Last night in Chisinau, Ukrainian Eduard Romanyuta won the Moldovan national final with “I Want Your Love”. However, love is the last thing that Eduard is getting from his fellow contestants and from the Eurovision fans, as allegations of vote rigging, corruption and plagiarism overshadow his victory.

Although nobody has filed an official complaint yet, allegations of jury buying flew from all directions. Many Moldovan artists, the press and Eurovision fans are furious that Eduard Romanyuta, who was fourth in the jury votes after the first semi-final, jumped to second place in the final and, helped by a whooping 13,500 televote surge (huge figure for a small and poor country like Moldova), finished first on the overall scoreboard. Eduard is also finger-pointed for voting for himself with 200 SIM cards in the Green Room, in plain vew of the other contestants, and for allegedly admitting that he bought the jury. Last but not least, he is accused of copying Mariah Carey’s song “It’s Like That”. That’s a lot of accusations, y’all.

However, the most serious ones are those of corruption. After the results were announced, the other 15 acts from the final booed Eduard and stormed out of the Green Room, united and decided to boycott the aftershow. Dana Markitan’s reaction during Eduard’s encore performance in the video below needs no translation:

In the same video, Doinita Gherman, who finished tenth on the scoreboard, expressed her discontent with the fact that the contest was not fair and transparent, and also with the fact that Moldova, land of many talented singers, chose to send a neighbour to represent the country in Vienna. Serj Kuzenkoff said in the video, “We don’t belong in Europe, because if we get there, we fill it with sh*t like we filled Moldova”.

In the video below, Marcel Rosca also accuses Eduard of buying the jury votes. Valeria Pasa says she is surprised and confused about the result, adding that the excessive number of televotes for Eduard is suspicious and that she knows that he bought them. Serj Kuzenkoff used air quotes to explain that the audience voted for Romanyuta and joked that he also voted for him 59 times. Mihaela Andrei is disappointed that a foreigner will represent the country, while Doinita Gherman said that she could not congratulate the winner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmON2KYH7VM

Pasha Parfeny, who wrote the song “Maricica” for band DoReDos, which won the second semi-final, chose to react on Facebook:

Pasha Parfeny reaction Eduard Romanyuta

RIP EUROVISION MOLDOVA. It doesn’t matter that he is Ukrainian, what matters is that he is corrupt.

Earlier, he wrote:

Pasha Parfeny reaction Eduard Romanyuta 2

It is so obvious that almost everything was bought. Too bad… I feel ashamed.

Diana Brescan and Rodica Aculova also reacted on Facebook, saying that they were stunned by the results.

Miss M expressed her astonishment with regard to the discrepancy between the jury votes in the first semi-final and the same jury’s votes in the final, calling Eduard a “puppet”:

I have always respected my peers and I have nothing against Eduard personally. The poor guy is just a puppet. But his song package is [wanting]. The only thing that surprises me is why […] the jury voted differently in the semi-finals and the final, so that we all the cards were layed out [at the end] and they made us look like fools? I would have been glad to have someone from our midst represent us, not because they are ours but because objectively speaking we had much better shows and songs! I am deeply hurt that our country has been humiliated in this way. It’s a big shame!!! And I am sickened by the thought that the people will swallow this humiliation and will accept it sheepishly…

Moldovan fans of the show liked the fact that, during the contest, Eduard Romanyuta refused to speak Russian “out of personal choice”. Since he doesn’t speak Romanian, he talked in English with the hosts of the show. However, after he won, he switched to Russian. Because of the current political situation in the Ukraine, there is a strong anti-Russian current in Moldova and Eduard’s faux-pas disgusted many local fans of Eurovision.

Twitter was also ablaze last night after Eduard Romanyuta won. As the jury results were read out, Eurovision fans reacted in disbelief.

 


And then:

 

 And lastly,

Eduard Romanyuta thanked the jury and the televoters and told the press (in Russian):

I am shocked that I won. I shall try not to disappoint you and to bring the Eurovision Song Contest to Moldova.

The 22-year old Ukrainian is the first international act that will represent Moldova at Eurovision. He will perform in the first half of the first semi-final. Ukraine announced its withdrawal from Eurovision this year, but fans over there will have someone to cheer for, even though they won’t be able to vote for him.

Update – On 3 March, SunStroke Project posted this message on Facebook:

SunStroke Project reaction 2015

What do you make of the reactions of the artists, the press and the fans? Do you believe the allegations of corruption against Eduard Romanyuta?

Photo: zugo.md

Follow all of our Moldova Eurovision news here.

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Deea
Deea
9 years ago

For those who didn’t understood the reason Moldavian were upset with Eduard speaking russian, I would like to explain better. As we focus on Eurovision, listening to songs and making comments, PEOPLE ARE DYING in Ukraine. Most European countries blame Russia for this, so it’s not out of the ordinary for Moldavians to feel the same. Eduard stated that he won’t be speaking russian, but english, as a form of respect for Moldovians. And he did speak in english. Yet, as soon as he won, he broke his word and spoke in russian. Moldavians felt cheated. Should Eduard had spoken… Read more »

Ketrin
Ketrin
9 years ago

I think people can listen his songs and understand what talent have this guy. Eduard a young Ukrainian star what have a great future in music culture. he have amazing song what i in love with. its call Get real with my heart. its really amazing

Random.sage 2.0
Random.sage 2.0
9 years ago

I can tell that 2015 Eurovision will be the fun one! Always a corruption-oriented topic to dig into. Lol WOOT! But honestly, Kitty Bucknell deserved the win. Most def.

Tom
Tom
9 years ago

Surely there was some sort of CCTV in the green room to record him voting for himself?

Miriam
Miriam
9 years ago

He cheated alright! He was even buying votes in the semi finals. I was looking at the voting scores one night and his went up by exactly 100 at 3am . This happenened three times.

Miriam
Miriam
9 years ago

He was cheating alright! Even in the semi final he was buying ‘likes’ I was looking at the voting scores one night and at three am it went up by 100 exactly in one second although previously he had only a few a day.. This happened two or three times in the weeks of voting.

Julian
Julian
9 years ago

The allegations are not very substantiated. The number of votes for him if it is much more than usual could be because the some from Ukrainian minority which is the biggest minority in Moldova (about 10%) voted for him. Probably some of Russian ethnics (another about 8%) voted for him as well. It would be very difficult to prove anything illegal about the televotes. If the fact that he voted himself with 200 sims is proven true it is just crazy, he obviously didn’t need that votes. The jury buying is more serious if true. Again if all they have… Read more »

CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
9 years ago

@Elisa: If Kitty had stuck with “Yearning”, she might have had a much better chance. Or did they not allow her to enter that song into O Melodie?

Elisa
Elisa
9 years ago

I don’t give a damn if they strip him of his title or withdraw. And I’m not saying that because he’s not Moldovan. Even I wanted Kitty Brucknell to win. Moldova is my last with nil points, for two reasons: corrupted televoting and a s**tty song!

Donna
Donna
9 years ago

Honestly, their butthurt is unreasonable. You know why? Because they opened the audition process in the first place not just to people inside Moldova but people outside Moldova too, regardless of country and nationality. So if their goal was to get Moldovan disapora to join the contest, they failed badly. They should just scrap the “this national selections is open to people of all countries and nationalities” altogether or tighten up the selection process to make sure that only people who are from Moldova/have Moldovan heritage can get in. It isn’t really Eduard’s fault in the first place, it’s the… Read more »

Alex
Alex
9 years ago

Another issue I want to raise is this: who reported these rumors? Is this from the Moldovan version of Kurir or something? How credible is this stuff, wiwibloggs? From a statistical point of view, the victory is perfectly credible. Jurors change their minds from semifinal to final all the time, and the televote numbers look totally normal for a winning song. I relayed Oikotimes’ report about Boris Covali’s dad telephoning jurors and asking them to vote for his son in 2013 and nobody believed it, but now all of a sudden we’re believing this stuff. Just because I find this… Read more »

CookyMonzta
CookyMonzta
9 years ago

I can see this is not going to end well. They have 2 weeks to sort it all out before the deadline. But 200 SIM cards in full view? I thought the artists themselves were not allowed to vote.

Methinks they will ask him to step aside, or strip him of the title and yank him from representation, or they might go to the extreme and withdraw Moldova from the ESC. It probably would have been less of a scandal if Kitty Brucknell had won, even after shopping around for a national contest to enter.

Zac
Zac
9 years ago

@ify There was a Skopje Fest corruption scandal, it just didn’t affect Daniel.

Daniil
Daniil
9 years ago

This dude is weird… As far as the song goes, I wasn’t able to listen to it until the end…

Mar
Mar
9 years ago

With all of those heavy accusations, the moldovan authorities/broadcaster need to conduct an investigation and see if there’s any validity to the claims, or if the sore losers are just ganging up on the poor foreigner kid.
I’ve no idea if he cheated or not, but for now this just stinks of xenophobia tbh.

ify_
ify_
9 years ago

@ Noah, Daniel Kajmakoski wasn’t a corrupted choice why would you say that, that guy was already very popular in the balkan do his win in x factor 2014, so don’t compare his situation with the Moldavian one, Moldava’s choice is obviously corrupted.

mocosuburbian
mocosuburbian
9 years ago

“They don’t like when people speak Russian? Zero tolerance. Very corrupted country.”
there is a very legitimate reason for that, involving a devastating famine caused by Russia in Moldova and Ukraine and the fact that Russia will not let Moldova join the EU or anything similar.
Russian ”little green men” that were previously seen during the takeover of Crimea also popped up in Moldova. Needless to say Moldova will never accept being represented by a Russian-speaking person

YoungsterJoey
YoungsterJoey
9 years ago

Seems like Kitty dodged a bullet had she won, I’m sure she would’ve receive the same allegations especially being a foreigner from the UK. Anywho, its a shame Moldavians are responding like this, then again, I’m sure many are as frustrated with Finland’s result (LOL).

Or quite simply, the Moldovan song selection sucked.

Noah
Noah
9 years ago

Macedonia & Moldova – the two poorest countries in Europe got their “corruption” scandals in this years’ ESC season. No wonder.

Random.sage2.0
Random.sage2.0
9 years ago

Ooh! He might be in the Top 10, for sure! Corruption news is good news and it’s bound to get loads of attention. The crazier the coverage the better. (See Russia in 2008)

CCC
CCC
9 years ago

The chorus sounds an awful lot like “Talk Dirty to Me.” Not original.

Marcelo N
9 years ago

Funny how things unfurl at a speed… [btw before anything else, I dislike the style, I didn’t like this song, and it DOES sound old by any standards within the genre/production style] But to start believing such perfectly accurate rumours as “200 SIM cards” and how many votes they managed to get with them and ish… Hey people, are you adult or what? There will *always* be the crazed eurofan who starts spreading stuff. You know, or should at this stage, that *people*talk*rubbish*. Period. Of course there could have been corruption, here as everywhere. Of course the vote could have… Read more »

cx
cx
9 years ago

They’re mad because he’s a foreigner. Lbr. The song is shit anyway.

cx
cx
9 years ago

oh boohoo…. He won. Deal.

Anthony
Anthony
9 years ago

Dave24574, We would’ve ended up with Alyona Lanskaya for Belarus in 2012 if she got away with it.

Archeops
Archeops
9 years ago

They don’t like when people speak Russian? Zero tolerance. Very corrupted country.

Ian
Ian
9 years ago

I don’t mind how this song sounds, but if you have this much controsversy and negativity popping up about this guy, maybe it really is a better choice to change your entry.

Dave24574
Dave24574
9 years ago

Let’s see… you have claims of corruption, vote rigging, and plagiarism. We are speaking about Moldova, correct? And your point is?!!

There were sixteen songs competing last night. I dare you to pick the one that you honestly thought would even finish above Finland in the semi-final.

Leila
Leila
9 years ago

This song sounds exactly the same as JLS- Beat Again

I was wishing Sunstroke Project would win but unfortunately this weekend poor decisions made by Ireland, Moldova, Hungary and especially Finland

Was looking forward to the likes of Kati Wolf, Opera Skaala/Satin Circus or Nikki Kavannagh but at the moment I’m not enjoying many of the songs

Daniel
Daniel
9 years ago

Though it is clear SOMETHING has happened, we have a few more sore losers to join Alexander Rybak and Anne Gadegaard. I hope he doesn’t go, even if he is Ukrainian this will not benefit Moldova because Ukraine can’t vote for him!

JESCGermany15
JESCGermany15
9 years ago

I don’t like the song or the staging! The song sound like an 2005 song, but not as a 2015 song! I’m very disappointed from Moldava! Hope he won’t be in the final!

omg
omg
9 years ago

whyyyy so negative just becouse his not moldovan …
its not like these kinds of things havent happend before so..
they are takeing to seriously this ,he has a song that was picked soo calm ur ishh ,some people like the song and thats it _(._.)_

Mario The Vision of Gay Love
Mario The Vision of Gay Love
9 years ago

If he cheated with this shameful way not only on 1 of the two fields but on just both juries & televoting they should consider to disqualify him.. And his song was a combination copy cat of these 2 mentioned so its more bad 4 him.. He is not even Moldavian but Ukrainian so this is not the best 4 Moldovians that they will gonna actually send a person from Ukraine to represent them and fly the flag 4 Moldova in Vision.. My own personal favorite Miss M came 4th and even if this loser was disqualified she would still… Read more »

Titaniumsparrow
Titaniumsparrow
9 years ago

Moldova should get their organization to withdrawal from the contest.

Freyah
Freyah
9 years ago

It’s just a shame Cezara didn’t pass the semi’s as she was my fave for OMPE. Last night was just full of bad decisions really, Finland passing over two potentially winning songs in the form of ‘Heart of Light’ and ‘Crossroads’, Hungary eliminating Kati and ív before the second round, now this. Slovenia was the only country who chose right last night.

But if this dude bought votes he’s gonna have a fun time in Vienna

Titaniumsparrow
Titaniumsparrow
9 years ago

Good. Get rid of him. The song is a total embarrassment!!!
Moldova should be ashamed.

Anthony
Anthony
9 years ago

Even if Cezara’s in the final EF0912, we’d still reach the same suspicious conclusion in the end.

EF0912
EF0912
9 years ago

This is what happens when you eliminate Cezara

Duff
Duff
9 years ago

You know it sounds like he combined Mariah’s song AND Liberty X’s “Just A Little,” That’s why this song sounds so outdated!

Dar
Dar
9 years ago

who actually cares .. most of the songs were shit ..

jr esc nl
jr esc nl
9 years ago

also i heard news about finland that a hacker groep claimed they let pkn win

Hannes
9 years ago

But it is pretty clear that there is something VERY supicious about all this. (+ his song blows)

Alex
Alex
9 years ago

They’re mad over him speaking in Russian when he’s probably better at Russian than at English? Lol… I don’t think the televoting result is all too hard to believe. He got some 4000 more votes than the 2nd place (in televote) Doredos, but they got about 5000 more votes than the 3rd place (in televote) Sunstroke Project. The voting on 200 SIM cards is funny, but with these numbers, it would have had no effect on the final result. And Doredos’ song is just awful, with Sunstroke’s downright forgettable. The 2nd place overall, Valeria Pasa, has a great song and… Read more »

jr esc nl
jr esc nl
9 years ago

the song isn’t as bad as i initially thought but there were better choices and i feel like i have heard this before but ten years ago…

Calvin
Calvin
9 years ago

I think that even if they’re fair, it’s unprofessional of Pasha Parfeny and Diana Brescan to discuss the matter since they have/had a stake in the winner.