Saturday, February 25th, was a big day in my household: We had friends over for a watch party of O Melodie pentru Europa. This is the final round of the national competition to pick Moldova's entry for the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, coming up in May in Kiev, Ukraine. I'm going to make an assumption most Europeans, Russians, Israelis, and Australians (all of them are part of this competition) make about US Americans when talking about Eurovision: Odds are, you don't know what I'm talking about. This international song contest - despite its longevity (61 years and counting) and the major political drama that unfolds with it - is largely unknown by US Americans. Maybe you caught it last year - the very first year it was broadcast in the US! Maybe you've heard about it from friends. But, overall, US Americans tend to not know about this huge international event that's been going on for generations (I, myself, have only been following it since the early 2000s). Here's a more serious overview from 2015 from an Irish vlogger. It'll not only describe the contest, but give some insight into the kind of pop performances it features. Since Eurovision was indeed broadcast in the US last year for the first time, it did get some coverage - most widely reaching through The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. His parody of a top Eurovision entry is pretty spot on! Each country that competes selects their song entry throughout the winter and then prepares for the semi-finals. Moldova has been competing since 2005, when its entry "Grandma Beats the Drum" by Zdob și Zdub made it to sixth place in the finals. Unfortunately, Moldova's entry has not made it past the international semi-finals for the past three years. This year's Moldovan national finals was exciting - there was a tie for first place among two very popular songs! Based on competition rules, Sunstroke Project's "Hey Mamma" won because it had more top votes from the judges panel than the second place entry. Here is the song that will represent Moldova in 2017: And here is the one that came in a very close second, "Discover Moldova" by Ethno Republic and the Osoianu Sisters:
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Rebecca LehmanHealth Education volunteer serving at Boris Dînga Middle & High School in Criuleni, Moldova. Archives
May 2017
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