esctoday.com can exclusively reveal that tonight, an internal selection jury reviewed the 34 songs submitted for Moldova's Eurovision Song Contest entry. Three entries were selected to participate in the – internal – final round tomorrow. This means that tomorrow, at this time, we will know the very first Eurovision Song Contest entry for the 2007 edition!
These three music acts reached the final round (you can listen to the songs on Moldova's official website by following the links):
- Natalia Barbu – Fight (Brasoveanu/Buga) listen here
- Zdob si Zdub – Space Cowboys (Ghincu/Iagupov, Jaro) listen here
- Olia Tira – Your place or mine? (Taranu/Taranu) listen here
The three music acts are said to have been way ahead of the others. Initially, seven or ten songs were planned to go forward but eventually that was regarded as pointless due to the distance of the lead for the frontrunners. Tonight, a special program will be aired on TRM 1 at 22:40 local time looking back on Moldova in the 2005 and 2006 Eurovision Song Contest.
Due to the financial situation of TRM, all artists have to agreeto fundtheir potential Eurovision Song Contest entrance – TRM would only pay the entrance fee. The fast decision to hold anational preselection might come as a surprise: To avoid any possiblecorruption, the internal selection was kept a secret until the last minute. Furthermore, tomorrow would be the last chance to withdraw from the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest. Otherwise, the broadcaster would face penalties by the European Broadcasting Union.
Violation of the rules? – Not a problem at the moment!
One website yesterday claimed claimed that 8 songs were deemed ineligible to participate, however this has been rejected.
In response to Oikotimes comments:
"if TRM respects the rules the song, Space Cowboys, sang by Zdob si Zdub will be disqualified together with the following songs: High like the angels (Future Positive – outrunning 3 seconds), My world-My home (Marcella – 4 seconds), Im not your slave (Formatia "Cezara"- 7 seconds), Dincolo de cer (Georgeta Daraban- 28 seconds), Dragostea (Aylin – 49 seconds), Where the shadows fall (Olesea Ceaicovsch i- 1 minute and 4 seconds), and Lenuta (Prinzip – 1 minute and 15 seconds). Till TRM will not take Eurovision Song Contest seriously, Moldova will not obtain good results. We are waiting to see what TRM will decide relating to the fact that the rules were broken".
The head of OGAE Moldova stated : "We do not consider this a problem for the moment. We shall be flexible and ensure that the final version of the entry is the correct length and complies with all rules. Because of the timings involved, remember we only found out that we may be able to enter the Eurovision Song Contest on November 15th, wecould not give the participants enough time to finish their songs. The songs online are still demo versions. This is not a problem, and of course no rules will be broken".
This is certainly not an unusual circumstance. Many songs are reworked between the national selection and the Eurovision Song Contest every year. In 2005, Angelica Agurbash won the Belarussian selection with the song Boys and Girls, but then scrapped the song in favour of Love me tonight; in 2006, the original version of the Albanian entry lasted almost four minutes when it won the national final.
You can find the 34 songs that competed in the semi finalhere.
The 2006 Moldovan national final might be called one of the strangest in the history of the Eurovision Song Contest: The first final resulted in a three-way tie, so it was decided to hold a second final. Only one singer from the first final decided to participate in the second one! Aresenium feat. Natalia Gordienko and Connect-R won the competition to finish 20th in Athens with the song Loca. Therefore, Moldova will have to enter the semi final in Helsinki.
