In a few minutes, Moldova will be selecting its fourth representative in the Eurovision Song Contest. 12 of the originally 37 songs submitted to broadcaster TRM will be presented and the winner will got straight to Belgrade.

The show

The show will be held at the Palatul National in Chisinau. The winner will be chosen by televoting (1/3) and two different juries (1/3 each).

Webcast

A webcast will be provided here. The Moldovan site is very slow to open and we have doubts the webcast will work at all. If you are experiencing problems, you may want to try pasting this link in your Window Media Player : rtsp://212.56.194.228:8000 (Press Ctrl+u, and paste it there).

The article will be constantly updated

Live coverage by Gil Laufer

The show has started.Opening act: there are many dancers in white on stage and they are holding a big, white flag with the genericEurovision logo with the flag of Moldova.
Now Natalia Barbu, last year's Moldovan representative takes the stage to perform Fight. She looks as beautiful as ever and as scantily dressed.

The members of the juries are presented and we proceed with the first song

01. Liusia Znamensky – Don't Deceive My Heart

Liusia wrote the lyrics and the music too. She's wearing a white dress and two dancers are covering her with a red fabric. She's giving a powerful performance and it's a good opening for this national final. The is a power ballad, very emotionally performed by Liusia.

02. Elena Demirdjean – Living Creatures

Elena is wearing a long, red dress, there are two dancers in white around her and three backing singers. the song is a ballad but not a power one, slow and melodic. The one outstanding thing is that the chorus is repetitive enough to remember for a few minutes.

03. Scroom – Jane

A young and refreshing band from Moldova. They remind of Zdob si Zdub a little if only remotely, the band is made of 2 guitarists, a drummer and a singer. Punk rock from Moldova now with someone sqawking constantly at parts.

04. Galina Scoda – Your Own Vision

Galina receives a huge applause by the audience present. Galina starts the performance while she's surrounded by 2 dancers in white, wearinga red dress. There are 3 backing singers on stage as well. the peformance tonight has a new version, a little different than the demo version. The dancers take off their coats and now they are in black undershirts. They proceed to take off Galina's dress as well and now she' is dressed very similarly to the FYR Macedonian 2006 representative, Elena Risteska, in hot pants and a red, scanty top.

05. Dana Marchitan – Your Name

Dana was a member of the group Moldstar who finished 1st in the 3 winners national final of Moldova in 2006 with the song Sing Your Song and submitted the song Love Honey to the internal selection of 2007. Dana and her two dancers are wearing pink while the backing singers are in black. This pop rock song is performed very well and powerfully. The song is very catchy and the performance is interesting and not boring

06. Jay Mon – Point of View

This pop song is performed by the Russian Jay Mon. He's wearing a white shirt and black pants, and the three dancers around him (male and two females) are dressed in gold and red, they pull red ribbons around him and now they cover his eyes with the strings, and that's how the performance ends.

07.Catrina Pâslaru – Dance with me

Catrina submitted the song Birth ofa clown. The song Dance With Me is a pop song which at times reminds us of the 1975 winner Ding a dong. Catrina is wearing a tight black dress and there are two dancers besides her on stage.

08. Cristina Rujiţcaia – You make me feel crazy

Cristina, like Jay Mon, is russian too. A performance and a song that's more like a musical. a poprock song of Cristina, dressed in black and white dress with three men dancing around on tables behind her, now the dancers removed Cristi's dress and revealed a tiny red dress.The performance is over while she's hugging one of the dancers

09. Geta Burlacu – A century of love

Geta Burlacu was another winner of 2006's national final with the song Zii Lauta. The stage is filled with papers and there are 5 dancers around her on chairs, each is doing something different: playing on a trumpet, flying soap bubbles, dancing and more. Geta is wearing a gray long dress with a big black flower and a gray dress. A pleasant, jazzy tune and perfect vocals by Geta, this song certainly stands out in a quality way.

10. Edict – I Believe

The band participated in former moldovan national finals and also in the preselection of Romania in 2006.It's a nice rock song. the band is made of two guitarists, a drummer, a keyboard player and a girl singer

11. Alexa – We Are One

Alexa is one of the most famous singers in Moldova, and the reaction of the crowd is really stong and loud as well.She enters stage in a huge pink, renaissance dress which comes off soon to reveal Alexa is a sexy black and white mini dress and black knee-high boots. The dancers are dancing and moving all around her while Alexa is just standing in place. That poprock song is very catchy and good, though the performance is a bit disappointing.

12. Olia Tira – Always will be

Another early favourite for last. Olia topped the internal selection to decide which 12 will take part tonight with 97 points. She also finished 3rd in the Moldovan internal selection of 2007 with the song Your place or mine. While wearing a black dress with a red flower, being backed by a band including a drummer, two guitarists and some backing singers, Olia is giving the best performance of tonight, the last performance of tonight is a rockpop as well, the performance is not boring, the song is good and her voice excellent.

And the televoting has started.

This has to be one of the longest interval acts ever! We saw Natalia Gordienko (Moldova 2006) in concert, then Natalia Barbu (Moldova 2007),and now there is more……

And the winner is Geta Burlacu with A century of love


Thanks to Johnny Logan and Hold me now I fell in love with the Eurovision Song Contest, a love that's been going strong ever since with undiminished passion. My first memories date back to 1977 and the lyrics of Rock bottom, Dschinghis Khan and A ba ni bi are still engraved in my brain. I joined esctoday.com in 2006 as a junior editor after being invited by Barry Viniker, I soon became Senior Editor and during the 2007 contest in Helsinki I was appointed Head of Communications. Today I hold the post of Head of Human Resources and I am proud to be working with the best editorial team in the world.