Kaliopi's appointment as the Macedonian representative was announced on 19 November 2011, while her song, "Crno i belo", was presented to the public in a television special titled Evrosong 2012 ("Eurosong 2012") on 29 February 2012.

Performing during the show in position 2, "Crno i belo" was announced among the top 10 entries of the second semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 26 May.

[1] The nation's best result in the contest to this point was twelfth, which it achieved in 2006 with the song "Ninanajna" performed by Elena Risteska.

[9] During a press conference in November 2011 following the artist announcement, Kaliopi stated that her contest entry would be created by the singer herself and performed in Macedonian.

[10] Kaliopi made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Crno i belo" as the Macedonian Eurovision entry.

On 18 February, Kaliopi performed during the presentation show of the 2012 Croatian Eurovision entry, Dora 2012 - Idemo na Eurosong s Ninom!.

[11] On 21 April, Kaliopi performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Ruth Jacott and Cornald Maas.

[14] Between 4 and 5 May, Kaliopi took part in promotional activities in Belarus by giving interviews to media outlets and appearing during talk show programmes to discuss her Eurovision participation.

[15] Between 5 and 6 May, Kaliopi completed promotional activities in Ukraine and recorded the Russian version of "Crno i belo" in Kyiv.

[16] According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Five" (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) are required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progress to the final.

On 25 January 2012, a special allocation draw was held which placed each country into one of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show they would perform in.

The stage was dark at the beginning but lit up with black and white moving spotlights as the song progressed.

This jury was asked to judge each contestant based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.