With two days left before the deadline for submissions, just six acts have been officially confirmed as having submitted songs to Moldova‘s national selection O melodie pentru Europa 2017. Among them is Boris Covali, the 2014 runner-up, who is now emerging as the frontrunner. His Romanian language song “Calator” (Traveller) is leaps and bounds ahead of the competition so far.
The song, which will have to be trimmed down to three minutes, was crafted in the Romanian labs of HaHaha Production. The label belongs to Smiley, the famous Romanian singer who coached Aliona Moon during her stint on The Voice of Romania. “Calator” tells the story of a man travelling through life and conquering heights and hardships. The singer knows what he’s talking about: He’s spent the last three years travelling around and living in California.
Despite the positivity of the song, Boris said that he was not optimistic about his chances to represent Moldova at Eurovision. Back in 2014, the singer accused the jury of siding with O melodie pentru Europa winner Cristina Scarlat, citing discrimination because he is of Russian descent. He now told Russkoe Radio Moldova:
The song describes the events that happened to me over the past few years. I am not very hopeful with regards to Eurovision. I have been trying for several years to prove myself. There will always be people who will like what I do, but there will also be those who, no matter what I do, will be against me.
Boris reportedly invested 10,000 dollars in his participation in O melodie pentru Europa 2014 with “Perfect Day”. The local media suggested that much of his money went into voting, which at the time allowed for countless text messages to be sent in support of one song. “Perfect Day” won the televote, but he was beaten by Cristina Scarlat’s “Wild Soul”, with a little help from the jury.
The fact that Boris Covali has chosen to send a Romanian language song to this year’s national selection for Eurovision suggests that he is trying to appeal to the viewers, although it could be down to the jury to decide the outcome again. Not to mention that only one SMS will be allowed per song in 2017.
It’s obviously early, as the TRM deadline for submissions is on 18 January, but do you think that “Calator” has what it takes to win this year’s national selection in Moldova? Or did Boris burn his bridges when he accused the jury of discrimination three years ago?
This is just boring, I prefer Sunstroke Project’s entry.
Sunstroke Project are returning as well https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7S0vA6CEII
It reminds me of Liroje Zemren from Besa Krasniqi, which I loved. They should go for this.
Just send this song, no MIHAI please.
I actually like this song. There’s a calming piano riff driving the beat, and the vocal melody rises and falls in all the right places. If it is good live, I can actually get behind this. 🙂
Moldova always was protagonist of the contest but the las time good was 2013.
I don’t understand why Moldova continues to hold a national selection it goes just worst every year, they should select a good singer with a good song internally and stop spend money in a bad national selection…
The long is pleasant but doesnt really go anywhere – like an old lady wandering in circles around a nice park
This sounds good 🙂 Moldova should stop this crap NF, where only 10 songs will be submitted. It costs too much money, and Moldova is already in problems. This however sounds great and SHOULD win the selection.
If he wants to win so badly then maybe he should stop sending boring songs.