The submission period for O melodie pentru Europa 2015 — Moldova’s national selection — closed today at 16:00 CET. Broadcaster TRM will release official figures on Wednesday, but O melodie pentru Europa was open this year to submissions from any artist, regardless of their nationality. We expect a record number of entries. Thankfully we already know of a few artists who have submitted entries. Let’s break it down!
Sasha Bognibov
Sasha Bognibov is a veteran of the national contest, even if he’s never made it to the semi-final stage. Sasha has thrown his name into the hat for an impressive fourteenth time. After last year’s gem “My Lesbian Girl”, we were anxiously wondering what Sasha would come up with next. And he didn’t disappoint: his 2015 bid, “Wounded Swan”, has a vintage feel that reminds us of Placebo and dEUS. Despite the somewhat daft lyrics, it is a more focused effort than last year. Let’s hope he’ll get his break this time.
RALFi
Darragh Reck, a.k.a. RALFi, might ring a bell to fans of the Swiss and Irish selections. He has submitted three tracks to the Moldovan selection. Together with producer Barry Grace, Darragh hopes to make the cut in Moldova. The three tracks are “Factory Hearts”, “Wings of Gold” and our personal favourite “The Man Who Won the Lottery for the Moon”. It’s a cute love song, y’all.
Diana Brescan
You may remember her “Hallelujah” bid from last year. This year, Diana Brescan has submitted another sweeping ballad, “Up And Down”:
Valeria Pasa
Valeria Pasa (pronounced: Pasha), who qualified for the semi-finals in 2013 but failed to make the final in Chisinau with “Show Me Your Feelings”, has submitted another ballad for 2015, “Sometimes”. The song is written by her dad — and it kind of shows.
http://youtu.be/a0am3rjgelE
Alexandru Carabetchi
Newcomer Alexandru Carabetchi is submitting two songs, out of which he has released one on Youtube so far. “Flawless” is produced by a Dutch team and Alexandru aims to make it big on the international stage with it. Lofty hopes! He started on the wrong foot though, with last year’s logo and slogan…
http://youtu.be/MAT4RIRQ5e8
Rumoured artists
Eurovision veteran Nelly Ciobanu, who recently released the three-minute ballad “I’m a Hero”, has just changed her Facebook cover to a photo of her performing “Hora din Moldova”, prompting speculation that she will be back on the O melodie pentru Europa stage after being a jury member over the last couple of years.
Boris Covali, who narrowly missed representing Moldova at Eurovision two years in a row (losing out to Aliona Moon and Cristina Scarlat), has learned Romanian (he’s an ethnic Russian) and released a Romanian language song, which is rumoured to be on the submissions list for 2015. “Jumatatea mea” (My Soulmate) is dedicated to his wife Nelly Bragari, whom he married over the summer.
http://youtu.be/a2mypwBMmwo
Remember Lucia S (Lucia Simion) with “Frozen” from last year? Gurl has reinvented herself as Lucia Si and has a new English language song song, “Lucky Man”, which is rumoured to be her 2015 bid for O melodie pentru Europa.
Other names that are rumoured to take part in the national selection are Doinita Gherman, Olia Tira and Curly.
What next?
After the submissions are verified, the first round will occur on 17 December 2014 and will involve a jury panel shortlisting 60 entries. The second round is a live audition (which will be streamed online) of the 60 selected artists and their entries in front of a jury panel that will take place on Friday, 19 December 2014. The panel will select 24 semi-finalists to proceed to the third round, the televised national final. Twelve semi-finalists will compete in each semi-final on 24 and 26 February 2014. Eight songs will qualify to the final from each semi-final; seven of the qualifiers will qualify based on the combined votes from the jury and televoting results, while the eighth qualifier in each semi-final will be the entry that achieved the highest televoting score from the remaining entries after a second round of public televoting during an after-show. The sixteen qualifying entries will compete in the final on 28 February 2014 where the winner will be selected by the equal combination of jury votes and a public televote. In the event of a tie, the entry that receives the highest score from the jury vote will be declared the winner.
Are you ready for the epicness that O melodie pentru Europa promises to be every year? Who are you rooting for?
Cool!
I think only Nelly is good.
Lucia a little bit strange song. Boris ok but difficult sing in Romania for ESC. The others not good for me.