Life after Helsinki 2007 Eurovision

Moldova started the rehearsals today. The police thriller is mainly lit red and white and Eduard's vocals seem ok. This is the spectacular Ukrainian performance we don't have from Ukraine this year and as there aren't many of this sort this year it will stand out. Or at least be memorable. Sleazy. Inappropriate as much as you can get in a family show. Leather hot pants and ripping of shirts can take you far unfortunately. If one likes the song is another matter but I guess they have pretty good chances to qualify after all. Not sure if it's right though..... The team has been satisfied with their first rehearsal and there are no changes made.

The big day is here! Moldova was set by the producers as the first song in the first semifinal and thus opened also the rehearsals today. The staging follows the videoclip's idea a bit with Eduard Romanuyta we have two female backing vocalist and three dancers, one female and two male, all dressed up as American cops in the best porn business style. On top of that a metal cage. He and his crew perform "a love story with thriller elements". Skyscrapers and police cars in the backdrop with fireworks top up the performance. Seems like the Ucrainian staging miracle is happening once again but, I wonder what the Moldovians think of it? 

Ucrainian Eduard Romanuyta has won the Moldovan national final with I want your love . He already took part in the Ucrainian national finals 2012 and 2013. He came second in the jury votes behind Valeria Pasa but ruled the televote. Below are the results (jury+televote). They once again didn't agree much, except for Eduard for some reason. Stela managed only 7th thanks to juries, while televoters runner up got a null points from the jury! 1. Eduard Romanyuta (10+12) 22 2. Valeria Pasa (12+4) 16 3. Sunstroke Project (6+8) 14 4. Miss M (8+3) 11 5. Serj Kuzenkoff (5+6) 11 6. DoReDos (0+10) 10 7. Stela Botan (1+7) 8 8. Diana Brescan (7+0) 7 9. Dana Marchitan (4+2) 6 10. Doinita Gherman (0+5) 5 11. Marcel Rosca (3+1) 4 12. Irina Kitoroaga (2+0) 2 13. Glam girls (0+0) 14. Julia Sandu (0+0) 0 15. Lidia Isac (0+0) 0 16. Mihaela Andrei (0+0) 0 Not everyone is happy about the results as accusations of corruption and vote rigging started the moment the ...

Moldova will have its first semifinal of O Melodie Pentru Europe tonight. Seven songs will qualify based on televote/juryvote. Additional 8th finalist will be then televoted from the remaining five entries. The big favorite in this semifinal is of course the return of the Epic Sax Guy and Sunstroke Project, this time fronted by singer Michael Ra. Also British Kitty Brucknell is here to try her luck again after failing to make an impression in the Swiss selection earlier this season. The songs in general didn't make any huge impact on this blogger with the first hearing (and in their audition videos below).  Eduard Romanyuta – I want your love  (7+12=19) Marcel Rosca – Feelings will never leave  (5+3=8) Kitty Brucknell – Remix  (1+0=1) Mihaela Andrei – About love  (2+4=6) Raby – Hero  (0+6=6) Glam Girls – Magia  (3+10=13) Diana Brescan – Up and down  (12+5=17) Serj Kuzenkoff – Danu Nazdravanu  (6+8=14) Domenico Protino –...

Even Ukraine is rushing to get its song selected before New Year's and instead of these lengthy selections of many countries they apparently had the song submission until December 21, the songs were out in the open the day after and ... yes, that was yesterday! Today's the final and like Belgium it's not a prime time show but starts at 10.40 CET. Who knows when it ends and how, and will the winner actually win and if the song is the song... As usual many of the songs proposed can't be Eurovision entries as they have been released in some form prior to September 1, 2012 and therefor I have left all the song titles out of this list. Time will tell. Some familiar names among the participants like Zlata Cuccoo Ognevich and Eduard Romanyuta but apparently it's all laid out for 17-year-old Alina Grosu to win... And you can watch it all on eurovision.tv.  01. Oksana Pekun and Maxim Novitskiy 02. Mariya Yaremchuk 03. Marietta 04. Dmitry Yaremchuk  05. Inesh...