Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest

Moldova has been represented at the Eurovision Song Contest 19 times, debuting in 2005. The Moldovan participating broadcaster in the contest is TeleRadio-Moldova (TRM). The country's best result is a third-place finish with "Hey Mamma" by SunStroke Project in 2017.

Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
Participating broadcaster	TeleRadio-Moldova (TRM)
Participation summary
Appearances	19 (13 finals)
First appearance	2005
Last appearance	2024
Highest placement	3rd: 2017
Participation history 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
External links
TRM page
Moldova's page at Eurovision.tv
For the most recent participation see Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024

Moldova's debut in the contest in 2005 was successful, with "Boonika bate doba" by Zdob și Zdub finishing sixth. The country also reached the top ten with "Fight" by Natalia Barbu (2007), "My Lucky Day" by DoReDoS (2018), and "Trenulețul" by Zdob și Zdub and Advahov Brothers (2022). In total, Moldova has reached the final twelve times, failing to qualify from the semi-finals in 2008, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019, and 2024. Despite initially confirming participation in the 2025 contest, TRM later withdrew, citing economic and artistic challenges.

History

SunStroke Project (pictured) placed third with their 2017 entry "Hey Mamma".

TeleRadio-Moldova (TRM) is a full member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), thus eligible to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. It has participated in the contest representing Moldova since its 50th edition in 2005.

Following Moldova's 20th-place finish in the 2006 contest, TRM announced that it would not participate in 2007, and did not allocate a budget for the 2007 Contest. However, in response to public pressure, TRM filed the preliminary documents to compete and sent Natalia Barbu with song "Fight".^[1] She achieved 10th place.

In 2008, Moldova, for the first time in its four years of participation, failed to make the final. "A Century of Love", performed by Geta Burlacu, finished in 12th place in the semi-final. In 2009, Moldova achieved 14th place with Nelly Ciobanu. In 2010, saxophonist Sergey Stepanov of SunStroke Project became the internet phenomenon ("Epic Sax Guy") with his 30-second saxophone solo.

In 2011, Zdob și Zdub represented Moldova for a second time in the contest, with the song "So Lucky" placing 12th in the final. In 2012 and 2013 respectively, Moldova achieved 11th place with Pasha Parfeny and Aliona Moon respectively.

From 2014 to 2016, Moldova failed to qualify for the final. The country finished in last position in the 2014 semi-final, 11th in the 2015 semi-final, and pre-last in the 2016 semi-final. In 2017, Moldova achieved its best result at the contest, when SunStroke Project finished third in the final with the song "Hey, Mamma!". The streak of top 10 results continued in 2018 with the band DoReDos finishing 10th in Lisbon. However in 2019, Moldova failed to qualify for the first time since 2016, finishing 12th in the semi-final.

In 2020, Natalia Gordienko, who previously represented Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2006, was selected to represent the country with the song "Prison", though the contest was cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic. Gordienko was then internally selected to represent Moldova in 2021 with the song "Sugar". She eventually qualified to the grand final and placed in 13th position with 115 points.^[2] Her 17-second note at the end of "Sugar" was reported to be the longest note in Eurovision history.^[3] For the 2022 contest in Turin, Zdob și Zdub, who previously represented the country in 2005 and 2011, and the Advahov Brothers were exclusively selected following a live audition round held by the broadcaster. Performing "Trenulețul", the act eventually qualified for the final and ultimately placed seventh with 253 points. The group finished in second place with the public televote in the final, which is Moldova's highest placing in the televote to date. This marked the country's best result since 2005 and third highest placing to date. This was followed in 2023 by an eighteenth place finish with "Soarele și luna", performed by Pasha Parfeni, who previously represented Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2012. In 2024, Moldova failed to qualify for the first time in five years, with Natalia Barbu, who previously represented Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2007, finishing in thirteenth place in the semi-final with "In the Middle".

On 16 November 2024, TRM confirmed its intention to participate in the 2025 contest, holding a live audition round for its national final with 26 entries on 18 January 2025. However, on 22 January, TRM announced its withdrawal from the contest due to economic reasons and the perceived quality of its national final.^[4][5] The broadcaster did not rule out a future return to the contest, stating that it would "review the criteria and methodology for selecting the country's representative for the international stage".^[4]

Participation overview

Table key

2	Second place
3	Third place
◁	Last place
X	Entry selected but did not compete

Year	Artist	Song	Language	Final	Points	Semi	Points
2005	Zdob și Zdub	"Boonika bate doba"	English, Romanian	6	148	2	207
2006	Arsenium feat. Natalia Gordienko and Connect-R	"Loca"	English	20	22	Top 11 in 2005 final[a]
2007	Natalia Barbu	"Fight"	English	10	109	10	91
2008	Geta Burlacu	"A Century of Love"	English	Failed to qualify		12	36
2009	Nelly Ciobanu	"Hora din Moldova"	Romanian, English	14	69	5	106
2010	SunStroke Project and Olia Tira	"Run Away"	English	22	27	10	52
2011	Zdob și Zdub	"So Lucky"	English	12	97	10	54
2012	Pasha Parfeny	"Lăutar"	English	11	81	5	100
2013	Aliona Moon	"O mie"	Romanian	11	71	4	95
2014	Cristina Scarlat	"Wild Soul"	English	Failed to qualify		16 ◁	13
2015	Eduard Romanyuta	"I Want Your Love"	English			11	41
2016	Lidia Isac	"Falling Stars"	English			17	33
2017	SunStroke Project	"Hey Mamma"	English	3	374	2	291
2018	DoReDoS	"My Lucky Day"	English	10	209	3	235
2019	Anna Odobescu	"Stay"	English	Failed to qualify		12	85
2020	Natalia Gordienko	"Prison"	English	Contest cancelled[b] X
2021	Natalia Gordienko	"Sugar"	English	13	115	7	179
2022	Zdob și Zdub and Advahov Brothers	"Trenulețul"	Romanian	7	253	8	154
2023	Pasha Parfeni	"Soarele și luna"	Romanian	18	96	5	109
2024	Natalia Barbu	"In the Middle"	English	Failed to qualify		13	20

Commentators and spokespersons

For the show's broadcast on TRM, various commentators provided commentary on the contest in the Romanian language. After all points are calculated at the Eurovision Song Contest, the presenters invite a spokesperson from each voting country to announce the results of their vote on-screen.

Year	Television		Radio		Spokesperson	Ref.
	Commentator	Channel	Commentator	Channel
2005	Vitalie Rotaru	Moldova 1	Vitalie Rotaru	Radio Moldova	Elena Camerzan	[6][7]
2006					Svetlana Cocoș	[8]
2007					Andrei Porubin	[9][10]
2008	Lucia Danu and Vitalie Rotaru	Moldova 1, TV Moldova Internațional	No broadcast		Vitalie Rotaru	[11]
2009	Rosalina Rusu and Andrei Sava				Sandu Leancă	[12]
2010	Marcel Spatari				Tania Cerga	[13]
2011			Marcel Spatari	Radio Moldova	Geta Burlacu	[14]
2012		Moldova 1			Olivia Furtună	[15]
2013	Lidia Scarlat		Lidia Scarlat			[16][17][18]
2014	Daniela Babici		Daniela Babici			[19][20][21][22]
2015				Radio Moldova, Radio Moldova Muzical, Radio Moldova Tineret		[23][24]
2016	Gloria Gorceag		Gloria Gorceag			[25][26][27][28]
2017	Galina Timuș		Cristina Galbici (Radio Moldova) Cătălin Ungureanu and Maria-Mihaela Frimu (Radio Moldova Tineret)	Radio Moldova, Radio Moldova Tineret	Gloria Gorceag	[29][30][31][32][33]
2018	Djulieta Ardovan		Djulieta Ardovan	Radio Moldova	Djulieta Ardovan	[34][35]
2019	Doina Stimpovschi and Daniela Crudu		Doina Stimpovschi and Daniela Crudu		Doina Stimpovschi	[36][37][38][39]
2021	Doina Stimpovschi		Doina Stimpovschi		Sergey Stepanov	[40][41][42]
2022	Ion Jalbă and Daniela Crudu		Ion Jalbă and Daniela Crudu		Elena Bancila	[43][44]
2023				Radio Moldova, Radio Moldova Muzical	Doina Stimpovschi	[45]
2024	Ion Jalbă and Elena Stegari		Angela Rudenco	Radio Moldova		[46][47]
2025	TBA		TBA		Did not participate	[4]

Photo gallery

• 
  Zdob și Zdub in Kyiv (2005)
• 
  Natalia Gordienko and Arsenium performing "Loca" in Athens (2006)
• 
  Natalia Barbu performing "Fight" in Helsinki (2007)
• 
  Geta Burlacu performing "A Century of Love" in Belgrade (2008)
• 
  Nelly Ciobanu in Moscow (2009)
• 
  SunStroke Project and Olia Tira performing "Run Away" in Oslo (2010)
• 
  Zdob și Zdub performing "So Lucky" in Düsseldorf (2011)
• 
  Aliona Moon performing "O mie" in Malmö (2013)
• 
  Cristina Scarlat performing "Wild Soul" in Copenhagen (2014)
• 
  Eduard Romanyuta performing "I Want Your Love" in Vienna (2015)
• 
  Lidia Isac performing "Falling Stars" in Stockholm (2016)
• 
  SunStroke Project performing "Hey, Mamma!" in Kyiv (2017)
• 
  DoReDoS performing "My Lucky Day" in Lisbon (2018)
• 
  Anna Odobescu performing "Stay" in Tel Aviv (2019)
• 
  Zdob și Zdub and Advahov Brothers performing "Trenulețul" in Turin (2022)
• 
  Pasha Parfeni performing "Soarele și luna" in Liverpool (2023)
• 
  Natalia Barbu performing "In the Middle" in Malmö (2024)

See also

• Moldova in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest
• List of music released by Moldovan artists that has charted in major music markets

Notes

1. According to the then-Eurovision rules, the top ten non-Big Four countries from the previous year along with the Big Four automatically qualified for the Grand Final without having to compete in semi-finals. For example, if Germany and France placed inside the top ten, the 11th and 12th spots were advanced to next year's Grand Final along with all countries ranked in the top ten.
2. The 2020 contest was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.