Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018


participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018 in Lisbon, Portugal. The artist and song that represented Moldova in the 2018 contest was selected through the national final, O melodie pentru Europa 2018, organised by the Moldovan broadcaster TeleRadio-Moldova, on 24 February 2018.

Background

Prior to the 2018 Contest, Moldova had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest thirteen times since its first entry in 2005. 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 another two top ten placing at the contest were achieved in 2005 thanks the song "Bunica bate toba" performed by Zdob și Zdub placed sixth and 2007 where "Fight" performed by Natalia Barbu placed tenth.
For the 2018 Contest, the Moldovan national broadcaster, TeleRadio-Moldova, will broadcast the event within Moldova and organise the selection process for the nation's entry. TRM confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest on 8 November 2017. Moldova has selected their entry via a national selection show since 2008, a procedure that was continued for their 2018 participation.

Before Eurovision

''O melodie pentru Europa 2018''

O melodie pentru Europa 2018 is the national final format developed by TRM in order to select Moldova's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. Unlike in previous years, the event only included one final, held on 24 February 2018. A semi-final was planned for 22 February 2018,
but was later scrapped.

Format

The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Moldovan Eurovision entry takes place over two rounds. On 24 January 2018, all artists who submitted a song to the broadcaster were invited to take part in a live audition, where the sixteen qualifiers were decided. The winner will be decided by voting from the Moldovan public and a jury of music professionals during the final on 24 February 2018.

Competing entries

Interested artists and composers had until 15 January 2018 to submit their entries to the Moldovan broadcaster. On 15 January 2018 it was announced that 28 entries were submitted to the national selection. However, on 22 January 2018 the Moldovan broadcaster TRM disqualified Pelageya Stefoglo since the singer broke the rules of the selection with participating with her entry "Let's Start Together Right Now" in the Belarusian national selection.
ArtistSong Composer
Anna Odobescu"Agony"Valeriu Pașa
Anna Timofei"Endlessly"Ylva Persson, Linda Persson, Niklas Bergqvist, Simon Johansson, Georgios Kalpakidis
BellaLuna"Moments"Mitya Effterman, Maxim Safrin
Che-MD"Inima-n stîngă" Michael Smolenko
Constantin Cobîlean"Numai tu" Constantin Cobîlean
Doinița Gherman"Dance in Flames"Ylva Persson, Linda Persson, Niklas Bergqvist, Simon Johansson
DoReDoS"My Lucky Day"Philipp Kirkorov, John Ballard
Felicia Dunaf"Alien"Primož Poglajen, Will Taylor, Michael James Down
Ilia Sorocean & Dasha DaGro"Minds & Veins"Ilia Sorocean
Lavinia Rusu"Altundeva" Alkemics Sound, Eugeniu Doibani
Nicoleta Sava"Esencia del Sur" Rafael Artesero, Jose Juan Santana, Viorica Atanasov
Ruslan Tsar"Come to Life"Ruslan Tsar
Sandy C & Aaron Sibley"Once Upon a Time"Aaron Sibley
Tolik"Broken Glass"Leah Muscat, Malin Johansson, Rickard Bonde Truumeel
Vera Țurcanu"Black Heart"David Gällring, Karl Sahlin, Vera Țurcanu, Nikos Sofis
Viorela"The Gates of Love"Viorela Moraru

Shows

Final
The final took place on 24 February 2018. DoReDoS with the song "My Lucky Day" was selected as the winner and will compete in the 2018 Eurovision Song Contest.

At Eurovision

According to Eurovision rules, all nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big 5" 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 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 29 January 2018, 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 10 May 2018, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.
Once all the competing songs for the 2018 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 Russia and preceding the entry from Netherlands.

Semi-final

It was later revealed that Moldova had placed third in the second semi-final, receiving a total of 235 points, 153 points from the televoting and 82 points from the juries.

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.

Points awarded to Moldova

Points awarded by Moldova

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Moldovan jury: