Moldova proved a surprise package to many last year, achieving their best ever result and third place in the final. Perhaps it shouldn’t have been such a surprise, it was catchy, it was fun, it was Moldovan and they were very polished, experienced and slick yet also clearly enjoying themselves. I feel that their entry this year is similar in many ways in those aspects – underrated initially by the fandom, but as the pre-parties have gone on, it’s very clear they have another accomplished and fun package. Will it maintain their recent success at the contest?

I was orginally going to say that this was a bit of a guilty pleasure, but actually I feel no guilt at all in loving this. It’s so Eurovision, so fun, uptempo, catchy, very distinctively Moldovan, the three singers work really well together, they are great live, very polished but also having fun – what’s not to like! The composer of their song is Philipp Kirkorov and he is also been accompanying them (well managing them really) on their promotional tour. He may look like a Bond villain but he is one of the biggest pop music stars in Russia and other eastern countries. His experience is definitely being put to good use.

I think this will sail into the final – they really bring it live and it’s just such a fun, uptempo song, and has all the elements you’d expect in a Moldovan song, brass, some elements of ethnic instrumentation, those distinctive eastern male voices. Eurofans initially took against this but I think that was more because the quality of the live stream from the Moldovan national final was poor – as soon as they appeared at the pre-parties, they have risen in people’s expectations. I was gutted they couldn’t make the London Eurovision Party but I’m sure I’ll be seeing them twice in Lisbon – in the semis and grand final.

Official music video:

Live performance at Eurovision in Concert:

Moldova at the Eurovision Song Contest:

First entered: 2005

Appearances (excluding this year): 13

Best result: 3rd in 2017

Last year’s result: 3rd