Makedonsko Devojče 2 (in Macedonian Cyrillic: Македонско девојче 2, meaning in English: Macedonian Girl 2) is the eighth studio album by Macedonian singer Karolina Gočeva released on 25 February 2014. Avalon Production launched the album in Macedonia, while Croatian label Dallas Records released it throughout former Yugoslav countries in April 2015. The album consists of eight original songs written by Valentin Soklevski and Vesna Malinova; the arrangement and production were completed by Nikola Micevski and Dejan Momirovski. Except for those eight songs, two cover versions are also included, one of them being of a Macedonian traditional song and the other one of a record originally performed by Macedonian singer Pepi Baftirovski. For Gočeva, the motivation to record the album came from the critical and commercial success of her previous project inspired by the Macedonian traditional music, Makedonsko Devojče (2008).
The project's finalization lasted for two years due to the intention of the team behind it to improve it as much as possible. According to Gočeva and the producer Micevski, the group's members' acquaintance with each other helped them in setting the right musical direction with the recording of Makedonsko Devojče 2. Musically, the album is similar to its predecessor; the songs are characterized by elements of Macedonian traditional music, but are adapted to a modern style which is contemporary at the time of the release of the album, thus intertwining pop and jazz elements. The lyrics cover emotional states of sadness, happiness, love and longing experienced by a mellow woman. The songs were written and composed specifically for Gočeva, taking into account her wide vocal range and musical versatility; all of them are sung without using any backing vocals.
Macedonian music critics commended the album with its blend of traditional and mainstream music being particularly lauded. It also achieved wide commercial success becoming the best-selling album of 2014 in Macedonia. Three singles were released from Makedonsko Devojče 2: the song "Čalgiska" premiered on 6 December 2013 before the album's release, "Dve liri (ne ni bilo pišano)" was released in January 2014 and "Koj da mi zapee" was released as a single in April 2015, being sent to radio stations in Macedonia and the other ex-Yugoslav countries. To promote Makedonsko Devojče 2, Gočeva held concerts across different cities in Macedonia before and after the release of the album. Most of them were recorded and broadcast on various TV shows in the country and were uploaded and shared on the singer's social media and YouTube accounts. In 2015, the album was also promoted in Serbia.
Background
In 2008, Gočeva released the album Makedonsko Devojče in collaboration with Macedonian composer Zlatko Origjanski. The album features elements of Macedonian traditional music and it represented a change in the musical style for the singer. According to Gočeva, the album served as an experimental work for her in order to establish whether she would be able to successfully record folk music. Makedonsko Devojče turned out to be a commercial and critical success, becoming the best-selling album in Macedonia in the year of its release and receiving the award for Best World Music Album at the 2008 Sunčane Skale festival in Montenegro. Its popularity among the Macedonian public lasted for several years after its release.
After her audience's demand to continue performing similar songs, Gočeva decided to record a second album in the same musical direction. Makedonsko Devojče 2 is a successor to the album released in 2008 and it contains songs composed in the vein of Macedonian folklore. The plans to record the album were revealed by Gočeva during an interview in May 2012 with the magazine Naš Svet, confirming that she had already begun with the song selection process for the track listing of the second edition of the project Makedonsko Devojče. In the initial stages of the album's development, Makedonsko Devojče 2 served only as a working title and later became its official title in order to emphasize that the musical style is the same as that of Makedonsko Devojče (2008).