Update at 18:00 GMT: TRM has just rejected Elle’s appeal. Will they sing “Tare” after all? Tune in on Saturday to find out.”

With just days before Moldova’s live auditions on Saturday, frontrunner girl band Elle has a new member and a new song. Tania Cerga has left the group, quickly replaced with the Romanian singer Ale Blake, and the new Elle have recorded a new song, “Extaz” (Ecstasy). But will the girls be allowed to perform it at the live auditions, since it was not formally submitted ahead of the deadline?

“Tare”, the song Natalia Barbu, Dara and Tania Cerga recorded together especially for Eurovision 2016, was hailed by the Moldovan press as the song to beat, given the star power of of the three singers. However, shortly after submitting it to broadcaster TRM for consideration, Tania Cerga left the band for unexplained “personal reasons”, leaving the other two singers in the dust.

Romanian singer Ale Blake (actual name Alexandra Mandalache) came to the rescue. You may know Ale Blake from her collaborations with Moldovan DJ Sasha Lopez, the most successful of which is “Weekend”:

Together, the three singers recorded “Extaz,” a completely new song that bears no resemblance to “Tare”. Something tells us that Tania simply wouldn’t have let Ale Blake record over her voice on “Tare”…

“Extaz,” however, has not been formally submitted as a song to Moldova’s national selection O melodie pentru Europa, which in theory makes it ineligible for the live auditions. Given this is Moldova we’re speaking about, though, it is not entirely impossible that things may eventually go Elle’s way.

According to band manager Alla Dontu, who issued a long press release via Facebook, Elle is appealing to the kindness of the O melodie pentru Europa 2016 organising committee to include “Extaz” in the live auditions on Saturday. Among the reasons given for this, she quotes the “good practices” and the fact that the change of song does not contravene “public order and good morals”. Also, she refers to a paragraph in the TRM Guidelines for Eurovision Moldova which reads that, “any issues that are not stipulated in the guidelines shall be examined and dealt with the organiser of the national selection.”

It will be interesting to see what the TRM organising committee decides with regards to the new song “Extaz”, seeing as it could create a precedent, not to mention fuelling the other contestants’ wrath. (Remember the Romanyuta debacle?)

Meanwhile, what do you think about the new song, “Extaz”? Or do you prefer the old “Tare”? And will you turn up to watch the live auditions on Saturday? Let us know in the comment section below!

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3 Comments
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Sparrow
Sparrow
8 years ago

Both are an absolute mess but Extaz is slightly better than Tare.

MalteseTimpana
MalteseTimpana
8 years ago

tbh Tare was better i don’t think it would be a good idea for them to change songs

Bb
Bb
8 years ago

Both songs are awful….