Moldova in the Eurovision Song Contest 2018

O melodie pentru Europa 2018 was the national final format developed by TRM in order to select Moldova's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest 2018. The event took place at the TRM Studio in Chișinău, hosted by Sergiu Beznițchi and Evelina Vîrlan with Djulieta Gînu-Ardovan reporting from the green room, and included a final to be held on 24 February 2018. The show was broadcast on Moldova 1, Radio Moldova Actualități, Radio Moldova Tineret and Radio Moldova Muzical as well as online via the broadcaster's official website trm.md.[3][4]

The selection of the competing entries for the national final and ultimately the Moldovan Eurovision entry took place over two rounds. The first round was a live audition of the received submissions in front of a jury panel that took place on 24 January 2018. Entries were assessed on criteria such as voice quality, stage presence and strength of the composition. The panel selected 16 finalists to proceed to the second round, the televised national final. 16 finalists competed in the final on 24 February 2018 where the winner was selected by the 50/50 combination of an expert jury vote and a public televote. In the event of a tie, the entry that receives the highest score from the public televote was declared the winner.[3][5]

Artists and composers had the opportunity to submit their entries between 1 December 2017 and 15 January 2018. International artists were allowed to compete only if they were part of a duo or group where 50% of the lead vocalists were of Moldovan nationality. Songwriters could hold any nationality.[3] At the conclusion of the submission deadline, 27 valid entries were received by the broadcaster.[6] Pelageya Stefoglo was disqualified from the competition as her song "Let's Start Together Right Now" was participating in the 2018 Belarusian national selection.[7]

The live audition round took place on 24 January 2018 at Karaoke Concert Hall Atrium in Chișinău, broadcast on online via trm.md as well as via TRM's Facebook and YouTube pages, where 16 finalists were selected to advance.[8] The jury panel that evaluated the songs during the live auditions and selected the 16 finalists consisted of Nelly Ciobanu (singer, 2009 Moldovan Eurovision entrant), Anatol Chiriac (composer), Alexandru Gorgos (composer), Valeria Barbas (singer/composer) and Victoria Cuşnir (director and journalist).[4]

The final took place on 24 February 2018. Sixteen songs competed and the winner was selected based on the combination of a public televote and the votes of an expert jury. The jury that voted in the final included Anatol Chiriac (composer), Pavel Gamurari (lecturer and member of the Union of Composers and Musicologists in Moldova), Nicu Țărnă (singer), Victoria Cușnir (director and journalist), Sandu Gorgos (composer), Ivan Aculov (singer-songwriter), Liviu Știrbu (composer), Lilia Șolomei (soloist at the National Opera and Ballet Theater) and Andrei Tostogan (composer and producer). In addition to the performances of the competing entries, 2010 and 2017 Moldovan Eurovision entrant SunStroke Project performed as a guest.[9] "My Lucky Day" performed by DoReDoS was selected as the winner.[10]

It was later revealed that Moldova had placed third in the second semi-final, receiving a total of 235 points, 153 points from the televoting and 82 points from the juries.[13]

Voting during the three shows involved each country awarding two sets of points from 1-8, 10 and 12: one from their professional jury and the other from televoting. Each nation's jury consisted of five music industry professionals who are citizens of the country they represent, with their names published before the contest to ensure transparency. This jury judged each entry based on: vocal capacity; the stage performance; the song's composition and originality; and the overall impression by the act. In addition, no member of a national jury was permitted to be related in any way to any of the competing acts in such a way that they cannot vote impartially and independently. The individual rankings of each jury member as well as the nation's televoting results were released shortly after the grand final.

The following members comprised the Moldovan jury:[16]

• Anatol Chiriac (jury chairperson) – composer
• Cristina Scarlat – singer, composer, represented Moldova in the 2014 contest
• Vera Țurcanu – singer, actress
• Vitalie Catană – singer, producer, composer
• Rodica Aculova – singer

Detailed voting results from Moldova (Semi-final 2)[14]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		A. Chiriac	C. Scarlat	V. Țurcanu	V. Catană	R. Aculova	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Norway	9	5	4	5	9	7	4	5	6
02	Romania	1	1	5	3	1	1	12	1	12
03	Serbia	15	6	13	13	10	13		2	10
04	San Marino	12	12	17	17	17	17		17
05	Denmark	6	9	8	16	12	10	1	7	4
06	Russia	2	4	16	7	2	4	7	3	8
07	Moldova
08	Netherlands	5	2	6	12	6	6	5	8	3
09	Australia	4	3	9	2	5	2	10	6	5
10	Georgia	7	13	14	10	8	12		12
11	Poland	11	14	12	15	16	16		16
12	Malta	16	8	11	9	4	9	2	14
13	Hungary	17	10	15	11	13	15		10	1
14	Latvia	8	15	2	4	14	8	3	13
15	Sweden	14	16	7	6	11	11		9	2
16	Montenegro	13	17	10	14	7	14		15
17	Slovenia	10	11	1	1	15	5	6	11
18	Ukraine	3	7	3	8	3	3	8	4	7

Detailed voting results from Moldova (Final)[15]

Draw	Country	Jury							Televote
		A. Chiriac	C. Scarlat	V. Țurcanu	V. Catană	R. Aculova	Average Rank	Points	Rank	Points
01	Ukraine	5	3	8	11	8	6	5	2	10
02	Spain	17	19	6	10	16	14		20
03	Slovenia	16	18	9	9	17	15		22
04	Lithuania	18	10	13	7	14	13		17
05	Austria	3	11	14	3	15	8	3	13
06	Estonia	1	1	4	16	1	1	12	10	1
07	Norway	12	2	7	17	11	9	2	6	5
08	Portugal	19	24	18	18	18	24		24
09	United Kingdom	20	12	24	20	12	21		23
10	Serbia	21	15	11	12	10	16		14
11	Germany	14	7	10	1	13	7	4	7	4
12	Albania	22	16	17	21	2	11		19
13	France	8	17	16	19	19	18		11
14	Czech Republic	4	23	15	8	21	12		5	6
15	Denmark	13	6	23	25	24	17		12
16	Australia	2	8	5	5	6	4	7	18
17	Finland	23	25	22	24	9	22		25
18	Bulgaria	6	14	1	4	5	3	8	8	3
19	Moldova
20	Sweden	15	13	19	13	22	20		15
21	Hungary	25	20	25	22	25	25		9	2
22	Israel	24	4	3	2	3	2	10	1	12
23	Netherlands	7	5	12	15	7	10	1	16
24	Ireland	9	22	21	14	20	19		21
25	Cyprus	10	9	2	6	4	5	6	4	7
26	Italy	11	21	20	23	23	23		3	8