Moldova: 24 finalists announced

In a move to get the best possible combination of singers and songwriters together, the Moldovan public broadcaster TRM has implemented a nover way of chosing a Eurovision entry this year: For the first time, singers and songwriters had to apply separately in the first round of the national selection. Only after that, the singers would have the possibility to select one song out of a pool of entries deemed good enough for an international audience.

This week, the results of the first round have been announced. Out of 49 applications, the following 24 artists proceed to the second stage:

• Anna Gulko
• Inaya
• Felicia Dunaf
• Cristina Scarlat 
• Stela Boţan
• Vitalie Negruţa
• Doiniţa Gherman 
• Irina Taraşiuc 
• Aliona Moon
• Fire Love
• Ruslan Ţaranu 
• Cristina Croitoru & Karizma
• Aurel Chirtoacă 
• Alexandru Şendrea 
• Svetlana Bogdanova 
• Boris Covali 
• Cristina V. 
• Tatiana Heghea 
• Denis Latîşev 
• NiCo
• Irina Chitoroagă 
• Vitalie Maciunschi 
• Dara
• Valeria Paşa

Now each of these singers has two weeks time to listen to the 60 best songs that have been picked out of 126 songs entered. The song titles have been published on the TRM website.

Both the singers and songs have been chosen by a 8-member professional jury, including the former Moldovan Eurovision representatives Geta Burlacu (2008) and Nelly Ciobanu (2009), among others.

Among the selected artists are a few familiar faces, like Boris Covali, Doiniţa Gherman and Cristina Croitoru & Karizma, who have all previously participated in Moldovan national selections for Eurovision and gained top spots in the voting. Aliona Moon (pictured) has already represented Moldova as a backing vocalist of Pasha Parfeny in 2012. This year, Pasha wrote the song A Million (watch on youtube) especially for Aliona to perform in the national final.

When we asked Aliona how the influence as a backing vocalist last year influenced her decision to try again this year as a lead singer, she stated: "The experience as a backing vocalist on the Eurovision stage was a good school for me. For the first time in my life I stepped on such a big stage as it was in Baku, and also for the first time I was a part of a contest organized by such a professional team. I got more self confident about my possibilities. Of course it inspired me to live this experience one more time, but at a higher dimension - as a lead singer."

So, how did this change of roles, with Pasha Parfeny acting as the composer of the song, come about? Aliona explains: "This idea appeared first as a joke after last year's rehearsals in Baku: Pasha was going to write a song for me and to be my back vocalist at this time. But after a while Pasha did come with a song for me, and his girlfriend Yuliana with the lyrics in Romanian. I fell in love with this song at first listening, and in a short time with a common effort they translated the lyrics into English. This is how a joke changed our roles: now I am the lead artist and Pasha is my composer and producer."

Of course, Aliona has a special message for all her fans and supporters too: "I want to thank all the people who support me and help me to go further, who write me encouraging messages, who believe in me. Also I’m looking forward to meet again all my friends I made at ESC 2012, and I hope we will have this opportunity."

Eurovision.tv thanks Aliona Moon for this spontaneous interview, and we wish her the best of luck in the Moldovan final this year!