We are inundated with Eurovision news and it isn’t much of a surprise since the deadline is just around the corner for countries to choose their representatives and songs. Moldova recently chose their act, Anna Odobescu with the song “Stay”, through the national selection titled O melodie pentru Europa 2019.
The national selection show started on 2 February 2019 with a live audition round. 10 competitors and their songs were chosen to go through to the Final in a televised event. The Final took place a month later on 2 March 2019, with the winner determined by a 50/50 jury vote and televote split.
Coming out on top was the jury favourite Anna Odobescu with her song “Stay” which topped the jury vote gaining 12 points and came second in the televote gaining 10 points. In second place was the televote favourite, Maxim Zavidia with the song “I Will Not Surrender” which came sixth in the jury vote gaining 5 points but came first in the televote gaining 12 points. Third position went to Diana Brescan with “Lies” which came second in the jury vote gaining 10 points and came sixth in the televote gaining 5 points.
Watch Anna Odobescu Perform Her Eurovision Song “Stay” On The Moldova National Selection Show Here:
The song is powerful and Anna Odobescu sings it beautifully as she showcases her talented voice, but the track itself leaves something to be desired and feels like it should’ve been a 90’s Eurovision winning ballad. Perhaps a Eurovision modern revamp would make this better, that’s if Moldova plans to switch it up a bit. Regardless we can certainly rely on them to give us a great stage performance, or so we can hope considering their last two entries.
For two years in a row, Moldova has brought up-tempo numbers to the Eurovision stage with unforgettable performances that guaranteed their top 10 placements with 2017 giving their best result to date at third, where they were represented by the trio SunStroke Project with the song “Hey, Mamma!”. Last year, DoReDoS continued Moldova’s high placing in the Grand Final, hitting 10th with the song “My Lucky Day”. The question is whether or not Anna Odobescu will continue Moldova’s top 10 streak. We’ll have to wait for May to find out.
She’s got quite the competition ahead of her. Announced acts so far are Srbuk for Armenia, Tamta for Cyprus, Jonida Maliqi for Albania, Eliot for Belgium, Miki for Spain, Serhat for San Marino, Duncan Laurence for The Netherlands, Tamara Todevska for North Macedonia, Michela Pace for Malta, Bilal Hassani for France, Lake Malawi for the Czech Republic, PÆNDA for Austria, Darude feat. Sebastian Rejman for Finland. Michael Rice for the United Kingdom, Sergey Lazarev for Russia, Mahmood for Italy, Kate Miller-Heidke for Australia, D-Moll for Montenegro, Kobi Marimi for Israel, Joci Pápai for Hungary, Jurijus for Lithuania, Leonora for Denmark, S!sters for Germany, Ester Peony for Romania, Victor Crone for Estonia, Roko for Croatia, Carousel for Latvia, Tulia for Poland, Hatari for Iceland, KEiiNO for Norway, Nevena Bozovic for Serbia, Conan Osíris for Portugal, and Oto Nemsadze for Georgia. The other countries are expected to reveal their acts in the forthcoming days.
The 2019 Eurovision Song Contest will be hosted at the Expo Tel Aviv in Israel after Netta won last year with the song “Toy”. The two Semi-Finals will take place on 14 May and 16 May with the Grand Final taking place on 18 May. A total of 42 countries will compete in the contest.