Prior to the 2021 Contest, Moldova had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest fifteen 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 "Boonika bate doba" in 2005, Natalia Barbu placing tenth in 2007 with "Fight" and DoReDoS in 2018 performing "My Lucky Day", also placing tenth. In 2019, Moldova was represented by Anna Odobescu with the song "Stay". The country failed to qualify, placing 12th in the semi-final.
Before Eurovision[]
Internal selection[]
On 26 January 2021, TRM confirmed that Natalia Gordienko will represent Moldova in the 2021 contest. The song, entitled "Sugar", was released on 4 March 2021.[2][3]
At Eurovision[]
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 in 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. For the 2021 contest, the semi-final allocation draw held for 2020 which was held on 28 January 2020, will be used. Moldova was placed into the second semi-final, which was held on 20 May 2021, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.[4]
Once all the competing songs for the 2021 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 7, following the entry from Poland and preceding the entry from Iceland.[5]
Moldova performed 14th in the grand final on 22 May 2021, following Spain and preceding Germany. Right before the second verse, Gordienko dropped her microphone, causing one of her dancers to help her recover it, allowing the performance to continue.
At the close of voting she had received 115 points, placing 13th out of 26 countries.
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 a diversity in gender and age represented. The judges assess each entry based on the performances during the second Dress Rehearsal of each show, which takes place the night before each live show, against a set of criteria including: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act.[6] Jury members may only take part in panel once every three years, and are obliged to confirm that they are not connected to any of the participating acts in a way that would impact their ability to vote impartially. Jury members should also vote independently, with no discussion of their vote permitted with other jury members.[7] The exact composition of the professional jury, and the results of each country's jury and televoting were released after the grand final; the individual results from each jury member were also released in an anonymised form.[8][9]
Moldova
San Marino
Estonia
Czech Republic
Greece
Austria
Poland
Iceland
Serbia
Georgia
Albania
Portugal
Bulgaria
Finland
Latvia
Switzerland
Denmark
Cyprus
Israel
Belgium
Russia
Malta
United Kingdom
Spain
Germany
Lithuania
Ukraine
France
Azerbaijan
Norway
Netherlands
Italy
Sweden