Australians of Eurovision: Bobi Andonov

Australia had an artist competing at Junior Eurovision all the way back in 2008, when a young Australian-Macedonian, called Bobi Andonov (born Bobby Andonov and previous known as BOBI) represented FYR Macedonia with the song ‘Prati Mi SMS’.

Bobi was born in Melbourne in 1994 to Macedonian parents originating from Strumica, North Macedonia. He began singing at the young age of six and dancing from the age of seven. He learnt to play the piano and the flute. By nine years old he performed in youth musicals. Bobi even starred as Danny Zuko in a junior production of Grease the musical. He also performed in annual performances, cabarets and eisteddfods.

His talents didn’t go unnoticed and Bobi was cast as the Young Simba in productions of The Lion King in Melbourne and Shanghai.

Bobi was no stranger on the Macedonian stage. He is most known for his performance of Tose Proeski's ‘Life’, as a tribute to the late Macedonian pop star with whom Bobi got acquainted when Tose was touring Australia.

Before his time at Junior Eurovision Bobi attended Mill Park Heights Primary School. He could speak four languages and had begun singing in a children studio and a church choir.

In September 2008 Bobi entered the Macedonian national final, 'Dečja pesna Eurovizije', where FYR Macedonia would choose their Junior Eurovision entry. In the national final twelve songs competed with the winner to be decided by a combination of votes from a jury panel (50%) and televoting (50%).

Bobi entered the song ‘Prati Mi SMS’, which he sung in Macedonian and translates to 'Send Me SMS' and went on to win the jury and televote, scoring two set of 12 points and winning the whole contest.

At 14 years old Bobi represented FYR Macedonia in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in 2008 with ‘Prati Mi SMS’ in Lemesos (Limassol), Cyprus. He finished in 5th place. He managed a total of 93 points, with the highest set of points from Romania, who gave Bobi 10 points.

Bobi's performance remains North Macedonia’s best placed entry at Junior Eurovision along with ‘Ding Ding Dong’ by Rosica Kulakova & Dimitar Stojmenovski the year before in 2007.

His success in Junior Eurovision drove Bobi to pursue his dreams. He went on a European tour across the Balkans.

In 2010 Bobi competed in season 4 of 'Australia’s Got Talent'. He won the public vote in Semi Final 1 and made it to the Final along with seven other acts. 2010 was the year Justice Crew were crowned the winners of 'Australia’s Got Talent' and singer/guitarist Cameron Henderson was runner up.

He debuted his first self penned song in 2013 at 18 years old ‘War Is Love’.

When it comes to song writing Bobi wrote ‘Born to Run’ for Dutch DJ Afrojack back in 2014. In 2015 he wrote songs for Melbourne DJ Joel Fletcher and Cyrus Villanueva for his X Factor Australia winners song ‘Stone’ which peaked at No. 4 on the ARIA singles chart.

Bobi has gone on to be a prominent pop singer, singer-songwriter and producer. Influenced by artists like Terence Trent D'Arby, Prince and George Michael. In 2015 he moved to the United States of America. He has released several singles, including 'Apartment' in 2017 and 'Faithful' and 'Smoke' in 2018.

He is expected to drop new EP this year. We hope to see him partake in Eurovision once again either representing North Macedonia or Australia.