Moldova was represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 with the song "Viva, Moldova!", written by Andrei Vulpe, Cătălin Temciuc, , and Vlad Sabajuc, and performed by Sabajuc under his stage name Satoshi. The Moldovan participating broadcaster, Teleradio-Moldova (TRM), organised 2026 to select its entry for the contest.

Background

Prior to the 2026 contest, Teleradio-Moldova (TRM) had participated in the Eurovision Song Contest representing Moldova nineteen times since its first entry in 2005. Its best placing in the contest was third, achieved in with the song "Hey, Mamma!" performed by SunStroke Project. To this point, it had achieved a top ten placing at the contest four times: in when "Boonika bate toba" performed by Zdob și Zdub placed sixth, in when "Fight" performed by Natalia Barbu placed tenth, in when "My Lucky Day" performed by DoReDoS also placed tenth, and in when Zdob și Zdub returned to compete for a third time together with the Advahov Brothers and placed seventh with the song "".

As part of its duties as participating broadcaster, TRM organises the selection of its entry in the Eurovision Song Contest and broadcasts the event in the country. The broadcaster has selected its entry via a national selection show between 2008 and 2020 and since 2023, while it selected its entry in 2021 via an internal selection. TRM was to held a selection show in 2022, but it was ultimately cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions and it internally selected its entry during the audition round. After withdrawing from the 2025 contest following a "detailed analysis of the current situation, as well as the economic, administrative and artistic challenges", TRM confirmed its intentions to participate at the 2026 contest on 3 November 2025 and announced that it would hold a national selection show, featuring a new format to be implemented following consultations with artists, producers and music industry representatives, to select its entry.

Before Eurovision

Finala națională 2026 2026 was the national final format developed by TRM in order to select its entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2026. The event was held at the Chișinău Arena in Chișinău on 17 January 2026, and was hosted by Daniela Crudu and Ion Jalbă, with Alisa Tanas and Bogdan Nigai serving as green room hosts. The show was broadcast on Moldova 1, as well as online via TRM's official website moldova1.md and the broadcaster's Facebook and YouTube pages.

Competing entries Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries between 7 November 2025 and 7 December 2025. Artists could submit more than one song, and an international act was able to compete only if they were part of a duo or group where 50% of the lead vocalists bore Moldovan nationality. At the conclusion of the submission deadline, 37 valid entries were received by the broadcaster, of which 34 were performed at the live audition round that took place on 16 December 2025 at TRM Studio 2 in Chișinău. Competition producers Serghei Orlov and evaluated the songs during the live auditions and selected sixteen finalists to advance.

Artist Song Songwriter(s) Adelisha "" Artiom Topal "Money" Artiom Topal Bacho "" Cătălina Solomac "Pink Margarita" Cristy Rouge "Bliss" Curly "" Dayana "" Emforia "" Ion Staver Evgenii Avramov "" Evgenii Avramov Ilinca Siviroveanu "Running Through the Rain" Radu Zaplitnii Katy Rain "Dance and Cry" Maxim Zavidia "" Pavel Orlov "Can't Say Goodbye" Pavel Orlov Sasha Flowers "We Fight Till the End" Alexandru Bublițchi Satoshi "" Vlad Sabajuc Valleria "Valerian Steel" Valeria Condrea

Final The final took place on 17 January 2026. Sixteen songs competed and "" performed by Satoshi was selected as the winner based on the combination of a public online vote, the votes of a national jury and the votes of an international jury. In addition to the performances of the competing entries, former Eurovision entrants performed as guests: Paula Seling ( and ), Efendi ( and ), and Jamala (winner for ). A number of past Moldovan Eurovision entrants also performed in order to celebrate the country's 20th appearance at the contest: Zdob și Zdub (, and ), Natalia Gordienko (, and ), Natalia Barbu ( and ), Nelly Ciobanu (), SunStroke Project ( and ), Aliona Moon (), Cristina Scarlat (), and DoReDos ().

The national jury that voted in the final included Nelly Ciobanu, Igor Dînga (founder and vocalist of Cuibul, music producer), Andriano Marian (founder and conductor of the Moldovan National Youth Orchestra), Dorin Galben (journalist and influencer), SunStroke Project, Elena Stegari (producer, journalist at TRM), (flutist, naist, pedagogue, composer, conductor and academician), Rusalina Russu (television producer at Moldova 1), Natalia Gordienko, Elisoa Cynthia (content creator), Maria Petrova (content creator), Dmitrii Sergheev (music producer), Corina Caireac (music industry manager), Vlad Costandoi (founder of Sens Music, concert producer), and Lilu (journalist, content creator, TV presenter), while the international jury included Eric Lehmann (Head of the Luxembourgish Eurovision Delegation in 2024 and 2025, music journalist), Jamala, Deban Aderemi (British music journalist and blogger at Wiwibloggs), Efendi, and Paula Seling.

+Final17 January 2026 Artist SongJury Public vote Total PlaceNational Votes Points 1 Artiom Topal "Money" 5 2 136 0 7 9 2 Valleria "Valerian Steel"0 1 126 0 1 15 3 Adelisha ""0 0 177 0 0 16 4 Maxim Zavidia ""7 3 165 0 10 6 5 Evgenii Avramov ""0 0 593 6 6 10 6 Cătălina Solomac "Pink Margarita"8 7 861 10 25 3 7 Dayana ""1 10 617 7 18 4 8 Satoshi "" 12 12 13,084 12 36 1 9 Sasha Flowers "We Fight Till the End"6 0 353 2 8 8 10 Cristy Rouge "Bliss"4 0 145 0 4 14 11 Ilinca Siviroveanu "Running Through the Rain"0 0 409 4 4 13 12 Bacho ""3 4 373 3 10 5 13 Curly ""2 6 218 1 9 7 14 Emforia ""0 0 535 5 5 11 15 Katy Rain "Dance and Cry"0 5 174 0 5 12 16 Pavel Orlov "Can't Say Goodbye"10 8 813 8 26 2

+ Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total Points 1 "Money" 7 1 6 7 6 5 7 6 4 3 4 1 57 5 2 "Valerian Steel" 2 2 2 6 0 3 "Alegria" 1 7 6 14 0 4 "Allo" 2 8 7 3 4 6 4 8 6 7 5 60 7 5 "Foc la ghete" 3 3 0 6 "Pink Margarita" 10 2 10 8 3 1 6 10 5 8 10 5 8 10 96 8 7 "Doina" 4 8 5 6 1 3 3 1 3 8 42 1 8 "Viva, Moldova!" 12 12 12 12 12 8 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 176 12 9 "We Fight Till the End" 5 1 6 7 3 5 7 10 5 3 5 57 6 10 "Bliss" 6 7 2 4 6 8 4 6 2 1 1 6 3 56 4 11 "Running Through the Rain" 3 3 4 2 4 1 4 21 0 12 "Tata" 10 4 3 5 2 2 8 7 7 4 3 55 3 13 "Respir liber" 6 2 10 10 8 8 3 5 2 54 2 14 "Tipare" 1 1 5 2 1 8 18 0 15 "Dance and Cry" 8 5 5 2 5 1 1 2 4 33 0 16 "Can't Say Goodbye" 7 4 10 8 10 12 4 7 7 10 10 6 10 10 7 122 10 + Song scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" Total Points 1 "Money" 2 5 7 2 2 "Valerian Steel" 1 1 2 3 7 1 3 "Alegria" 4 4 0 4 "Allo" 4 4 1 9 3 5 "Foc la ghete" 0 0 6 "Pink Margarita" 4 7 3 12 7 33 7 7 "Doina" 10 8 10 7 6 41 10 8 "Viva, Moldova!" 12 12 7 10 12 53 12 9 "We Fight Till the End" 2 2 0 10 "Bliss" 3 1 4 0 11 "Running Through the Rain" 2 2 4 0 12 "Tata" 8 5 6 6 3 28 4 13 "Respir liber" 6 4 12 8 30 6 14 "Tipare" 3 1 4 0 15 "Dance and Cry" 5 10 8 5 28 5 16 "Can't Say Goodbye" 7 6 5 8 10 36 8

Promotion As part of the promotion of his participation in the contest, Satoshi will attend the Nordic Eurovision Party in Oslo on 21 March 2026 and the Eurovision in Concert event in Amsterdam on 11 April 2026. On 7 February 2026, he performed a revamped version of "" at the Ukrainian national final in Kyiv. On 14 March 2026, he was a guest on TVP World in Poland and held a promotional event in Warsaw attended by the Romanian and Moldovan ambassadors to the country.

At Eurovision The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 took place at the in Vienna, Austria, and consisted of two semi-finals held on the respective dates of 12 and 14 May and the final on 16 May 2026. All nations with the exceptions of the host country and the "Big Four" (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom) were required to qualify from one of two semi-finals in order to compete for the final; the top ten countries from each semi-final progressed to the final. On 12 January 2026, an allocation draw was held to determine which of the two semi-finals, as well as which half of the show, each country performed in; the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) split up the competing countries into different pots based on voting patterns from previous contests, with countries with favourable voting histories put into the same pot.

Semi final Moldova was allocated for the first semi final, and later, was announced to perform in position one during the show. Shortly after, the qualification–announcement segment took place, and, at the end of the segment Moldova was announced as one of the ten qualifiers, therefore, Moldova would move on onto the final, for the first time since .

Final Moldova performed their song in position 16, after France and before Finland. After voting had ended, the jury votes were then announced. Moldova gained 43 points from juries across Europe (including Australia and Israel), which put them 17th overall going into the televote phase. Moldova had their points announced 9th, from which they got 183 points, putting them first on 226 points. However they were beaten not long after by Romania's Alexandra Căpitănescu. After all votes were announced, Moldova managed to earn a respectable eighth place result, which was Moldova's fourth best result, after 2005, 2017 and 2022's placing.

Voting

Points awarded to Moldova

+ Points awarded to Moldova (Semi-final 1) Score Televote Jury 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

+ Points awarded to Moldova (Final) Score Televote Jury 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Points awarded by Moldova

+ Points awarded by Moldova (Semi-final 1) Score Televote Jury 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

+ Points awarded by Moldova (Final) Score Televote Jury 12 points 10 points 8 points 7 points 6 points 5 points 4 points 3 points 2 points 1 point

Detailed voting results Each participating broadcaster assembles a seven-member jury panel consisting of music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent and two of which have to be between 18 and 25 years old. Each jury, and individual jury member, is required to meet a strict set of criteria regarding professional background, as well as diversity in gender and age. 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.

The following members comprised the Moldovan jury: Andrei Zapșa Pavel Orlov (juror C in the final) Stanislav Goncear Cătălina Solomac Corina Caireac Ilona Stepan (juror E in the final) Victoria Cușnir (juror D in the final)

+ Country Jury Televote Juror A Juror B Juror C Juror D Juror E Juror F Juror G Rank Points Rank Points 01 02 8 4 11 10 12 12 7 10 1 7 4 03 5 12 6 6 9 4 3 4 7 4 7 04 2 3 1 2 2 6 5 3 8 5 6 05 11 5 10 9 13 5 12 11 11 06 12 14 14 14 14 8 13 14 13 07 4 7 12 11 6 13 6 7 4 6 5 08 14 13 5 8 8 10 11 12 12 09 13 10 9 12 11 3 4 8 3 9 2 10 1 2 2 3 1 1 2 1 12 1 12 11 7 6 4 7 4 9 10 5 6 10 1 12 10 8 8 5 7 11 9 9 2 8 3 13 9 11 13 13 10 14 14 13 14 14 3 1 3 1 3 2 1 2 10 2 10 15 6 9 7 4 5 7 8 6 5 3 8