Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013
Moldova participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 in Malmö, Sweden. The Moldovan entry was selected through O melodie pentru Europa 2013, a national selection that consisted of two semi-finals and a final, organised by the Moldovan broadcaster TeleRadio-Moldova. Aliona Moon represented Moldova with the song "O mie", which qualified from the first semi-final of the competition and placed 11th in the final, with a score of 71 points.
Before Eurovision
O melodie pentru Europa 2013
O melodie pentru Europa 2013 was the national final format developed by TRM in order to select Moldova's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2013. The event included two semi-finals and a final to be held on 12, 14 and 16 March 2013, 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 separately shortlisting twenty-four artists and sixty songs from the received submissions. Submissions were assessed on criteria such as voice quality, stage presence and strength of the composition. The 24 semi-finalists were matched with the 60 songs which proceed to the second round, the televised national final. 12 semi-finalists competed in each semi-final on 12 and 14 March 2013. 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 16 March 2013 where the winner was selected by the 50/50 combination of an expert jury vote and a public televote. In the event of a tie, the entry that receives the highest score from the expert jury vote was declared the winner.Competing entries
TRM opened two separate submission forms: one for artists and another for songwriters to submit their songs. Artists were required to have Moldovan citizenship. Songwriters could hold any nationality, but songs were required to be performed in either Romanian or English. The submission deadline for both applications concluded on 10 January 2013. At the conclusion of the submission deadline, 49 artist applications and 126 valid songs were received by the broadcaster. A jury consisting of Nelly Ciobanu, Vladimir Beleaev, Geta Burlacu, Vali Boghean, Tatiana Cergă, Valentin Dînga, Victoria Tcacenco and Nicu Țărnă selected 24 artists and 60 songs out of the received submissions on 17January 2013 to proceed to the next round where the selected songs were allocated to each of the artists.
On 6 February 2013, five of the selected songs were withdrawn from the competition and replaced with five new songs. Dara withdrew from the competition after citing a mismatch between her artistic style and the selected songs and was replaced by Diana Staver on 17 February 2013. On 3 March 2013, Denis Latîşev withdrew from the competition and was replaced by Margarita Ciorici on 9 March 2013.
| Artist | Song | Songwriter |
| Alexandru Şendrea | "In My Head" | Michael James Down |
| Aliona Moon | "A Million" | Yuliana Scutari, Serghei Legheida, Pavel Parfeni |
| Anna Gulko | "Somebody Else" | Roman Lupu |
| Aurel Chirtoacă | "Iartă-mă" | Eugenia Andries-Carabut |
| Boris Covali | "Runaways" | Hanif Sabzevari, Frederik Akerlund, Michael James Down |
| Cristina Croitoru & Karizma | "Never Fall Again" | Cristina Croitoru, Olga Fesenco |
| Cristina Scarlat | "I Pray" | Ivan Aculov, Lidia Scarlat |
| Cristina V. & Glam Girls | "Celebrate" | Hanif Sabzevari, Mike Eriksson, Johnny Sanekes, Michael James Down, Hitmanic |
| Diana Staver | "Underestimated" | Thomas Thörnholm, Martin Englund, Danne Attlerud |
| Doiniţa Gherman | "Planeta e un rai" | Doinița Gherman, Ricu Vodă, Cătălin Gondiu |
| Felicia Dunaf | "Codename Felice" | Eugen Doibani |
| FireLove | "Just Smile" | Irina Gondiu |
| Inaya | "I Need You Now" | Ylva Persson, Linda Persson |
| Irina Kitoroagă | "L.o.v.e. Love" | John Ballard, Ruth Mussie, Jerusalem Yemane, Irena Krsteva, Kian Fakhary |
| Irina Tarasiuk | "Dancing Hearts" | Serghei Covalischii, Alina Dabija |
| Margarita Ciorici | "Coma" | Hanif Sabzevari, Alexander Holmgren, Michael James Down |
| Nicoleta Gavriliţă | "Freaky Thong" | Hitmanic, Henri Thiesen, Jimi Thiesen, Michael James Down |
| Ruslan Țăranu | "Amadeus" | Ruslan Țăranu |
| Stela Boţan | "Inima mea" | Constantin Dușcu, Stela Boţan |
| Svetlana Bogdanova | "Conquer My Heart" | Christina Schilling, Camilla Gottschalck, Daniel Nilsson, Henrik Szabo, Jonas Gladnikoff |
| Tatiana Heghea | "A Brighter Day" | Vasco Cardoso, Ruben Pacheco, Michael James Down |
| Valeria Paşa & Alex Mataev | "Show Me Your Feelings" | Valeriu Pașa |
| Vitalie Maciunschi | "I Want You Back" | Mathias Kallenberger, Andreas Berlin, Stephen Leuenberger |
| Vitalie Negruţă | "You'll Be Mine" | Veaceslav Daniliuc, Andrei Hadjiu |
Semi-final 1
The first semi-final took place on 12 March 2013 at TRM studios in Chișinău, hosted by Cătălin Josan and Evelina Vârlan, with backstage interviews being conducted by Lucian Dumitrescu. Seven songs qualified to the final based on the combination of votes from a public televote and the votes of an expert jury. The jury that voted in the first semi-final included Nicu Țărnă, Geta Burlacu, Nelly Ciobanu, Tatiana Cergă, Ludmila Climoc, Dorel Burlacu, Vali Boghean and Victoria Tcacenco.Semi-final 2
The second semi-final took place on 14 March 2013 at TRM studios in Chișinău, hosted by Cătălin Josan and Evelina Vârlan, with backstage interviews being conducted by Lucian Dumitrescu. Seven songs qualified to the final based on the combination of votes from a public televote and the votes of an expert jury. The jury that voted in the second semi-final included Nicu Țărnă, Geta Burlacu, Nelly Ciobanu, Tatiana Cergă, Ludmila Climoc, Dorel Burlacu, Vali Boghean and Victoria Tcacenco.Final
The final took place on 16 March 2013 at TRM studios in Chișinău, hosted by Cătălin Josan and Evelina Vârlan, with backstage interviews being conducted by Lucian Dumitrescu. 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. The jury that voted in the final included Nicu Țărnă, Adrian Beldiman, Vali Boghean, Igor Dînga, Eugen Boico, Tatiana Cergă, Mihai Moldovanu, Dorel Burlacu, Iurie Mahovici, Nelly Ciobanu and Victoria Tcacenco. "A Million" performed by Lidia Isac was selected as the winner.Preparation
On 18 March 2013, a meeting was held at the TRM headquarters with the resulting decision to change the language of the song from English to Romanian. The Romanian version of the song was titled "O mie".At Eurovision
Moldova was allocated to compete in the first semi-final on 14 May for a place in the final on 18 May. In the first semifinal, the producers of the show decided that Moldova would perform 12th, following Belarus and preceding Ireland. On stage, Aliona Moon was accompanied by 2012 Moldovan entrant Pasha Parfeny on piano and three backup dancers. The Moldovan performance featured Aliona Moon wearing a 5 metre long white dress that displayed projections and a rising podium that lifted the singer higher towards the end of the song.Moldova qualified from the first semi-final, placing 4th and scoring 95 points. At the first semi-final winners' press conference, Moldova was allocated to perform in the first half of the final. In the final, the producers of the show decided that Moldova would perform 3rd, following Lithuania and preceding Finland. Moldova placed 11th in the final and scored 71 points.
In Moldova, both the semi-finals and the final were broadcast on Moldova 1 and Radio Moldova, with commentary provided by Lidia Scarlat.
The national jury that provided 50% of the Moldovan vote in the first semi-final and the final consisted of: Liviu Ştirbu, Adrian Beldiman, Vitalie Rotaru, Larisa Zubcu and Vlad Mircos. The Moldovan spokesperson in the grand final was Olivia Furtună.
Points awarded to Moldova
| 12 points | 10 points | 8 points | 7 points | 6 points |
| 5 points | 4 points | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
Points awarded by Moldova
Semi-final 1
Points awarded in first semi-final:| 12 points | |
| 10 points | |
| 8 points | |
| 7 points | |
| 6 points | |
| 5 points | |
| 4 points | |
| 3 points | |
| 2 points | |
| 1 point |
Final
Points awarded in the final:| 12 points | |
| 10 points | |
| 8 points | |
| 7 points | |
| 6 points | |
| 5 points | |
| 4 points | |
| 3 points | |
| 2 points | |
| 1 point |