Moldova participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 and selected their entry through a national final, O melodie pentru Europa, organised by Moldovan broadcaster TRM.
Before Eurovision
O melodie pentru Europa 2010
O melodie pentru Europa 2010 was the national final format developed by TRM in order to select Moldova's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2010. The event included two semi-finals and a final to be held on 27, 28 February and 6 March 2010, respectively.
Format
The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Moldovan Eurovision entry took place in two rounds. The first round involved a jury panel and an online public SMS vote selecting thirty semi-finalists from the received submissions to proceed to the second round, the televised national final. Fifteen semi-finalists competed in each semi-final on 27 and 28 February 2010. Seven songs qualified to the final from each semi-final based on the combined votes from an expert jury and public televoting results. The fourteen qualifying entries competed in the final on 6 March 2010 where the winner was selected by the 50/50 combination of an expert jury vote and a public televote.
Competing entries
Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries between 15 December 2009 and 8 January 2010. Artists were required to have Moldovan citizenship, however international artists were able to compete only if they were part of a duo or group where there were no more than two foreigners and at least one of the lead vocalists were of Moldovan nationality. Songwriters could hold any nationality, and international songwriters could either select the performers for their entries themselves or submit a demo recording with TRM assisting in selecting the performers. Artists without a song also had the opportunity to apply from 24 December 2010, which would be matched with one of the 20 songs that TRM received during the submission period. At the conclusion of the submission deadline, 83 valid entries were received by the broadcaster. A jury panel evaluated the songs and selected 25 semi-finalists for the competition. The list of competing artists and songs were released on 16 January 2010. An additional five semi-finalists were selected from the remaining entries which failed to be among the 25 semi-finalists by an online SMS vote which ran between 29 January 2010 and 14 February 2010. The five qualifiers, alongside the allocation draw of the two semi-finals, were revealed on 15 February 2010. On 23 February 2010, "Goodbye" performed by Olia Tira, "Believe" performed by SunStroke Project, "Wait!" performed by Ionel Istrati, "Padure, verde padure" performed by Victoria Mahu and "Towards the Sky" performed by Alex White were withdrawn from the competition and replaced with the song "Poza ta" performed by Veronica Lupu, "The Robbery" performed by Constantinova & Fusu, "Day and Night" performed by Dana Marchitan, "So Many Questions" performed by JJ Jazz and "Ţi-aduci aminte" performed by Vitalie Toderascu.
Semi-final 1
The first semi-final took place on 27 February 2010 at TRM Studio 2 in Chișinău, hosted by Dianna Rotaru and Iurie Gologan. Seven songs qualified to the final based on the combination of votes from a public televote and the votes of an expert jury.
Semi-final 2
The second semi-final took place on 28 February 2010 at TRM Studio 2 in Chișinău, hosted by Dianna Rotaru and Iurie Gologan. Seven songs qualified to the final based on the combination of votes from a public televote and the votes of an expert jury.
Final
The final took place on 6 March 2010 at TRM Studio 2 in Chișinău, hosted by Dianna Rotaru and Iurie Gologan. The fourteen songs that qualified from the preceding two semi-finals competed and the winner was selected based on the combination of a public televote and the votes of an expert jury.
At Eurovision
SunStroke Project and Olia Tira performed in the first semi-final of the contest, on 25 May, as the first entry and in the final on Saturday, 29 May, in 4th position. At the final they finished on the 22nd place with 27 points.
Split results
In the Semi-final 1 Moldova came 10th with 52 points: the public awarded Moldova 10th place with 54 points and the jury awarded 13th place with 42 points.
In the Final Moldova came 22nd with 27 points: the public awarded Moldova 18th place with 28 points and the jury awarded 23rd place with 33 points.
After the Eurovision performance there was much discussion about the saxophone player Sergey Stepanov in Moldova's entry, who came to be known in an internet meme called 'Epic Sax Guy', although Stepanov didn't actually play the saxophone live as per Eurovision's rules on instruments. This has led to online tribute videos being made by fans which have gone viral, one of which is ten hours long.
