Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

One of the three countries choosing their entry for Liverpool's Eurovision song contest 2023 is Moldova. ( Read more about it and my review here ). There will be 50/50 televote/jury vote to determinate the winner. Let's see if we will have another returnee if and when one of Pasha Parfeni, Aliona Moon or Sunstroke Project wins. It seems Pasha is the front runner this time around.  Donia - Red zone OL - Why you play it cool Victor Gulick - Let's dance Surorile Osaianu - Bade, bădişor, bădiţă Cosmina - Indestructible Nördika - Damn and down Aliona Moon - Du-mă Sunstroke Project - Yummy mommy Pasha Parfeny - Soarele şi luna Corina Ivanov - When love's real

Moldova is next in line to reveal its entries for Eurovision song contest. Out of 60 submissions 33 made the first cut and received a call for a live audition on January 28  where from only ten entries will make the final. Those names are expected to be revealed the same day and you can watch these often hilarious auditions live on www.eurovision.md as usual..... And yes, that Sasha B is back again ..... Among the participants three Eurovision veterans, including Sunstroke Project that holds the best placing in Euroviison for any Moldovan act, 3rd in 2017 with Hey mamma (and 22nd in 2010) and Pasha Parfeni (11th in 2012) and Aliona Moon (11th in 2013) Update: The finalists were announced 28.1. You can listen all the song here Vele Band - Jocul neamului moldovenesc Corina Ivanov - When Love’s Real   FINALIST NÖRDIKA - Skueeze Paradise Disqualified Nihilist & Lisa Nicky - Final Destination NÖRDIKA - Damn and down   FINALIST Victor Gulick - Let’s Dance   FINALIST Do...

Eurovision is also all about parties and as usual many delegations host their own themed parties and last night was Moldova's turn. Not only did Sunstroke Project act as hosts they also performed and had brought along a lot of Moldovan Eurovision royalty: Aliona Moon, Pasha Parfeny and Olia Tira! Many other artists from Slava to Slavko performed, and others from Demy to Hovig and Kristian came to party and enjoy the company, food and drinks. Oh, Eurovision parties, nothing like them!     Pics and vids by the Flying Reporter Robert

  Farid Mammdov - Hold me   Aliona Moon - O mie   Klapa s mora - Mizerija (accapella)   Esma & Lozano - Pred da se rezdeni   Moje 3 - Ljubav je svuda   Natália Kelly - Shine Birgit Öigemeel - Et uus saaks alguse - Russian version Alyona Lanskaya - Solayoh

Belarus had invited most everyone to their Planet Solayoh and party were promotional items were brought in in industrial quantity; chocolates and biscuits and all you can get! A buffet and drinks were avalable, too, and many artists showed up. Here are the Red Wall photos: Ryan Dolan and Natália Kelly were having a cozy time..... Serbian girls looked stunning in flashlights.... Esma and Lozano were holding court... And it's Ryan Dolan again. Will he bring the trophy back to Ireland? Coming up next..... the performances!

Next lot of song.... MONTENEGRO - Who see fr Nina Zizic - Igranka The two astronauts that are Who see emerge from the dry ice, and cyber girl Nina jumps in literally when the chorus kicks in. Weird but wonderful and visually stunning, as I wrote before, something we haven't seen in Eurovision yet, and we have seen a lot! Very powerful. mainly green and yellow ccolors on stage. Nina is fantastic. The whole concept of the first party on Mars is fabulously different and will go either way. I hope it goes to the final and kicks some butts there, too! LITHUANIA - Andrius Pojavis - Something With Lithuania we are back to performances without any deeper ideas. Blue and purple basic stage, basic performance by worn out looking Andrius and it all comes across a bit tired. Shame, because the song would deserve better, it's not bad.  BELARUS - Alyona Lanskaya - Solayoh The stage is set on multicolor mode again when Belarus takes on. Using every gimmick found on Eurovi...

Moldova's entrant Aliona Moon has also managed to deliver a fabulously beautiful video for her Pasha Parfeni penned O mie and gains poijts instantly showing her and the song's beauty without distracting hairdos and gimmicks. Oh hang on, did she steal Valentina's dress??

Moldova - Aliona Moon - O mie Last year's entrant Pasha Parfeny wrote this to his backing singer Aliona who now shines in center stage with her dress borrowed from last year's Azeri singer. This was still in English in the national final but will be performed as O mie in Eurovision, hooray to that!  Pasha will be keeping eye on her behind his piano on stage. Lovely sung, beautiful melody. And very simple and memorable stage act - if it stays like the one in national final that is. What can I say? Hopefully this qualifies for the final and I think it will. Austria - Natália Kelly - Shine Austria kick starts the whole contest this year and it's a good opener. Not my initial favorite in Austria but I like the song now very much, it's poppy, catchy with some interesting hooks. One can only hope Natália gets it all right, her live was a bit shaky perhaps. Being the opener surely helps her to shine out, but will it be enough? Something tells me this might be surpri...

Namely the number of artists taking part. A new record! One more and the event would beat the real Eurovision final in number of performing acts. We have to also count in the special guest, Carola Häggkvist and the presenters, ex-Eurovision stars themselves, namely Marlaine and Linda Wagenmakers. Today's addition as all female: Birgit Õigemeel from Estonia (who btw has recently revealed she's pregnant, congratulations!), Moran Mazor from israel, Aliona Moon from Moldova (will Pasha Parfeny travel to Amsterdam?) and finally the Serbian girls of Moje 3. I'm regretting more and more I'm not able to go..... More information here .

Apparently Moldova will not sing in English A million as it has been all through the national selection process but the Romanian version O mie , as such it is listed in eurovision.tv's profile. Great! Also Estonia, Croatia, Cyprus, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, Iceland, Macedonia, San Marino, Albania, Greece, France, Spain and Israel seem to stick to their national languages. A big hooray to them! Hungary seems to be the only one opting for bilingual version.  And other countries go for English and we don't have some strange things like Latvia singng in Italian and such which is a relief! That's 22,5 for English, 16,5 for the others...

We have the last participant for Eurovision 2013 in Malmö: Aliona Moon for Moldova with A million witten by adorable Pasha Parfeny, last year's funny entrant. Hopefully Ms Moon brings her fabulous dress to malmö, too! And Pasha on piano! And here's the original version, O mie . Boris Covali won the televote followed by Aliona but the jury preferred Aliona putting Boris only third so it was done: