Ah, auditions! The lifeblood of showbusiness! Yesterday this process lit the blue, yellow and red touchpaper to ignite Moldova’s mission to take the ESC by storm again this year – and today the results have been released.
As the 2018 national selections gather pace across the Eurovision cosmos, Moldova joined the party on Wednesday by giving us our first proper peek at the would-be heroes dreaming of flying the country’s flag in Lisbon this May.
Broadcast live online, 27 acts took the stage in a bid to wow the professional jury and secure a slot in the Final on Saturday 24th February. Yes – no semi-final this year! The outcome? A tough job for the judges, a fascinating insight for the viewers – and a list of 16 artists who made it through successfully:
| Anna Odobescu | Agony |
| Anna Timofei | Endlessly |
| Bella Luna | Moments |
| Che MD | Inima-n stângă |
| Cobîlean Constantin | Numai tu |
| Doinița Gherman | Dance in flames |
| DoReDos | My lucky day |
| Felicia Dunaf | Alien |
| Ilia Soroceanu & Dasha DaGro | Minds & Veins |
| Lavinia Rusu | Altundeva |
| Nicoleta Sava | Esencia del Sur |
| Ruslan Tsar | Come to life |
| SandyC & Aaron Sibley | Once upon a time |
| Tolik | Broken Glass |
| Vera Țurcanu | Black Heart |
| Viorela | The gates of love |
Yesterday really gave us a great insight into the early stages of a Eurovision selection process. (Apart from the acts, I especially enjoyed the red velvet curtains and the posh furniture. It’s given me loads of ideas for when Mrs Holland and I re-fit our living-room!) Yes, Moldova’s quest for success this year – under the banner O melodie pentru Europa 2018 – is definitely up and running.
And with Moldova giving us plenty to watch, love and talk about at the ESC down the years – from Zdob și Zdub (sixth in 2005, twelfth in 2011) to SunStroke Project (third in 2017) – you’d be mad to miss any of it!
I predict it’ll be granny-drum-banging brilliant…