Moldova was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Hey Mamma" written by Anton Ragoza, Sergei Ialovitski, Sergey Stepanov, Mihail Cebotarenco and Alina Galetskaya. The song was performed by the group SunStroke Project. The Moldovan broadcaster TeleRadio-Moldova (TRM) organised the national final O melodie pentru Europa 2017 in order to select the Moldovan entry for the 2016 contest in Kyiv, Ukraine. 40 entries competed to represent Moldova in Kyiv, with 14 being shortlisted to participate in the televised national final after auditioning in front of a jury panel. After a semi-final and final which took place on 24 and 25 February 2017, "Hey Mamma" performed by SunStroke Project emerged as the winner after gaining the most points following the combination of votes from a jury panel and a public televote.
Moldova was drawn to compete in the first semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest which took place on 9 May 2017. Performing during the show in position 12, "Hey Mamma" was announced among the top 10 entries of the first semi-final and therefore qualified to compete in the final on 13 May. It was later revealed that Moldova placed second out of the 18 participating countries in the semi-final with 291 points. In the final, Moldova performed in position 7 and placed third out of the 26 participating countries, scoring 374 points. This marked Moldova's best placing in the history of the contest.
Background
Prior to the 2017 contest, Moldova had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest twelve times since its first entry in 2005. The nation's best placing in the contest was sixth, which it achieved in 2005 with the song "Boonika bate doba" 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 2016 contest, "Falling Stars" performed by Lidia Isac failed to qualify Moldova to compete in the final.
The Moldovan national broadcaster, TeleRadio-Moldova (TRM), broadcast the event within Moldova and organised the selection process for the nation's entry. TRM confirmed their intentions to participate at the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest on 25 October 2016. Moldova has selected their entry via a national selection show since 2008, a procedure that was continued for their 2017 participation.
Before Eurovision O melodie pentru Europa 2017 O melodie pentru Europa 2017 was the national final format developed by TRM in order to select Moldova's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017. The event included a semi-final and a final to be held on 24 and 25 February 2017, respectively. All shows in the competition were broadcast on Moldova 1, Radio Moldova Actualități, Radio Moldova Tineret and Radio Moldova Muzical as well as online via the broadcaster's official website trm.md.
Format The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Moldovan Eurovision entry took place over two rounds. The first round was a live audition of the received submissions in front of a jury panel that took place on 21 January 2017. Entries were assessed on criteria such as voice quality, stage presence and strength of the composition. The panel selected 14 semi-finalists to proceed to the second round, the televised national final. The 14 semi-finalists competed in the semi-final on 24 February 2017. Eight songs qualified to the final; four of the qualifiers qualified based on the votes from an expert jury, while an additional four qualifiers were selected from the remaining entries by public televoting. The eight qualifying entries competed in the final on 25 February 2017 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 public televote was declared the winner.
Competing entries Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries between 12 December 2016 and 18 January 2017. An international act was able to compete only if they were part of a duo or group where 50% of the lead vocalists were of Moldovan nationality. Artists could submit more than one song, however, if they were 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, 40 valid entries were received by the broadcaster. The live audition round took place on 21 January 2017 at TRM studios in Chișinău where 14 semi-finalists were selected to advance. The auditions were broadcast on Moldova 2 as well as online via trm.md. "Not Over You" performed by Maxim Zavidia was withdrawn from the competition and therefore did not attend the auditions. Shakya also did not attend the auditions and therefore his song "Beautiful Life" was disqualified. Among the semi-finalists was 2010 Moldovan Eurovision entrant SunStroke Project.
On 23 January 2017, "Mama" performed by Constantin Cobîlean was withdrawn from the competition and replaced with the song "Never Give Up on Us" performed by Nadia Moșneagu due to the Russian language version of the former song having been publicly performed in 2015. On 14 February, "Călător" performed by Boris Covali was withdrawn and replaced by Liuba Doga and her song "One Thought Away", which was also withdrawn and ultimately replaced with the song "Ne-a fost iubirea un joc" performed by Sergiu Pungă. On 24 January, "Baby, Don't Cry" performed by Irina Kit was withdrawn following the revelation that its chorus had similarities to the song "Bananza" by Akon; she was replaced by Samir Loghin and his song "Glow". Artist Song Songwriter(s) Aurel Chirtoacă "Dor de mamă" Aurel Chirtoacă Big Flash Sound "Logic" Big Flash Sound - Eugenia Golomidova, Eugen Valeev Boris Covali "Călător" Șerban Cazan, Theea Miculescu Constantin Cobîlean "Mama" Artur Petrosyan, Iurie Carp Diana Brescan "Breath" Andrei Tostogan, Liuba Perciun Emilia Russu "If Only You" Samuel Bugia Garrido, Athanasios Nakos Ethno Republic and Surorile Osoianu "Discover Moldova" Marcel Ștefăneț, Nelu Laiu Irina Kit "Baby, Don't Cry" Irina Kitoroagă, Hans Olof Furberg, DJ Kirumba Liuba Doga "One Thought Away" Liuba Doga Marks and Ștefăneț "Join Us in the Rain" Ralph Siegel, Steven Barnacle, A. SprinfeldNadia Moșneagu"Never Give Up on Us"Johan Lundin, Vanessa NordmarkSamir Loghin"Glow"Samir Loghin, Danil Murzac, Kälin Bogdan Sandy C "A Beautiful World" Christian Alares, Malin Johansson, Christopher WortleySergiu Pungă"Ne-a fost iubirea un joc"Sergiu Pungă SunStroke Project "Hey Mamma" SunStroke Project, Alina Galetskaya The One "Dance" Iurie Sceankin, Igor Cristov, Pavel Malișev Valeria Pașa "Freedom" Eugen Doibani Vozniuc feat. Vio Grecu "Don't Lie" Dan Vozniuc, Rodica Olișevschi
Shows Semi-final The semi-final took place on 24 February 2017 at the TRM Studio 2 in Chișinău, hosted by Liviu Gulica and Mihaela Cîrnov with Felicia Dunaf reporting from the green room. Eight songs qualified to the final. The first four qualifiers were selected based on the votes of an expert jury, while the remaining four qualifiers were selected by a public televote between the remaining non-qualifiers. The jury that voted in the semi-final included Anatol Chiriac (composer), Ilona Stepan (conductor), Iurie Mahovici (composer), Lidia Panfil (director), Valeria Barbas (singer and composer), Nicu Țărnă (singer) and Geta Burlacu (singer, 2008 Moldovan Eurovision entrant). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2014 Moldovan Eurovision entrant Cristina Scarlat, singer Stela Boţan and the groups DoReDoS and Cezara performed as guests.
+ Semi-final (First round) – 24 February 2017ArtistSongPointsPlace 1 Vozniuc feat. Vio Grecu "Don't Lie" 26 6 2 Emilia Russu “If Only You” 21 9 3 Sandy C "A Beautiful World" 25 7 4 Valeria Pașa "Freedom" 36 5 5 Sergiu Pungă "Ne-a fost iubirea un joc" 12 12 6 Ethno Republic and Surorile Osoianu "Discover Moldova" 65 2 7 Marks and Ștefăneț "Join Us in the Rain" 13 11 8 Aurel Chirtoacă "Dor de mamă" 38 4 9 Big Flash Sound "Logic" 17 10 10 SunStroke Project "Hey Mamma" 67 1 11 Diana Brescan "Breathe" 52 3 12 Nadia Moșneagu "Never Give Up On Us" 3 14 13 Samir Loghin "Glow" 8 13 14 The One "Dance" 23 8 + Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total 1 "Don't Lie" 4 12 8 2 26 2 “If Only You” 7 1 6 6 1 21 3 "A Beautiful World" 4 6 4 5 6 25 4 "Freedom" 8 5 5 3 5 10 36 5 "Ne-a fost iubirea un joc" 2 10 12 6 "Discover Moldova" 6 10 10 12 8 12 7 65 7 "Join Us in the Rain" 3 3 1 6 13 8 "Dor de mamă" 5 7 4 7 7 8 38 9 "Logic" 1 2 3 4 2 5 17 10 "Hey Mamma" 10 12 12 10 7 4 12 67 11 "Breathe" 12 8 7 8 10 3 4 52 12 "Never Give Up On Us" 1 2 3 13 "Glow" 2 5 1 8 14 "Dance" 6 8 1 3 2 3 23 + Semi-final (Second round) – 24 February 2017ArtistSongTelevotePlace Big Flash Sound "Logic" 34 9 Emilia Russu “If Only You” 81 8 Marks and Ștefăneț "Join Us in the Rain" 440 1 Nadia Moșneagu "Never Give Up On Us" 16 10 Samir Loghin "Glow" 335 2 Sandy C "A Beautiful World" 108 5 Sergiu Pungă "Ne-a fost iubirea un joc" 99 6 The One "Dance" 86 7 Valeria Pașa "Freedom" 120 3 Vozniuc feat. Vio Grecu "Don't Lie" 113 4
Final The final took place on 25 February 2017 at the TRM Studio 2 in Chișinău, hosted by Liviu Gulica and Mihaela Cîrnov with Galina Timus reporting from the green room. The eight songs that qualified from the preceding semi-final competed and the winner was selected based on the combination of a public televote and the votes of an expert jury. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2016 Moldovan Eurovision entrant Lidia Isac performed as a guest. "Hey Mamma" performed by SunStroke Project and "Discover Moldova" performed by Ethno Republic and Surorile Osoianu were tied for the first place with 22 points each but since SunStroke Project received the most votes from the public they were declared the winner. + Final – 25 February 2017 Artist Song Jury Televote Total Place Votes Points Votes Points 1 SunStroke Project "Hey Mamma" 88 10 1,539 12 22 1 2 Samir Loghin "Glow" 34 3 217 7 10 7 3 Valeria Pașa "Freedom" 51 5 148 6 11 6 4 Aurel Chirtoacă "Dor de mamă" 56 6 63 3 9 8 5 Diana Brescan "Breathe" 80 8 127 5 13 3 6 Marks and Ștefăneț "Join Us in the Rain" 38 4 471 8 12 4 7 Ethno Republic and Surorile Osoianu "Discover Moldova" 90 12 598 10 22 2 8 Vozniuc feat. Vio Grecu "Don't Lie" 58 7 109 4 11 5
Promotion SunStroke Project made several appearances across Europe to specifically promote "Hey Mamma" as the Moldovan Eurovision entry. SunStroke Project performed the Moldovan entry as guests during the final of the Romanian Eurovision national final on 5 March, the Greek Eurovision national final on 6 March, and the final of the Lithuanian Eurovision national final on 11 March. Between 3 and 6 April, SunStroke Project took part in promotional activities in Tel Aviv, Israel and performed during the Israel Calling event held at the Ha'teatron venue. On 14 April, SunStroke Project performed during the Eurovision in Concert event which was held at the Melkweg venue in Amsterdam, Netherlands and hosted by Cornald Maas and Selma Björnsdóttir. On 15 April, SunStroke Project performed during the Eurovision Spain Pre-Party, which was held at the Sala La Riviera venue in Madrid, Spain.
At Eurovision