Toše Proeski
Todor "Toše" Proeski was a Macedonian singer and songwriter. Considered a top act of the local Macedonian and Balkan music scene, Proeski's music was popular across multiple countries in Southeast Europe. He was dubbed the "Elvis Presley of the Balkans" by BBC News. He died in a highway car crash in Croatia in 2007 at the age of 26, and received substantial posthumous recognition.
Biography
Early years
Proeski was born in Prilep and grew up in Kruševo into an Aromanian family. After his musical talent was discovered at the age of 12, he was chosen to perform at the popular children's song festival Zlatno Slavejče in Skopje, performing the song "Јаs i mојоt dеdо" in the Aromanian language. This was his first public music performance; however, his successful career began in 1996 when he participated in the teenage music festival Melfest in Prilep.Following this public exposure, he was acclaimed for his strong vocal capabilities. This led to his rise to fame when he participated in the music festival Makfest in Štip with the song "Pušti me" in 1997. His fanbase quickly grew and he continued to make use of festivals, such as SkopjeFest and OhridFest, as a platform for promotion and publicity. Proeski collaborated with one of Macedonia's acclaimed lyricists and composers, Grigor Koprov, to produce some of his most successful songs, such as "Usni na usni" and "Sonce vo tvoite rusi kosi". In 1999, he released his debut album, Nekade vo noḱta. In the summer of the same year, Proeski performed his first solo concert in Skopje.
In the year 2000, Proeski participated in the Eurovision pre-selection for Macedonia in SkopjeFest. He sang "Solzi pravat zlaten prsten", which won the televoting from the public; however, he finished third overall behind Karolina Gočeva and the winners XXL. During that period, he began recording tracks for his second album, Sinot božji, which was promoted by the end of June 2000. The album included songs such as "Nemir" , "Vo kosi da ti spijam", "Izlaži me ušte ednaš", as well as "Iluzija" and "Tajno moja". Two songs are composed by Kire Kostov.
The Serbian production house BK Sound purchased the rights to release Proeski's latest album in the other former Yugoslav republics, which led to his victory of the Oscar of Popularity in those former republics for the year of 2000, and his sold-out shows in Skopje and Belgrade. Proeski embarked on an Australian tour along with other Macedonian singers in 2001.
Rise to regional stardom
In 2001, Proeski gained wider regional popularity in the countries of former-Yugoslavia, by placing second at the Sunčane Skale festival held on 12, 13 and 14 July in Herceg Novi with the song "Sonce vo tvoite rusi kosi", written by G. Koprov, O. Nedelkovski and K. Ikonomov.After spending his time in recording studios in Athens, Greece, Proeski released his third album "Ako me pogledneš vo oči" in October 2002 in Macedonian and Serbo-Croatian languages. After the release, Proeski went on an intense promotional tour throughout Macedonia. He also went to Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Bulgaria for further promotion. Proeski won Beovizija in Belgrade in April 2003, with "Čija si", a song that became a huge hit in Macedonia and the other former Yugoslav republics. This song was to represent Serbia and Montenegro in the Eurovision Song Contest 2003, but the EBU stated that too many countries had entered in that year, forcing them to withdraw others. Serbia and Montenegro was one of them.
To improve his singing, Proeski took classes in New York from maestro William Riley, who was also coach to famous tenor, Luciano Pavarotti. When he returned, Proeski held humanitarian concerts throughout Macedonia. He was awarded with the Mother Teresa Humanitarian Award, and in 2003 he became a Regional UNICEF Ambassador.
File:Tose Proeski.jpg|thumb|right|Proeski on the rehearsal of the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 held in Istanbul, Turkey.
In 2004, MKTV chose Proeski to represent Macedonia at the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 in Istanbul, Turkey, and in February, he performed eight songs, where a jury, televoting, and his own opinion chose the song. The song "Angel si ti" was chosen by all three. In April, Proeski released his album "Dan za nas", which featured the eight songs from the Eurovision selection in Macedonian.
In May, Proeski finished 14th with the song "Life", which was the English version of "Angel si ti". Prior to the contest, he was popularised by reporters due to his tremendous opera singing ability, at his press conferences.
All eight songs were recorded in English, but only the winning song of the national final, "Life", was released. During the TV national final show, after each song was performed, a clip of the song was played in English to show viewers how it would sound if that song won the contest and was performed in English at the Eurovision Song Contest 2004 final.
In 2004 Proeski was named a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, and recorded the song "This World" which became the UNICEF anthem. Proeski signed a contract with Dallas Records so that his next album could be released in Croatia and Slovenia. To establish himself in these countries, Proeski recorded "Krajnje vreme" with Slovenian singer, Anja Rupel. In 2005, Toše's fifth album Po tebe was released throughout ex-Yugoslavia. Po tebe is one of the most successful Balkan albums ever. It topped music charts for months in Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Božilak was a compilation of 14 selected traditional Macedonian songs arranged by Saša Nikolovski Gjumar, Ilija Pejovski and Soni Petrovski. The artist was backed up by a symphony orchestra on the album.
His last album Igri bez granici /Igra bez granica was released all over ex-Yugoslavia in August 2007.
Apart from songs in Macedonian and Serbo-Croatian, he also recorded one song in Slovene, "Moja" in 2007, and one in Italian, "Aria", with Italian superstar, Gianna Nannini. The list of artists who collaborated with Proeski includes Anja Rupel, Antonija Šola, Bora Čorba, Karolina Gočeva, Esma Redžepova, Gianna Nannini, Goca Tržan, Grigor Koprov, Jeff Beck, Tony Cetinski, Željko Joksimović among other notable musicians. Prior to his death, he was a student in his final year in the solo singing department of the Skopje Music Academy.
Songwriting
Proeski also established himself as a songwriter. He wrote several hits for himself including "Ima li dan za nas", "Slušaš li", "Malečka", and "Polsko cveḱe". In 2004, Proeski composed "Muza" for Martin Vučić, the Eurovision Song Contest 2005 representative for Macedonia. It became the title track for the young artist's second album. In interviews, Proeski stated that he had written over 100 songs but was waiting for the right moments to record them as they were still in demo form.Toše's last concert was held on 5 October 2007 for the Primary Education Project for USAID. The concert raised tens of thousands of euros for the primary schools of Macedonia. The concert was attended by over 40,000 people and viewed all over the world.
The night before his death, Proeski gave his final interview to the Macedonian Television Station Kanal 5. He talked about his intention to finish his Musical Academy studies, his search for his soul mate, and his new album in the works.
Super Toše
Fight against evil, eliminate enemies, and the victory of the good were the main points of the comic "Super Toše", where the main character was based on Toše Proeski. It was made as a part of the humanitarian campaign under the motto "Superhero of humanity". The main character has all virtues and characteristics of Toše in aim to build a fictional superhero who will hopefully be an idol of the young. "Toše is idealized, but with this, we want to give the young people faith that good can defeat the evil", said Oliver Romevski, the author of "Super Toše". "His job was not easy. As a weapon, he had his super voice with which he tried to eliminate evil and defeat his enemies, one of whom, was Mr. Pirate, the common enemy of the world, who was smuggling kids, drugs, and weapons."Eurovision Song Contest 2004
On the forty-ninth edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest in 2004, Proeski represented Macedonia with the song Life. The song was selected on February 14, 2004, by televoting and 11 membered juries, in a competition with seven other songs written for Proeski.The song was written by Ilija Nikolovski, directed by Jovan Jovanov. On the Eurovision Song Contest 2004, his performance was powerful and energetic together with the background vocals, who made an art show on the stage. He managed to reach the finale, where he got 49 points and ended up in fourteenth place.
After the event, he admitted that he was not satisfied with the performance, attributing it to what he saw as Eurovision voting, being based on stage direction as well as the song itself. However, in his home country he was given a warm welcome on his return.
Second big concert in Skopje
On 23 June 2006, he performed his second solo concert at the City Stadium in Skopje. The spectacular concert started with the dance group from Belgrade, in the rhythm of Toše's band, Blue Funky Individuals.The stadium was filled with his fans who sang along with him his biggest hits,,,,,..., as well as the songs from his previous albums ,,,,, ,....
In the middle of the concert, he was joined by the ethnic singer Bilja Krstić and they performed the Macedonian folk song Jovano Jovanke in a duet. At the end of the performance, Bilja continued alone on the stage with her big hit Puce puska.
The concert lasted till midnight, but his fans didn't let him leave, so he got back on the stage and performed Po tebe again, alongside Zajdi zajdi, the Macedonian folk song.