Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015


Moldova participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with the song "I Want Your Love", written by Erik Lewander, Hayley Aitken and Tom Andrews. The song was performed by the Ukrainian singer Eduard Romanyuta. Moldovan broadcaster TeleRadio-Moldova organised the national final O melodie pentru Europa 2015 in order to select the Moldovan entry for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria. Following two semi-finals and a final, Eduard Romanyuta performing the song "I Want Your Love" was selected as the winner through the 50/50 combination of jury voting and televoting. In the first of the Eurovision semi-finals, Moldova failed to qualify to the final, placing eleventh out of the 16 participating countries with 41 points.

Background

Prior to the 2015 Contest, Moldova had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest ten times since its first entry in 2005. Its best placing in the contest was sixth, which it achieved in 2005 with the song "Boonika bate toba" performed by Zdob și Zdub. Other than their debut entry, to this point, Moldova's only other top ten placing at the contest was achieved in 2007 where "Fight" performed by Natalia Barbu placed tenth. In the 2014 contest, "Wild Soul" performed by Cristina Scarlat failed to qualify Moldova to compete in the final.
On 18 September 2014, Moldovan broadcaster TeleRadio-Moldova confirmed that they would participate in the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. On 15 October 2014, the broadcaster revealed details regarding their selection procedure and announced the organization of O melodie pentru Europa 2015.

Before Eurovision

O melodie pentru Europa 2015

O melodie pentru Europa 2015 was the national final format developed by TRM in order to select Moldova's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2015. The event included two semi-finals and a final held on 24, 26 and 28 February 2015, respectively. All shows in the competition were broadcast on Moldova 1, Radio Moldova, Radio Moldova Tineret and streamed online at the TRM website.

Format

The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Moldovan Eurovision entry took place in three rounds. The first round occurred on 17 December 2014 and involved a jury panel shortlisting fifty entries from the received submissions based on criteria such as the quality of the melody and composition, vocals and manner of the performance and the originality of the song. The second round was a live audition of the fifty selected artists and their entries in front of a jury panel that took place on 17 January 2015. The panel selected twenty-four semi-finalists to proceed to the third round, the televised national final. Twelve semi-finalists competed in each semi-final on 24 and 26 February 2015. Eight songs qualified to the final from each semi-final; seven of the qualifiers qualified based on the combined votes from the jury and televoting results, while the eighth qualifier in each semi-final was the entry that achieved the highest televoting score from the remaining entries after a second round of public televoting during an after-show. The sixteen qualifying entries competed in the final on 28 February 2015 where the winner was selected by the equal combination of jury votes and a public televote. In the event of a tie, the entry that received the highest score from the jury vote would be declared the winner.

Competing entries

Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries between 15 October 2014 and 15 December 2014. New rules for the 2015 competition allowed for international artists to apply to compete. Composers of the songs could also hold any nationality. Artists could submit more than one song, however, if they are chosen as a semi-finalist with more than one song, the artist would have to choose one entry to continue with in the competition. At the conclusion of the submission deadline, 68 entries were received by the broadcaster. Among these were songs from nineteen foreign artists from ten countries: seven from the United Kingdom, two each from Russia and Spain, one each from Belarus, Canada, Cyprus, Ireland, Norway, Romania and Ukraine. A jury consisting of Zinaida Brînzilă-Coșleț, Adrian Beldiman, Iurie Badicu, Aurel Chirtoacă and Vlad Costandoi selected 50 out of the 68 received entries to proceed to the audition round. The live audition round took place on 17 January 2015 at TRM Studio 2 in Chișinău and was webcast online by TRM as well as broadcast on Radio Moldova Muzical. The jury panel that evaluated the songs during the live auditions and selected the 24 semi-finalists consisted of Adrian Beldiman, Iurie Badicu, Aurel Chirtoacă, Aliona Triboi, Andrei Sava, Victor Buruiană and Vlad Costandoi. The allocation and running order draw for the semi-finals took place on 29 January 2015. On 7 February 2015, the band Edict announced that they were withdrawing from the competition. They were replaced by Anișoara Volînschi and her song "Vocea inimii".

Semi-final 1

The first semi-final took place on 24 February 2015 at TRM Studio in Chișinău, hosted by Evelina Vîrlan and Sergiu Bețnitchi with Daniela Babici and Sandu Scobioală reporting from the greenroom. Seven songs qualified to the final based on the combination of votes from the public televote and votes from the jury committee. The eighth qualifier, "About Love" performed by Mihaela Andrei, was selected by an additional televote between the remaining non-qualifiers and was revealed during a post semi-final discussion show. The jury that voted in the first semi-final consisted of Vlad Costandoi, Andrei Sava, Serge Kino, Zinuţa Julea, Dumitru Miller, Iurie Badicu, Victoria Tcacenco, Adrian Beldiman and Victor Buruiană.

Semi-final 2

The second semi-final took place on 26 February 2015 at TRM Studio in Chișinău, hosted by Gloria Gorceag and Sergiu Bețnitchi with Daniela Babici and Sandu Scobioală reporting from the greenroom. Seven songs qualified to the final based on the combination of votes from the public televote and votes from the jury committee. The eighth qualifier, "Fire" performed by Julia Sandu, was selected by an additional televote between the remaining non-qualifiers and was revealed during a post semi-final discussion show. The jury that voted in the first semi-final consisted of Vlad Costandoi, Andrei Sava, Serge Kino, Zinuţa Julea, Dumitru Miller, Iurie Badicu, Victoria Tcacenco, Adrian Beldiman and Victor Buruiană.

Final

The final took place on 28 February 2015 at TRM Studio in Chișinău, hosted by Olivia Furtună and Sergiu Bețnitchi with Daniela Babici and Sandu Scobioală reporting from the greenroom. Sixteen songs that qualified from the previous two semi-finals competed with the winner being selected by the combination of votes from a jury panel and the votes from public televoting. The jury that voted in the final consisted of Vlad Costandoi, Andrei Sava, Serge Kino, Zinuţa Julea, Dumitru Miller, Iurie Badicu, Victoria Tcacenco, Adrian Beldiman, Victor Buruiană, Stefan Petrache and Ghenadie Ciobanu. "I Want Your Love" performed by Eduard Romanyuta was selected as the winner.
Controversy
Following the conclusion of the national final, several of the national final participants expressed their discontent with the results and questioned the fairness of the competition. Doiniţa Gherman, Valeria Paşa and Serj Kuzenkoff spoke to Moldovan media after the competition claiming that the number of televotes Eduard Romanyuta gained in the final was suspicious, while also expressing their disappointment that Romanyuta, an artist from Ukraine, would be representing Moldova on an international stage. Diana Brescan and Miss M commented through social media about the discrepancy between the jury voting in the semi-finals, where Romanyuta placed fourth, and the final. 2010 Moldovan Eurovision entrants SunStroke Project and 2012 Moldovan Eurovision entrant Pasha Parfeny accused Romanyuta of being corrupt.

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. In the 2015 contest, Australia also competed directly in the final as an invited guest nation. The European Broadcasting Union split up the competing countries into five different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot. On 26 January 2015, 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 first semi-final, to be held on 19 May 2015, and was scheduled to perform in the first half of the show.
Once all the competing songs for the 2015 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 open the show and perform in position 1, before the entry from Armenia.
All three shows were broadcast in Moldova on Moldova 1, Radio Moldova Actualități, Radio Moldova Muzical and Radio Moldova Tineret with commentary by Daniela Babici. The Moldovan spokesperson, who announced the Moldovan votes during the final, was Olivia Furtună.

Semi-final

Eduard Romanyuta took part in technical rehearsals on 11 and 15 May, followed by dress rehearsals on 18 and 19 May. This included the jury final where professional juries of each country, responsible for 50 percent of each country's vote, watched and voted on the competing entries.
The stage show featured Eduard Romanyuta, three dancers and two backing vocalists dressed as a police crew. A metallic scaffold stage prop was the main feature of the Moldovan performance with Romanyuta and the dancers performing a choreographed routine atop the different platforms. The stage lighting was predominantly red with the background LED screens displaying white-grey skyscrapers, police men and police cars. The three dancers that joined Romanyuta on stage were Aleksandr Ushakov, Evgeni Kot and Nataliya Slisarenko and the two backing vocalists were Maryana Nestayko and Natalia Redchuk.
At the end of the show, Moldova failed to qualify to the final and was not announced among the top ten nations. It was later revealed that Moldova had placed eleventh, receiving a total of 41 points—22 points shy of qualifying to the final.

Voting

Voting during the three shows consisted of 50 percent public televoting and 50 percent from a jury deliberation. The jury consisted of five music industry professionals who were citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury was asked to judge each contestant 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 could 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 were released shortly after the grand final.
Following the release of the full split voting by the EBU after the conclusion of the competition, it was revealed that Moldova had placed eleventh with the public televote and thirteenth with the jury vote in the first semi-final. In the public vote, Moldova scored 48 points, while with the jury vote, Moldova scored 46 points.
Below is a breakdown of points awarded to Moldova and awarded by Moldova in the first semi-final and grand final of the contest, and the breakdown of the jury voting and televoting conducted during the two shows:

Points awarded to Moldova

Points awarded by Moldova

Split voting results

The following five members comprised the Moldovan jury: