Good evening from Chisinau, or as they say in Moldova, Buna Seara! After 2 years with less luck than normal, Moldova is set and ready to finally get back to the Eurovision final, which they haven’t been in since 2013.
Background
As we hardcore fans all know, or just us with a great memory, Moldova failed to qualify to the final in both 2014 & 2015, and where Moldova even finished last back in the first semi-final in 2014.
After those hard and harsh results, then Moldova showed us that they do not give up. They kept their national final, and gave it all they got, to get the best result as possible in Stockholm, later this year.
Moldova received a total of 47 songs, in which they afterwards called everyone who had submitted a song, to perform at a audition show, which was held on the 19th of December. Here a special jury decided which 24 acts, deserved to get a chance to perform for the Moldovan votes.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get through all of this, without a few scandals. The group Elle, which originally was selected to perform in the live shows, lost one of it’s members even before the audition show, and wished to submit another song as well, which didn’t make the cut. Eventually the group decided to withdraw as well their original entry, which qualified to the live shows, the song “Tare”, and were replaced by Vitalie Todirascu. Another act that withdrew, was Katherine & Litesound(Belarus 2012), who had also originally qualified with the song “Imagine”, they were replaced by Valentina Nejel. However, none of the 2 replacements managed to qualify to the final.
2 Semi-finals had to take place, before we got our final candidates for Moldova. In each semi-final, the 24 acts that were selected to sing on stage, were divided in the 2 semi-finals, so 12 songs were performed in each semi-final, that took place earlier on the week. Out of the 24 songs, 16 would fight face to face in the final for the votes, and the chance to represent Moldova. From a jury & televote combination, a total of 7 songs were selected from each of the semi-finals to compete in the final, while the last 2 songs were selected during a talkshow, which took place after the 2 semi-finals.
The Final Show
16 songs, but as we know, only 1 can go to Stockholm. To begin with, we got a small taste of what to expect when we get to the Swedish capital later this year, by our hosts, Sergiu Beznițchi and Olivia Furtună. Before the show could begin, then our hosts had to do 1 important thing, which is start the televote, which will count 50% of the total outcome, and then we were ready to go!
The acts picked their starting position, right after they were announced as finalists in the semi-finals, and this is how the starting order got to look like:
- Valentin Uzun – “Mine”
- Maxim Zavidia – “La La Love”
- Doinița Gherman – “Irresistible”
- Lidia Isac – “Falling Stars”
- Big Flash Sound – “Când Vrei”
- Che-MD – “Vodă E Cu Noi”
- Andrei Ionița & Onoffrei – “Lie”
- Cristina Pintilie – “Picture Of Love”
- Nadia Moșneagu – “Memories”
- Rodica & Ivan Aculov – “Stop Lying”
- Emilia Russu – “I Am Not The Same”
- Viola – “In The Name Of Love”
- DoReDos – “FunnyFolk”
- Max Fall ft. Dan Vozniuc & Malloy – “Game Lover”
- Valeria Pașa – “Save Love”
- Felicia Dunaf – “You And Me”
A bit of pop, a bit of jazz, and a huge party with a real Moldovan touch to it, there were no limits for what the artists could show us tonight. The joy and pleasure was high between the competitors, and a lot of positive energy. That sums up the performances pretty well.
Throughout the show, we also had a lot of pleasure with loads of interviews and small-talks with the artists in the green room, each getting a chance to convince the public to vote and support their favorit act.
The televote was stopped 15 minutes after the last competing artist, and from here, while we await to see who will represent Moldova, we get the joy to see, probably our favorite and so far only “Eurovsion Lăutar”, Pasha Parfeny.
What else to say as well, than Pasha had prepared a show, that can only be worth watching during the grand final. Pasha went all in, and gave a really great mini-concert with multiple of his own songs during the interval act, and truly a colorful show, with loads of instruments, colors, dancers and music. Songs were mainly performed in Romanian, and only his Eurovision bids were performed in the English language, which was of course his Eurovision song from 2012 “Lăutar” and also his 2011 song “Dorule”.
The Results
The results were given the same way, as they were during both the 2 semi-finals, and jury panel gave their votes first. Each jury member gave their top 10 songs points, in the same way done at the Eurovision, with the highest scoring 12, second scoring 10 and so on, until 1 point. When all the juries had given their points, they were converted, and so the the winner of the jury vote got 12 points, runner-up 10 point and so on, once again.
After a small break, the televote was revealed to show us who got the most votes, and how the competitors received their points, after they were converted as well.
As we can see, then to those who weren’t fast enough to make the calculation, the full scoreboard was revealed after a small recap, to show respect to all the ones who took part in the final.
Lidia Isac has won, gaining a total of 20 points, and here she gained as well the full support from the televote, despite her 3rd place with the Jury, since Cristina Pintilie didn’t manage to score well enough with the Televote, as she did with the Jury. Lidia Isac will now get the chance to represent Moldova at the Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, and there she will perform her song “Falling Stars”. She will compete in the first half, of the first semi-final on the 10th of May.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbTgdBqh7uU
