Fans have been waiting a long time for Moldova to confirm their participation in Eurovision 2020. Now TRM has confirmed — but it comes with a twist. The Moldovan broadcaster will reportedly ditch national final O melodie pentru Europe and internally select their entry for Rotterdam.
The news first surfaced on social media, and was confirmed by fan site Eurovision Fun. The site reports that TRM will not most likely not use its national final O melodie pentru Europa. The broadcaster will instead internally select their act for Rotterdam.
Discissions have reportedly already begun on the selection of Moldova’s next artist for Eurovision. The reason for scrapping the national final has not been given, however using an internal selection can be a cheaper option for broadcasters.
Importantly, TRM has NOT publicly confirmed these details or otherwise commented on its participation in Eurovision 2020.
O melodie pentru Europa’s history
If TRM internally selects, it will be only the second time Moldova has not used its long-running national final O melodie pentru Europa (A song for Europe). From Moldova’s debut in 2005, it has selected its act using the national final. The one exception was in 2007, when TVM internally selected Natalia Barbu with “Fight”.
The 2007 internal selection process was made open to the public. The broadcaster released a list of the 34 entries it had received. From that, three finalists were chosen. In a closed final, an eight-person jury voted on the finalists, with “Fight” picking up the most points.
However, it seems unlikely that Moldova would use a similar system for 2020.
O melodie pentru Europa was known for its live-streamed audition round. It allowed the auditioning Moldovan acts — good and not so good — to be seen by Eurovision fans.
From 2013 to 2017, the national final used semi-finals with a smaller number of acts making it to the grand final each year. From 2018, the semi-finals were ditched and the number of grand finalists were reduced.
And despite the varying quality of acts in the national final, Moldova has proved itself capable of selecting good acts for Eurovision. Moldova has placed in the top 15 in the Eurovision grand final for eight of its 15 entries to date.
Its best result was in 2017, where the cheeky chappies of the SunStroke Project placed third with “Hey, Mamma!”. Moldova is also known for its bold, memorable staging, ensuring that even if they don’t make it to the final, viewers tend to remember them.
What do you think? Are you sad to see the end of O melodie pentru Europa? Or is Moldva right to focus their resources on just one act? Tell us your thoughts below!
Late commenter so doubt anyone will see this, but thank you jesus if they get rid of the national final format. I’m one of those fans who follow every single national final, and Moldova has always had very weak national finals, at most one or two that are tolerable.
Kirkorov is friendly with the Prime minister of moldova. They even posted a picture together not long ago… *cough dream team cough* *ships tea*
Plot twist, it’s MIHAI or Aly Ryan haha
A duet! They’d be perfect for each other. And probably only one of them would make it out alive, so we wouldn’t have to deal with the other one going forward.
Can’t be Irina Rimes. She is judge in The Voice Of Romania. I don’t think she is.
Wait a minute…Is M I H A I ?????????
Now finally it’s Irina Rimes’ chance to go to ESC 😀
Guys looks like Montenegro didn’t withdraw the executive director denied it.
I actually knew it, if they withdrew it would be published on their RTCG site, but there was nothing, so I’m sure they are competing or still deciding on the participation.
Good riddance! Hoping they select Mark Stam or Irina Rhymes! But does anybody know how many people watch ESC in Moldova, in Romania it’s one of the lowest viewing numbers, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the same for Moldova. The only entry that was actually really good from them was “O Mie” all other were not even in my top20.
Well last year the act that won the public vote in their national selection (btw it’s not Anna Odobescu) didn’t even receive more than 1000 votes so yea
Oh… haha than I don’t know why are they sticking with NF… Hoping the best for them they have potential.
Moldova almost exclusively does well with upbeat carnival- like songs with wacky staging, and I think that they might play it safe by internally selecting a not-so-safe song, because Moldova almost always fails with safe and bland entries. I hope they can return to the quality of 2017 and 2018.
Considering Moldova’s biggest strenght in Eurovision is inventive staging, I wonder if the broadcaster will pick the song with that in mind already. They had trouble this year to figure out something for the bland and vague “Stay”.
I have a feeling the greek Dream Team is behind this. Kontopoulos etc
then we should expect a top 10 result for Moldova
I don’t know why, but I’m less annoyed by the idea of them stumping for a tiny little country that needs the help like Moldova than I am by them working with a big country like Azerbaijan or Russia .
?? Why YOU should get “annoyed” by someone that does his job and delivers? ?
I wouldn’t call them tiny though they have a population of 4 million + huge diaspora. Even Slovenia isn’t a tiny country and they have a population of 2 million with not a lot of diaspora.
Now I can dream about Carla’s Dreams. It seems possible with internal selection.
I can’t say I am upset cause O Meludi Petru Europa was always like…”lets hope for a diamond in the rough” an the numbers kept becoming smaller and smaller for submissions. The only thing I would say is that maybe Internal Selections will help them out in the money department as well as results the only one to base off of is a 10th place but hey…who knows.
it’ll be interesting to see what moldova can put forward with an internal selection!
How can “Now TRM has confirmed [their participation in Eurovision 2020]…” and “TRM has NOT publicly confirmed these details or otherwise commented on its participation in Eurovision 2020” both be true?
Because this is Wiwibloggs.
Lol not being rude but all the ugly national selections are being scrapped and I’m so happy.
No… I want 1/10 and 2/10 fodder songs. This might sound wrong, but part of entertainment is laughing off bad songs. Only thing ESC 2020 will accomplish by ditching the rock bottom is making mediocre songs seem worse than they are in comparison.
However, we want good songs.
Yes, of course, but not *exclusively*. The thing is, people have instinctive need for contrast. If nothing pops out, they start to see smaller and smaller details until they nitpick.
If all songs were good, the least good ones would probably receive an unjustifiedly low score, just like if all songs were bad, the least bad ones would probably have an inflated score. That instinctively happens on many NF ratings.
I prefer having a wider spectrum of quality in NFs to appreciate the good ones and root for them to win.
Don’t worry, buddy. You still have Dansk Melodi Grand Prix.
This is purely my opinion but I feel like they could have been approached by a project/producer with a song and singer in mind that has convinced them it’s worth selecting internally. But this is just an opinion
wise decision
Moldova are hit or miss, so it wouldn’t break my heart if they did. Long as they’re in it!
With this step alone they would already be miles ahead in terms of professionalism than they previously were with their selection method. Although their hot mess NFs occasionally brought them good results, it would be interesting to see what they can do internally.
Well that’s a first for moldova. Very interesting, and pretty logical since most years there are like only 2 decent songs that might qualify.
It would be a second for them.