Moldova participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2019 in Tel Aviv, Israel. The song that represented Moldova was selected through the national final O melodie pentru Europa 2019, to be organised by the Moldovan broadcaster TeleRadio-Moldova (TRM), on 2 March 2019.
Prior to the 2019 Contest, Moldova had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fourteen times since its first entry in 2005.[1] The nation's best placing in the contest was third, which it achieved in 2017 with the song "Hey Mamma!" performed by SunStroke Project. To this point, Moldova have achieved another three top-ten placings at the contest, with Zdob și Zdub placing sixth with "Bunica bate toba" in 2005, Natalia Barbu placing tenth in 2007 with "Fight" and DoReDoS in 2018 performing "My Lucky Day", also placing tenth. In 2018, Moldova was represented by DoReDoS with the song "My Lucky Day". The country placed 10th in the final with 209 points.
For the 2019 Contest, the Moldovan national broadcaster, TeleRadio-Moldova (TRM), broadcast the event within Moldova and organise the selection process for the nation's entry.
Before Eurovision[]
O melodie pentru Europa 2019[]
O melodie pentru Europa 2019 was the national final format developed by TRM in order to select Moldova's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2019. The event took place at the TRM Studio 2 in Chișinău, hosted by Elena Băncilă, Iurie Gologan and Doina Stimpovschii with Daniela Crudu reporting from the green room, and included a final to be held on 2 March 2019.[2] The show was broadcast on Moldova 1, Radio Moldova Actualități, Radio Moldova Tineret and Radio Moldova Muzical as well as online via the broadcaster's official website trm.md.[3]
Format[]
The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Moldovan Eurovision entry took place over two rounds. The first round was a live audition of the received submissions in front of a jury panel that took place on 2 February 2019. Entries were assessed on criteria such as voice quality, stage presence and strength of the composition. The panel selected 10 finalists to proceed to the second round, the televised national final. 10 finalists competed in the final on 2 March 2019 where the winner was selected by the 50/50 combination of an expert jury vote and a public televote. In the event of a tie, the entry that receives the highest score from the public televote was declared the winner.
Competing entries[]
Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries between 14 December 2018 and 18 January 2019. International artists were allowed to compete only if they were part of a duo or group where 50% of the lead vocalists were of Moldovan nationality. Songwriters could hold any nationality.[4] At the conclusion of the submission deadline, 28 valid entries were received by the broadcaster.[5] The live audition round took place on 2 February 2019 at the TRM Studio in Chișinău, broadcast on Moldova 2 as well as online via trm.md and via TRM's Facebook and YouTube pages, where 10 finalists were selected to advance.[6] The jury panel that evaluated the songs during the live auditions and selected the 10 finalists consisted of Vali Boghean, Cristina Scarlat, Andrei Tostogan, Ilona Stepan and Alexandru Gorgos.[7]
Results of the Live Audition Round – 2 February 2019
Artist
Song
Songwriter(s)
Ala Zasmenco
"Emergency"
Ylva Persson, Linda Persson, Andreas Björkman, Adriana Pupavac
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. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into six different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 28 January 2019, 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. Moldova was placed into the second semi-final, to be held on 16 May 2019, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[9]
Once all the competing songs for the 2019 contest had been released, the running order for the semi-finals was decided by the shows' producers rather than through another draw, so that similar songs were not placed next to each other. Moldova was set to perform in position 3, following the entry from Ireland and preceding the entry from Switzerland.[10]
Semi-final[]
Moldova performed third in the second semi-final, following the entry from Ireland and preceding the entry from Switzerland. At the end of the show, Moldova was not announced among the top 10 entries in the second semi-final and therefore failed to qualify to compete in the final. It was later revealed that Moldova placed twelfth in the semi-final, receiving a total of 85 points: 27 points from the televoting and 58 points from the juries. With the old voting system, Moldova would have ranked 13th with 32 points.
Voting[]
Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.[11]
Moldova
Romania
United Kingdom
Armenia
Denmark
Ireland
Switzerland
Latvia
Sweden
Austria
Croatia
Malta
Lithuania
Russia
Albania
Norway
Netherlands
North Macedonia
Azerbaijan
Czech Republic
Germany
San Marino
Slovenia
Cyprus
Greece
Israel
Iceland
Estonia
Belarus
France
Italy
Serbia
Australia
Spain