Kaliopi Bukle (, ; born 28 December 1966), known professionally as Kaliopi, is a Macedonian singer-songwriter. In her career, Kaliopi has progressed from singing lead vocal with her eponymous band in 1980s Yugoslavia to being an established vocalist and composer working in North Macedonia and across former Yugoslavia. She represented Macedonia twice in the Eurovision Song Contest, first in 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan with "Crno i belo" and a second time in 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden with the song "Dona".
Biography
Early life and career beginnings
Kaliopi was born into a mixed Aromanian–Macedonian family in Ohrid and raised up in Kičevo. She showed interest in music at a young age. In 1976, she entered a Macedonian children's festival called "Zlatno Slavejče", which she won with the song "Mojata učitelka". She later toured with the choir of Zapro Zaprov "Razvigorče", performing in Czechoslovakia, Slovenia (then within Yugoslavia) and Austria between 1978 and 1980. She then joined the class of Marija Nikolovska, where she studied solo singing for four years, before continuing her training at the Music Academy in the class of Blagoja Nikolovski in 1984. Kaliopi competed in the 1984 Yugoslavian solo singing contest, finishing in third place and competing as the youngest classical music singer at the festival.
Band formation, Kaliopi and Rodjeni
In 1984, Kaliopi founded the band "Kaliopi" with Romeo Grill, recording their first two songs, "Tomi" and "Nemoj da me budis" at the request of Macedonian Radio. The band won best interpretation for the song "Leo" at the Festival Opatija, an award voted for by the journalists of Yugoslavia. In 1986, the band released their eponymous debut album on the ZKP RTLJ record label. In the same year, they participated in the Split Festival, where they won the best debut performer award for their song "Da more zna".
In 1987, the band released their second album, "Rodjeni", which was recorded in Zagreb and was highly successful, producing the hit song "Rodjeni (Bato)" created by the author Romeo Grill. The band was active in the music scene, performing at festivals, recording television specials for TV Zagreb, TV Belgrade, TV Sarajevo and TV Titograd and performing a concert tour that included performances in the Soviet Union. At the height of the band's popularity, Kaliopi and Romeo Grill moved to Switzerland. After an extended absence from the music scene, followed by the breakup of Yugoslavia, the band was officially dissolved.
Solo comeback, Oboi me and Ako denot mi e nokj
Kaliopi returned to the music scene as a solo performer in the Republic of Macedonia and competed at the 1996 edition of Skopje Fest, the national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest 1996. With the song "Samo ti", she was awarded first place by the jury and the audience, winning the right to be the first representative for Macedonia at the Eurovision Song Contest. However, the 1996 Contest saw an influx of new participants and at a non-televised audio pre-selection, Macedonia was eliminated from the Contest. Kaliopi later competed in Skopje Fest 1998, but only managed ninth place with the song "Ne zaboravaj".
Kaliopi began re-establishing herself in the music scene of Macedonia, composing songs for other artists and releasing her solo debut album, "Oboi me" in December 1999. The album was promoted via a television special broadcast on MRT, single releases for the songs "Oboi me" and "Daj da pijam" and a promotional tour in summer 2000. The album was the last collaboration with her former bandmate Romeo Grill until 2012. In 2000, Kaliopi established her own record label Kaliopi Music Production, which exclusively dealt with her releases in Macedonia.
In January 2001, Kaliopi announced the release of a new album and a new collaboration with producer Darko Dimitrov. The album's title track "Ako denot mi e nokj" was the first single release; this was followed by the release of "Na pat do Makedonija", "Dali me sakas", "Mesecina" and "Za samo eden den". The album was promoted through a television documentary titled "Kaliopi Again" on MRT, an unplugged concert at the ancient Heraclea Lyncestis amphitheatre in Bitola and the "Na pat do Makedonija" concert tour, which commenced in November 2001 and included eleven concert dates across Macedonia.