It turns out that IVAN from Belarus and Lidia Isac from Moldova share more than beautiful, flowing blonde hair with red highlights.
While promoting their respective Eurovision songs at the Moscow Pre-Party 2016 over the weekend, Lidia found out that the Belarusian singer has Moldovan roots, and challenged him to some impromptu Romanian language singing.
IVAN told Lidia that his great-grandmother was Moldovan and that he never forgot the traditional folk song “Ioane, Ioane” that his mother used to sing to him. They proceeded to sing the chorus together, in a cute bonding moment that was shared by Lidia’s manager Serghei Orlov via Facebook.
Interestingly, the song is actually Romanian, but it was assimilated into the Moldovan culture thanks to the shared language. The song was made famous in the USSR by Ukrainian singer Sofia Rotaru, who also had Moldovan roots, in the 1980’s.
Interview with Lidia Isac @ Russian Eurovision Pre-Party Moscow 2016
Interview with IVAN @ Eurovision Pre-Party Riga 2016
Aw, these two. Should we ‘ship Lidia Isac and IVAN together in Stockholm? Can anyone say Ividia?
Check out more Moscow Eurovision Pre-Party news here
Photo: Vyacheslav Profofyev (GettyImages)
oh, our Sofia 🙂 one of the few greatest Ukrainian singers from soviet time.
no, Anton, she had no chance to participate in ESC in 70s because Ukraine has been occupied by soviets. and Moldova too. artist should represent own culture and own country.
Sofia Rotaru is still very famous in post Ukriane and Russia! SHE SLAYS
Lidia will qualify so she won’t have to watch the final on her telly <3
Hey, later they can bond over not qualifying. Maybe even watch the final together and make sour-grape comments about “How the hell did THEY get in over us?”
Oh man, they look really uncomfortable in the picture.
Wow! Sofia Rotary should represent USSR on Eurovision in 1970s!