeva.

After a break from 2003 to 2006 the band returned. Pere and Franc were joined by Blagoja Antovski on drums, Gorjan Petrovski and Luaj Redžepov on guitar, Bojan Perevski on percussion, Borče Kuzmanovski on keyboards and Viktor Nikolovski on bass. The compilation DeLuxe came out in 2007, and they won the Zlatna Bubamara na popularnosta for concert of the year in 2011/2012.

The third album, Tri, followed in 2014, the year they returned to Makfest with "Tango". On 17 December 2014 they played the Universal Hall in Skopje, opening with "Fatalna opsesija" and closing with "Iljada pričini za kraj". Over the years Nokaut have worked with Toše Proeski, Karolina Gočeva, Igor Džambazov and Darko Gelev - Brejk, among others, and in 2020 they won Makfest with "Sakam da živeam".